The young farmer knew that Mrs. Atterson had no money to waste,
and he worked for her just as he would have worked for himself.

One man working alone cannot easily stretch wire and make a good
job of it without some mechanism to help him. Hiram's was simple
and easily made.

A twelve-inch section of perfectly round post, seven or eight
inches through, served as the drum around which to wind the
wire, and two twenty-penny nails driven into the side of the
drum, close together, were sufficient to prevent the wire from
slipping.

To either end of the drum Hiram passed two lengths of Number 9
wire through large screweyes, making a double loop into which the
hook of a light timber chain would easily catch. Into one end of
the drum he drove a headless spike, upon which the hand-crank of
the grindstone fitted, and was wedged tight.

In using this ingenious wire stretcher, he stapled his wire to
post number one, carried the length past post number two, looped
the chain around post number three, having the chain long enough
so that he might tauten the wire and hold the crankhandle steady
with his knee or left arm while he drove the holding staple in
post number two. And so repeat, ad infinitum.

After he had made this wire-stretcher the young fellow got along
famously upon his fencing and could soon turn his attention to
other matters, knowing that the cattle would be perfectly safe in