I do not
understand that terrapin and champagne are necessary to comfort, health,
or happiness.

Let us look for a moment at some of the things which the factory farmer
does not buy, and perhaps we shall see that a comfortable existence need
not demand much more. His cows give him milk, cream, butter, and veal;
his swine give roast pig, fresh pork, salt pork, ham, bacon, sausages,
and lard; his hens give eggs and poultry; his fields yield hulled corn,
samp, and corn meal; his orchards give apples, pears, peaches, quinces,
plums, and cherries; his bushes give currants, gooseberries,
strawberries, raspberries, blackberries; his vines give grapes; his
forests give hickory nuts, butternuts, and hazel nuts; and, best of all,
his garden gives more than twenty varieties of toothsome and wholesome
vegetables in profusion. The whole fruit and vegetable product of the
temperate zone is at his door, and he has but to put forth his hand and
take it. The skilled housewife makes wonderful provision against winter
from the opulence of summer, and her storehouse is crowded with
innumerable glass cells rich in the spoils of orchard and garden. There
is scant use for the grocer and the butcher under such conditions. I am
so well convinced that my estimate of $5 a month is liberal that I have
taxed the account with all the salt used on the farm.

CHAPTER LI

THE GRAND-GIRLS

The click of Jane's hammer began to be heard in November, and hardly a
day passed without some music from this "Forge in the Forest." Sir Tom
made a permanent station of the workshop, where he spent hours in a
comfortable chair, drawing nourishment from the head of his cane and
pleasure from watching the girl at the anvil. I suspect that he planted
himself in the corner of the forge to safeguard Jane; for he had an
abiding fear that she would take fire, and he wished to be near at hand
to put her out. He procured a small Babcock extinguisher and a
half-dozen hand-grenades, and with these instruments he constituted
himself a very efficient volunteer fire department. He made her promise,
also, that she would have definite hours for heavy work, that he might
be on watch; and so fond was she of his company, or rather of his
presence, for he talked but little, that she kept close to the schedule.

Laura had a favorite corner in the forge, where she often turned a hem
or a couplet. She was equally dexterous at either; and Sir Tom watched
her, too, with an admi