fully what a dibble was, and what a
corn-dropper was, strange though those implements were to them at
first. Before the end of planting-time, they fervently wished they had
never seen either of these instruments of the corn-planter.

With the aid of a few rude tools, there was fashioned a staff from the
tough hickory that grew near at hand, the lower part of the stick
being thick and pointed at the end. The staff was about as high as
would come up to a boy's shoulder, so that as he grasped it near the
upper end, his arm being bent, the lower end was on the ground.

The upper end was whittled so as to make a convenient handle for the
user. The lower end was shaped carefully into something like the
convex sides of two spoons put together by their bowls, and the lower
edge of this part was shaved down to a sharpness that was increased by
slightly hardening it in the fire. Just above the thickest part of the
dibble, a hole was bored at right angles through the wood, and into
this a peg was driven so that several inches stuck out on both sides
of the instrument. This completed the dibble.

"So that is a dibble, is it?" said Oscar, when the first one was shown
him. "A dibble. Now let's see how you use it."

Thereupon his Uncle Aleck stood up, grasped the staff by the upper
end, pressed his foot on the peg at the lower end of the tool, and so
forced the sharp point of the dibble downward into the earth. Then,
drawing it out, a convex slit was shown in the elastic turf. Shaking
an imaginary grain of corn into the hole, he closed it with a stamp of
his heel, stepped on and repeated the motion a few times, and then
said, "That's how they plant corn on the sod in Kansas."

"Uncle Aleck, what a lot you know!" said Oscar, with undisguised
admiration.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bryant, taking a pair of old boots, cut off the legs
just above the ankles, and, fastening in the lower end of each a round
bit of wood, by means of small nails, quickly made a pair of
corn-droppers. Sandy's belt, being passed through the loop-strap of
one of these, was fastened around his waist. The dropper was to be
filled with corn, and, thus accoutred, he was ready for doing duty in
the newly ploughed field. When the lad expressed his impatience for
another day to come so that he could begin corn-planting, the two
elders of the family laughed outright.

"Sandy, boy, you will be glad when to-morrow night comes, so that you
can rest from your labors. You rememb