The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1883-03-10

answered, | sat ten minutes, perhaps,
feeling anything but comfortable. and
then babe them good-morning and went
out. While j stood hesitating in the
road, a boy came out into the yard.
The old man seq You can go to saving
this ere pile of woodr' he called to me
The next night was the owner of
peck of potatoes, and the day after l
went to several of the neighboring farm
houses, obtaining from a man named
Fawcett a job to pick up two acres of
stones on new clover piece. For this
| received four dollars in potatoes. pork
and meal, an9 completed it in five
days.
MY LETTER TO "oLp MAN SMITH,
Meantime | inquired aud learned
more of .'old man smith, of Boston,
and in d few days l wrote the following
letter to him:
DEAR sIK:-A young man in his twentieth
year, recently of Boston, is now living on your
old farm in A. N. H. He was in search of
work on q farm, and came along to the old
house Just at dark one night, about fortnight
ago. Having nowhere else to stay and the
night being rather cold, he went in there and
has been living there ever since, working
when he could get "A job from the people
about This young man would like to go on
abioing place, He would take the farm of
you for the coming season. or If the farm Is
for sale, would buy il If the price were not
too high, and pay for it as soon aud as fast as
he could.
II am the young man above referred to- and
CHARLES EpHRAIM WINDsER.
A fortnight later | received the follow
ing characteristic letter from Mr.. Smith:
"well, Charles Ephraim, have received yout
rather odd letter That farm-which you seem
to havetaken possession of-has cost me over
seven hundred dollars in one way ani another
fifty dollars for 1t may have it. ! do not sup
pose you have cont to pay me. But it Is not
much use for me to order you of, for you will
stay II you have mind to, unless take the
trouble to come up or send up, and drive You
OF. and shant do that. SO go ahead Charles
Ephraim; plant and SOW aud reap to your
can raise she hundred and fifty the old farm is
yours And II you are in earnest (which don't
believet wish you success.
Nertruly yours.
DAVID C. SMITH "
Whenever felt blue | used to get out
that letter and have a laugh.
MY SPRINGS WORK.
The farmers about We're now doing
their springs work-planting and SOW
ing-and | borrowed a neighbor's OK
team to pillow three acres of the old
stubble ground, paying for the use of the
team by nv own labor.
1t was all hard work. Every fair dav
was day OF toll. used to sleep like a
log there in my straw. But, somehow.
| began to enjoy it; the world looked
brighter After my crops were in the
ground | mended the fences about the
fields and the house; and | worked out
and got new glass panes for the broken
windows. These | set myself on rainy
days.
7 BY June the people about had begun
to treat me rs a friend and neiohbor
Indeed they commenced, laughingly,
to call me their new neighbor" At
first, coming among them rs | did, they
distrusted me. But when they saw that
Twas not afraid to take hold and work,
and that really meant business, they
turned about and treated me like fell
low-citizen. Twas shown great many
kindly favors.
HOEING AND HAVING.
1t was no great task to do my own
work in hoeing, and | was able to work
out enough to purchase set of having
tools, consisting of scythe, snath. fork
and rake. For there was tolerably
good crop of grass in the fields and
down in the meadow, which / resolved
having on the first day of July. For
three weeks worked early and late.
had no team for drawing the hay into
the barn. Every pound of it l hauled
in myself on little crack" which
rugged upon pair of old carriage wheels
that found abandoned beside the road.
In these three weeks l got in about nine
tons. Seven tons of this hay sold the
following winter, in the village nine
miles below, for seventy-six dollars.
did every stroke of the work alone and
unaided; and after that | worked out at
haying eight days at a dollar and quar-
ter per day.
My oats were now ready to harvest
This occupied me a week; and when the
threshing machine came into the neigh
borhood about fortnight later had my
crop threshed out. After deducting
threshers toll, l had sixty-nine bushels.
then made trade with Mr.. Cum
mings and traded sixty bushels of oats
for one of his COWS; and Mrs. C
threw into the bargain milk pail and
four tin pans. This was my first invest
lueit Ill llNt sboCh. AltcI tHdJ L udu
plenty of new milk and also butter
which churncd myself in twenty-cent
earthen pot. But did not let any one
see, nor know of, my dairying process.
On the twenty fourth day of Septem-
Der, began digging my potatoes; and
from my well-dressed field, dug a hun
bred and seventy-one bushels of as hand
some early Rose potatoes as one would
wish to see.
I picked out a barrel of the very best
and sent them to ''Old Man Smith,"
in Boston.
BUYING THE FARM.
In January / chopped ten cords of
wood for Mr.. Cummings. and in pay
ment had his ox-team to draw my hay
down to the village, where l marketed
it. After receiving the money, wrote
again to Mr. Smith, telling him that
was now ready to make payment of
seventy-fve dollars on the farm. The
business of .'doing the writings as they
call it in the country, was entrusted, on
his part, to lawyer in the village, named
Robertson. To him paid the money
and received q deed of the farm, but
gave my note, secured by mortgage,
for the second payment of seventy five
dollars, in one year.
l have motive in writing this plain
little narrative. In New England, in
New York State and in the West, there
are scores, yes, hundreds and thousands,
of abandoned farms like the one came
to my first night in A. To the hun
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