Finally he said: “Yes, it’s ready. Don’t yer see that the kernels are plump and glazed? Junior and I are going to tackle our corn ter-morrow, and says I to myself, ‘If ourn is ready to cut, so is neighbor Durham’s,’ The sooner it’s cut after it’s ready, the better. The stalks are worth more for fodder, and you run no risk from an early frost, which would spile it all. You and Merton pitch in as yer allers do, and this is the way ter do it.”
With his left hand gathering the stalks of a hill together above the ears, he cut them all olf with one blow of the corn knife within six inches of the ground, and then leaned them against the stalks of an uncut hill. This he continued to do until he had made what he called a “stout,” or a bunch of stalks as large as he could conveniently reach around, the uncut hill of stalks forming a support in the centre. Then he took a wisp of the rye-straw, divided it evenly, and putting the ends together, twisted it speedily into a sort of rope. With this he bound the stout tightly above the ears by a simple method which one showing made plain to me.
“Well, you are a good neighbor!” I exclaimed.
“Pshaw! What does this amount to? If a man can’t do a good turn when it costs as little as this, he’s a mighty mean feller. You forget that I’ve sold you a lot of rye-straw, and so have the best of yer after all.”
“I don’t forget anything, Mr. Jones. As you say, I believe we shall ‘make a go’ of it here, but we always remember how much we owe to you and Junior. You’ve taken my money in a way that saved my self-respect, and made me feel that I could go to you as often as I wished; but you have never taken advantage of me, and you have kept smart people from doing it. Do you know, Mr. Jones, that in every country village there are keen, weasel-like people who encourage newcomers by bleeding their pocketbooks at every chance? In securing you as a neighbor our battle was half won, for no one needs a good practical friend more than a city man beginning life in the country.”
“Jerusalem! how you talk! I’m goin’ right home and tell my wife to call me Saint Jones. Then I’ll get a tin halo and wear it, for my straw hat is about played out;” and away he went, chuckling over his odd conceits, but pleased, as all men are, when their goodwill is appreciated. If there is one kind of meanness that disgusts average human nature more than another it is a selfish, unthankful reception of kindness, a swinish return for pearls.
After an early supper I drove to the village with what I had to sell, and returned with two corn hooks. At dusk of the following day, Bagley and I had the corn cut and tied up, my helper remarking more than once, “Tell you what it is, Mr. Durham, there hain’t a better eared-out patch o’ corn in Maizeville.”
On the following day I helped Bagley sharpen one of the hooks, and we began to cut the fodder corn which now stood, green and succulent, averaging two feet in height throughout the field.
XLII
Autumn Work and Sport
The barn was now up, and the carpenters were roofing it in, while two days more of work would complete the sty and poultry house. Every stroke of the hammer told rapidly now, and we all exulted over our new and better appliances for carrying out our plan of country life. Since the work was being done by contract, I contented myself with seeing that it was done thoroughly. Meanwhile Merton was busy with the cart, drawing rich earth from the banks of the creek. I determined that the making of great piles of compost should form no small part of my fall and winter labor. The proper use of fertilizers during the present season had given such a marked increase to our crops that it became clear that our best prospect of growing rich was in making the land rich.
During the last week of September the nights were so cool as to suggest frost, and I said to Mousie: “I think we had better take up your geraniums and other window plants, and put them in pots or boxes. We can then stand them under a tree which would shelter them from a slight frost. Should there be serious danger it would take us only a few minutes to bring them into the house. You have taken such good care of them all summer that I do not intend that you shall lose them now. Take your flower book and read what kind of soil they grow best in during the winter, and then Merton can help you get it.”
The child was all solicitude about her pets, and after dinner she and Merton, the latter trundling a wheelbarrow, went down to the creek and obtained a lot of fine sand and some leaf mold from under the trees in the woods. These ingredients we carefully mixed with rich soil from the flowerbed and put the compound in the pots and boxes around the roots of as many plants as there was room for on the table by the sunny kitchen window. Having watered them thoroughly, we stood them under a tree, there to remain until a certain sharpness in the air should warn us to carry them to their winter quarters.
The lima beans, as fast as the pods grew dry, or even yellow, were picked and spread in the attic. They could be shelled at our leisure on stormy winter days.
Early in September my wife had begun to give Mousie, Winnie, and Bobsey their lessons again. Since we were at some distance from
