"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?"