th
it, to be put on your boxes, and on all the paper you will use for
writing letters."

"Dear me, it's going to be splendid, Miss Mercer! Why, that fire is
going to turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us, I'm
sure!"

"I think we can often turn our misfortunes into blessings if we take
them the right way, Mrs. Pratt. The thing to do is always to try to look
on the bright side, and, no matter how black things seem, to try to see
if there isn't some way that we can turn everything to account."

"Well, I would never have done it if you hadn't come along, Miss Mercer.
You gave us all courage in the first place, and then you got Jud
Harkness and all the others to come and help me this way."

"Oh, they'd have done it themselves, as soon as they heard. I didn't
suggest a thing--I just told them the news, and they thought of
everything else all by themselves. The only thing I thought of was using
your farm so that it would really pay you."

"Now that you've told us how, it seems so easy that I wonder I never
thought of it myself."

"Well, lots and lots of farmers just waste their land and themselves,
Mrs. Pratt. You're not the only one. My father has a farm, and in his
section he's done his level best to make the regular farmers see that
there are new ways of farming, just as there are new ways of doing
everything else."

"That's what my poor husband always said. He had all sorts of
new-fangled ideas, as I used to call them. Maybe he was right, too. But
he didn't have money enough to try them and see how they'd do, though we
always made a good living off this place."

"Well, the advantage of my idea is that you don't need much money to
give it a trial, and if you don't succeed, you won't lose much."

"I think we'd be pretty stupid if we didn't succeed, after the fine
start you've given us, and the way you've told me what to do."

"Well, I think so myself," said Eleanor, with a frank laugh. "And I know
you're not stupid--not a bit of it! It's going to be hard work, but I'm
sure you'll succeed. You'll be able to hire someone to do most of the
work for you before long, I think, and then you'll have to have a rest,
and come down to visit me in the city."

"Well, well, I do hope so, Miss Mercer! I ain't been in the city since I
don't know when. Tom--my husband--took me once, but that was years and
years ago, and I expect there's been a lot of changes since then."

"I'm going to keep an eye on you, Mrs.