dently with the racing fever
in his blood. Patiently Tim schooled his pupil throughout the forenoon,
and before the dinner hour had come Cameron was making what to Tim
appeared satisfactory progress. It was greatly in Cameron's favor that
he possessed a trained and true eye and a steady hand and that he was
quick in all his movements.

"You're doin' splendid," cried Tim, full of admiration.

"I say, Scotty!" said Perkins, coming up and casting a critical eye
along Cameron's last drill, "you're going to make a turnip-hoer all
right."

"I've got a good teacher, you see," cried Cameron.

"You bet you have," said Perkins. "I taught Tim myself, and in two or
three years he'll be almost as good as I am, eh, Tim!"

"Huh!" grunted Tim, contemptuously, but let it go at that.

"Perhaps you think you're that now, eh, Tim?" said Perkins, seizing
the boy by the back of the neck and rubbing his hand over his hair in a
manner perfectly maddening. "Don't you get too perky, young feller, or
I'll hang your shirt on the fence before the day's done."

Tim wriggled out of his grasp and kept silent. He was not yet ready with
his challenge. All through the afternoon he stayed behind with Cameron,
allowing the other two to help them out at the end of each drill, but as
the day wore on there was less and less need of assistance for Cameron,
for he was making rapid progress with his work and Tim was able to do,
not only his own drill, but almost half of Cameron's as well. By supper
time Cameron was thoroughly done out. Never had a day seemed so long,
never had he known that he possessed so many muscles in his back. The
continuous stooping and the steady click-click of the hoe, together with
the unceasing strain of hand and eye, and all this under the hot burning
rays of a June sun, so exhausted his vitality that when the cow bell
rang for supper it seemed to him a sound more delightful than the
strains of a Richter orchestra in a Beethoven symphony.

On the way back to the field after supper Cameron observed that Tim was
in a state of suppressed excitement and it dawned upon him that the hour
of his challenge of Perkins' supremacy as a turnip-hoer was at hand.

"I say, Tim, boy!" he said earnestly, "listen to me. You are going to
get after Perkins this evening, eh?"

"How did you know?" said Tim, in surprise.

"Never mind! Now listen to me; I have raced myself some and I have
trained men to race. Are you not too tired with your day's