Evening star., 1914-07-18

of her special fondness for calves, and
since then she has been petting old
Bill and the collie puppy and the rab-
bits.
when Margerv went out to tell 1t good
morning, to put her arms about its neck
and whisper endearments in its ear. the
calf forgot manners and gentle breeding
and butted its admirer over: Margery
came in fearful and Indignant and since
then the calrs popularity has oeen IN
such a slump that 1t has dropped back
into the second division OF animal pets.
We have been handling the SITUATION
very carefully. however. and have re.
Trained from saying anything more about
selling the calf for fear Margery's IN
dignation would be overwhelmed oy a
wave of returning affection. But Wnen
she returns from Baltimore and finds the
sale a fait accompli. as the diplomats
say. / don't think she will make any
trouble. She will be full Of her trip ana
the experiences of the boat ride and, be
sides. / plan to have something new for
her in the way of pets possibly a pair
of guinea pigs, which she has been want
ing.
Pets All But the Bees.
1t does seem mean to sell a little girls
pet calf when she is away from home,
but We can't have every animal on the
place tied up because Margery has made
a pet of it. Before coming to the country
she never had any pets except kitten
and canary bird. The kitten ate the
canary, then Margery had no pets at all.
Jane attended to that. Since coming to
the country she has petted everything
from pigeon to the horse the range IN
cluding chickens, rabbits. her puppy ana
the pigs. There Is, in fact, only one OF
our animated possessions which Margery
has not at some time or another taken to
her bosom. That is a swarm OF bees
which we got about week ago The
bees she has given a wide berth, having
learned early in the season through pain
full experience that they do not make de-
sirable pets. She ran afoul OF the busi-
ness end of one of the honey gatherers
when she tried to pick flower. possession
of which it had pre-empted.
/ don't know which was the worse
scared that day. Jane or Margery. We
were having Sunday afternoon stesta
when Margery came running into the
house screaming that flower had bitten
her. 1t sounded to Jane as II she said
snake instead of flower and there
were several minutes of very strenuous
excitement. Examination Of the wounded
finger. however. disclosed the unmistak-
able sign of a bees sting. Margery had
not seen the bee and thought she had
found flower with red-hot teeth. There
followed a lesson in beeology. to wit:
That she mustn't pick flower until MAX
ing sure that some one else had not a
prior claim to 1t. Margery never forgot
the experience and today she will walk
ten feet around to avoid Interfering with
the business Of a bee.
Makes the Garden Grow.
Continuance of the almost daily rains
involves more or less discomfort ana is
open to some agricultural objections. but
things in my garden certainly are grow
ing. With plenty Of milk. fresh eggs and
as many frying chickens as Jane can be
persuaded to part with. we have cut our
grocery bills down almost to the ire
ducible minimum. Flour. coffee and
tea. sugar, salt and pepper are about all
we buy. Twice a week I take fresh
meat out from the city. but am selling
to the men in the Office eggs and vege-
tables enough more than to pay for
everything we buy to eat
Looks pretty soft, doesn't it? But don t
forget that our present opulence is the
fruit of lots Of hard work, and that until
very recently it was a case Of most
thing coming in. Not only have we used
up my salary to the last dollar since
March 1. but we have drawn pretty heav-
lily on the reserve fund. 1t is true that
a lot Of our outlay this year has been in
the nature of more or less permanent In
vestment, such as the horse and cow.
wagon, implements and tools, poultry
equipment. fencing, etc. But It will re-
quire a balancing of outgo and income
and an invoice of our plant" at the end
of the year to tell whether we have
broken even on the undertaking.
If we put any reasonable value on "ex-
perience' when we take that invoice. the
balance will be big on the credit side. L
am confident that with what 1 have
learned this spring and summer 1 can
accomplish equal results next year with
about one-half the expenditure Of labor
and cash. E.'S. M.