. Wife says you've paid enough on it; so I've receipted
it, and will call it square, if you will. And, by the way, when you
are out of butter, just send over to our house; we can spare you a few
pounds, now and then, just as well as not."

CHAPTER XII.

FIRE AND FLOOD.

The sum which had been pledged by the settlers was not sufficient for
the support of the missionary's family; and although the treasurer
exerted himself to the utmost, he could only collect a portion of what
was due from those whose names were on the subscription paper. No one
felt the inconvenience of this more than the clergyman's wife. She was
a good manager, and had a wonderful faculty for making "one dollar go
as far as three, and getting up meals out of nothing," as her husband
often remarked. But it must be confessed, that with the keen appetites
brought to them on the wings of the prairie winds, the little
household sometimes rose from the scantily-furnished table hungry for
more.

Mr. Payson, under these circumstances, would comfort her with
anticipations of future abundance. They knew, indeed, that most of the
settlers had newly arrived, and had everything to buy, as they had not
been long enough settled to raise anything from the ground. But a
year had now elapsed, and many acres of the rich soil had been turned
over and planted, and there was prospect of abundant returns. The
missionary, being unaccustomed to farming, and wishing to devote his
energies, as far as practicable, to the spiritual interests of his
growing charge, had let out his tillable ten-acre lot to a neighbor,
to be cultivated on shares, reserving a little spot for himself, which
he had planted to early potatoes, and a good variety of garden
vegetables. As the one who carried on the rest of the piece was an
intelligent and experienced farmer, and had facilities for the work in
the way of teams and men, the clergyman felt that he might reasonably
calculate on a supply of corn and wheat, to which crops the ground had
been devoted. And nowhere was there promise of a larger yield than on
that quick and productive river bottom. The corn grew to a prodigious
height, crowded with mammoth ears, and the wheat emulated the corn;
while the squash and pumpkin vines conducted as if on a race to see
which would beat in the number and size of their fruit; and Mr.
Payson's pet sorghum--a species of sugar-cane--shot up to a marvellous
perfection. It is true that a neighbor's unru