Litchfield enquirer., 1875-02-04

| QuGSk1OU AuU Qu6SG1Ou uuGl1 nave l learaed the routine ef the main farm crops.
 the number of days per acre of both men and horses, cost of seed, and proba-
 bIe average and market value of yield. |
 also learn the daily amount. of food con- snmed by each of the meat making ani-
 malls, together vita tii6 dstiaf ffafket prices of the different meats. -s. When winter came, returned to my
 ancient employment. My schookkeeping I wages paid my debts to the farmers; and
 with the surplus bought out cousins
 hennery entire, the fowls and the gnano, I-together with pretty pair of Poland pigs. Lou had purchased grass and clo-
 yer seed, and had learned to drive; and as
 knew how to milk, and April was near
 at hand. we bought load of hay, hand i some horse Pampas, and gentle COW Mag gre, ,eultyator and spades, gathered up all I the old tools cousin had given us, even to I 8 draWshave, and went down home.
 And here a blessing upon the gray
 heads Of cousin Janet and consin John IS surely in order; for portion of every thing in their house was sent with us. from bag of flour and ham down to 8 tiny sack of salt and the residue of my oatmeal, from a load of nursling fruit trees down to bundle of currant bush 1 and peony root; and, last of all, love- I ly. little cat ''to purr and sit in your. laps and make it seem like home in the even ling. That was what little cousin Jamie said as he reached up and put it in my arms after we were in the wagon. We'll. it was a bare little home after we had done our very best with it; and had | 1t not been our own we could not have stayed there. We had spent all our mon- l ey on the land, ,and there was nothing left for the house. There was not one bright thing in it except the cracking fire, and Louise with her golden hair and crimson cheeks. Such homemade home as it was! had braided 6 great rug, and that turned out to be the only bit of carpet we had for four years. Our window-shades were of newspapers scalloped ard adorn- with much elaborate scissor-work We had three chairs, antiquated specimens We had brought down from cousins wood-house chamber. cushioned and drap- ed; and the trouble we had, to be sure, be- cause we could not step up on any one of place of table, for which Lou contrived leaf; and we slept upon an old-Tash- toned post bed which Janet had given us. We owned three plates and platter, and as many knives and forks, cups and sau- cers; John said if we had company. Lou and could wait, which we did. The rest of our indoors possessions consisted of some old kettles, a score of shining new milkpans, couple of pails, broom, small pile of books in blue and gold, a trunkful of magazines. s.--unbound but precious .-an etching of Evangaline. and a splendid engraving of Longfellow sit ting in rocking-chair: that, truly, was everything we had to put into that great, rambling old house
 However, we still think it was better to have bought the clover seed.
 The first evening was strange enough to us. l remember just how oppressiue the silence became after everything was done and we sat down Lou cried, and I laughed. Then we felt how absurd 1t was to be afraid in our own house; and we cheered ourselves with pussy and the fire, and sad we would subscribe for a newspa- RS..4A 4Afte1 tiaas en Uenk we'll.
 Only, every morning Lou would ask me, Dolly, you saever will go off and leave me, will you?"
 ''No, that I won't! And you never will either, will you?"
 ''No, indeed!"
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 In due time cousin John came again, and gang-plowed the fields we had devoted to clover. Then he lent us his team, and Lou and narrowed and narrowed. Then we sowed our clover and timothy and or chard grass. so thickly, too, that John was fain to swear at our wastefulness. But didn't believe, even then, that there was need for such spotted meadows as I had observed-the clover growing in dis tinct patches and tufts, the grasses coarse, sparse, and wiry; I wanted some fine, sweet grasses. l will say here that I was rewarded for my faith in liberal seeding; for owing to that, and to the plentiful win ter dressing, and the fine seed-bed we made of all the fields, our pretty trefo1l | came up all over like wheat, or lettuce bed, and our grasses are fine, thick, and sweet. Of course clovering upon such an extensive scale obliged us to hire pastur- age for Pampas, and to ''soil gentle Mag gic; but we found the latter plan, though, troublesome, one of our most profitable experiments.
 And then, waiting for May days and l complaining, we began work in earnest. In our convenient short dresses, in which Louise said she felt ''so spry," rejoicing in loose bands and in shoulder-straps and blouse waists to degree that would have delighted Miss Phelps, we shouldered our axes and our dinner-pails, c l0 lords of creation, and went over to our bit of for est to get up ''the years wood" after the manner of the model housekeeper will allow you for a moment to fancy us vainly attacking huge logs, and then tell you we were simply thinning out the young trees. It was not difficult task to fell them. Afterwards we constructed a I couple of rude, strong saw-bucks, and saving diligently, day after day, we at last had supply for months piled neatly | Tn the green recesses.
 After that came fence mending, yes, and | fence-nlGking, for we were obliged to have sixty rods of entirely new fence. We l found that our own woods had been l thoroughly denuded of rail timber, and | furthur, that even in this comparatively new country, board fence was already cheaper than one of rails, when iC came to buying outright.
 This was the result of Louis inquiries at the village lumber yards. "And, add ed she, ''the fences, even at. these rates, will cost almost as much as the land did. There is a country saw-min three miles up north, of which fact man would take ad- vantage"
 And why not we?"
 The next day, Tn our new, ,gay little wag- on we set of over the hills There was a quizzical light gleaming in the black eyes of the proprietor of the mill as he came forward to our enquiries; but it mattered little to us. He soon found that we meant leash down, add we found that by buying the logs and hiring them sawed we should compass a saving of fifteen dollars.
 ''And now, Dolly" said Louise on the way home, '1 shall draw those boards myself. Thosemill-men look good-natur- ed-they will load for me. You and to- gether can lift of the wagon-box, and I have studied out how to lengthen the reach with a false one. can ride nicely on the reach going, and on the boards coming back. Nothing shall be wanting on my part, Dolly"
 It is not pertinent to the history of this