t morning. We
had all noticed him; and as Dave and I brought in the milk, his mother
asked, 'What is your father planning now? Half the time he stands there,
looking up the road; or else he's walking up that way in a brown study.'

"'He's got his eye on the old meeting-house,' says Dave, setting down
his pail. 'He has been watching it and walking round it, off and on, for
a week.'

"That was the first intimation I had of what the old fellow was up
to. But after breakfast he followed me out of the house, as if he had
something on his mind to say to me.

"'Stark,' says he, at last, 'you've always insisted on't that I wasn't
an enterprisin' man.'

"'I insist on't still,' says I; for I was in the habit of talking mighty
plain to him, and joking him pretty hard sometimes. 'If I had this farm,
I'd show you enterprise. You wouldn't see the hogs in the garden half
the time, just for want of a good fence to keep 'em out. You wouldn't
see the very best strip of land lying waste, just for want of a ditch.
You wouldn't see that stone wall by the road tumbling down year after
year, till by and by you won't be able to see it for the weeds and
thistles.'

"'Yes,' says he, sarcastically, 'ye'd lay-out ten times as much money
on the place as ye'd ever git back agin, I've no doubt. But I believe in
economy.'

"That provoked me a little, and I said, 'Economy! You're one of the kind
of men that'll skin a flint for sixpence and spoil a jack-knife worth a
shilling. You waste fodder and grain enough every three years to pay for
a bigger barn--to say nothing of the inconvenience.'

"'Wal, Stark,' says he, grinning and scratching his head, 'I've made up
my mind to have a bigger barn, if I have to steal one.'

"'That won't be the first thing you've stole, neither,' says I.

"He flared up at that. 'Stole?' says he. 'What did I ever steal?'

"'Well, for one thing, the rails the freshet last spring drifted off
from Talcott's land onto yours, and you grabbed: what was that but
stealing?'

"'That was luck. He couldn't swear to his rails. By the way, they'll
jest come in play now.'

"'They've come in play already,' says I. 'They've gone on to the old
fences all over the farm, and I could use a thousand more without making
much show.'

"'That's 'cause you're so dumbed extravagant with rails, as you are
with everything else. A few loads can be spared from the fences here
and there, as well as not. Harness up the team, boys, and git toge