The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1858-08-12

OuTiug tHe WHole SummeT I eteE wa
t kept busy in attending to the gathering
a and selling of the products Of bis hillside
He helped Mr.. Stevens in haying, anc
about some other matters-enough so tha
4 he could have some help when he wanted
o it. When the last harvesting came, be
i. gathered in seventy gbt bushels of corn
r and four hundred bushels of potatoes, be
sides turnips. squashes, pumpkins, etc :.
! and eighteen bushels of white beans.
5 On the first day of November, Peter
, White sat down and reckoned up the
proceeds of bis land, and he found that
the piece was yielding him just FIVE hun.
? dred and five dollars, and besides this be
! had corn, potatoes, beans and vegetables
! sufficient for his own use. That winter
be worked for Mr.. Stevens, at getting out
lumber. for twenty-five dollars per month;
and when spring came he was ready to
60 at his land again.
In the meantime, Walter Sturgis had
worked year at fashionable calling
for three hundred dollars, and at the end
of the term be was the absolute owner of
just two dollars.
Say, Peter, you aren't going to work
on that land of yours another season, are
your asked Walter, as the two met in
the street one evening.
TO be sure / am, was the response.
But here's Simonds wants a clerk and
told him 1 guessed you would be glad
to come
What will he pay!'
Three hundred
'Ab, Walter, l can make more than
that from my land
Sturgis opened bis eyes in astonish.
ment.
You're joking said he.
No, sir. | received five hundred and
five dollars in in money last season.
Seventy of that went for manure; but
some of that manure is now on hand, as
found the land so rich last year as not to
need much over half of it. This season
shall have two hundred dollars worth of
Strawberries, if nothing happens unusu-
! al
And you don't have to work any win
ters to do this 2
No, four months labor is about all
can lay out to advantage on it.
Walter went to bis store, and during
the rest of the evening he wondered how
it was that some folks bad such luck.
During the second season Peter bad
experience for a guide, and be filled up
many gaps that he left open the year be-
fore. His strawberries turned out better
than he had anticipated, ann he made a
better arrangement for his melons And
then from all that landwhereon be planted
his early peas, etc., be obtained second
crop Of much value. 1t was but one half
hours drive into the city, and he always
obtained the hig hest prices, for he brought
the earliest vegetables in the market
On the first of the next November be
had cleared seven hundred dollars for the
season over and above all expenses.
One morning after all the crops were
in, Peter found man walking about O..
yer the land, and as the young man came
up the stranger asked him who owned
the hill side.
1t is mine, sir, replied Peter.
The man looked about and then went
away, and on the next day be came again
mith two others. They looked over the
place, and they seemed to be dividing it
off into small lots. They remained about
an hour and then went away. Peter sus-
pectei this land was wanted for some.
thing. That evening he stepped in at
the post-ofice, and there be heard that a
railroad asgoing to be put through the vii.
lage as soon as the Eorkmen could be set
at it.
On the next morning Peter went out
upon his land, and as be reached the up.
per boundary and turned and looked
down the truth flashed upon him. His
hillside bad gentle easy slope, and the
view from any part of it was delig ghtfal.
A brook ran down through it, from an
exhaustless spring up in the ledge, and
the locality would be cool and agreeable
in summer, and warm in winter. At the
foot of the hill, to the left, lay small
lake, while the river ran in sight for sew
eral miles.
OF course soliloquised Peter, they
think this would make beautiful building
spots. And wouldn't it! Curious that
| never thought of it before. And then
when the railroad comes here, people
from the city will want their dwellings,
here. But this land is valuable. 1t is
worth-let me see-say six hundred dol
lars year can easily get eight or nine
hundred for what | can raise here, and
know that two hundred dollars will pay
me a good round price for all the labor l
perform on it. And then when M peach
trees grow up, and my strawberry beds
increase-Ho-it's more valuable to me
than it could be to any one else
When Peter went home, he could not
resist the temptation to sit down and cal
custe how many house lots his land
would make; and he found that his
hillside would afford City building spots,
with good garden to each one. But he
didn't think of selling.
4 Two days afterwards, six men came to