possession was continually being dug up and refashioned, in his eager
efforts to convert it successively into a vineyard, a Portuguese
_quinta_, (to effect which he diligently planted orange-pips and manured
the earth with the peel,) or, favorite scheme of all, a
wheat-field,--dimensions, eighteen feet by twelve,--the harvest of which
was to provide all the poor children of the village with bread, in those
hard seasons when their pinched faces and shrill, complaining cries
appealed so mightily to little Everett's heart.

Nevertheless, and in spite of all his care and watching, it is to be
feared that very few of the big loaves which found their way from the
hall to the village, that winter, were composed of the produce of his
corn-field. More experienced farmers than this youthful agriculturist
might not have been surprised at the failure of his crop. He was.
Indeed, it was a valiant characteristic of him, throughout his life,
that he never grew accustomed to failure, however serenely he took it,
when it came. He grieved and perplexed himself about it, silently, but
not hopelessly. New ideas dawned on his mind, fresh designs of relief
were soon entertained, and essayed to be put in practice. These were
many, and of various degrees of feasibility,--ranging from the
rigorously pursued plan of setting aside a portion of his daily bread
and butter in a bag, and of his milk in a can, and bestowing the little
store on the nearest eligible object, up to the often pondered one of
obtaining possession of the large barn in the cow-field, furnishing the
same, and establishing therein all the numerous houseless wanderers who
used to come and ask for aid at the hands of Everett's worthy and
magisterial father.

That father's judicial functions caused his eldest son considerable
trouble and bewilderment of mind. He asked searching questions
sometimes, when, of an evening, perched on Mr. Gray's knee, and looking
with his wondering, steadfast eyes into the face of that erewhile stern
and impassible magistrate. The large justice-room, where the prisoners
were examined, had an awful fascination to him; and so had the little
"strong-room," in which sometimes they were locked up before being
conveyed away to the county jail. Often, he wandered restlessly near it,
looking at the door with strange, mournful eyes; and if by chance the
culprit passed out before him, under the guardianship of the terrible,
red-faced constable,--Everett's ear