is labor and its results depended
more on natural causes than upon his skill and the careful use of the
fertilizers. He was a farmer of the old school, the traditions
received from his father controlled him in the main. Still, his good
common sense and long experience stood him fairly well in the place of
science and knowledge of improved methods, and he was better equipped
than the man who has in his brain all that the books can teach, yet is
without experience. Best of all, he had inherited and acquired an
abiding love of the soil; he never could have been content except in
its cultivation; he was therefore in the right condition to assimilate
fuller knowledge and make the most of it.

He knew well enough when it was about noon. From long habit he would
have known had the sky been overcast, but now his glance at the sun was
like looking at a watch. Dusty and begrimed he followed his team to
the barn, slipped from them their headstalls and left them to amuse
themselves with a little hay while they cooled sufficiently for
heartier food. "Well now," he mused, "I wonder what that little woman
has for dinner? Another new dish, like enough. Hanged if I'm fit to
go in the house, and she looking so trim and neat. I think I'll first
take a souse in the brook," and he went up behind the house where an
unfailing stream gurgled swiftly down from the hills. At the nearest
point a small basin had been hollowed out, and as he approached he saw
two or three speckled trout darting away through the limpid water.

"Aha!" he muttered, "glad you reminded me. When SHE'S stronger, she
may enjoy catching our supper some afternoon. I must think of all the
little things I can to liven her up so she won't get dull. It's
curious how interested I am to know how she's got along and what she
has for dinner. And to think that, less than a week ago, I used to
hate to go near the house!"

As he entered the hall on his way to his room, that he might make
himself more presentable, an appetizing odor greeted him and Alida
smiled from the kitchen door as she said, "Dinner's ready."

Apparently she had taken him at his word, as she had prepared little
else than an Irish stew, yet when he had partaken of it, he thought he
would prefer Irish stews from that time onward indefinitely. "Where did
you learn to cook, Alida?" he asked.

"Mother wasn't very strong and her appetite often failed her. Then,
too, we hadn't much to spend on our table