nd since the day before. The glazed and glutinous
cherry buds had expanded with aromatic odors and the white of the
blossoms was beginning to show.

"By tomorrow," said Holcroft, "the trees will look as if covered with
snow. Let me help you," and he put his hand under her arm, supporting
and aiding her steps up the steep places.

Her lips were parted, the pleased look was in her eyes as they rested
on trees and shrubs which lined the half ruinous stone walls on either
side. "Everything seems so alive and glad this afternoon," she remarked.

"Yes," replied the matter-of-fact farmer. "A rain such as we had this
morning is like turning the water on a big mill-wheel. It starts all
the machinery right up. Now the sun's out, and that's the greatest
motor power of all. Sun and moisture make the farm go."

"Mustn't the ground be enriched, too?"

"Yes, yes indeed; I suppose that's where we all fail. But it's no easy
matter to keep a farm in good heart. That's another reason why I'm so
glad I won't have to sell my stock. A farm run without stock is sure
to grow poor, and if the farm grows poor, the owner does as a matter of
course. But what put enriching the ground into your head? Do you know
anything about farming?"

"No, but I want to learn. When I was a girl, father had a garden. He
used to take papers about it, and I often read them aloud to him
evenings. Now I remember there used to be much in them about enriching
the ground. Do you take any such paper?"

"No, I haven't much faith in book-farming."

"I don't know," she ventured. "Seems to me you might get some good
ideas out of papers, and your experience would teach you whether they
were useful ideas or not. If you'll take one, I'll read it to you."

"I will, then, for the pleasure of hearing you read, if nothing else.
That's something I hadn't bargained for," he added, laughing.

She answered in the same spirit by saying, "I'll throw that in and not
call it square yet."

"I think I've got the best of you," he chuckled; "and you know nothing
makes a Yankee farmer happier than to get the best of a bargain."

"I hope you'll continue to think so. Can I sit down a few moments?"

"Why, certainly! How forgetful I am! Your talk is too interesting for
me to think of anything else," and he placed her on a flat rock by the
side of the lane while he leaned against the wall.

Bees and other insects were humming around them; a butterfly fluttered
over th