d to live and how much money they
made by their business. But we had no idea of doing them any injury; I
was only desirous of doing something better for myself than working all
my life on a sewing-machine. And besides, I have no doubt there were
folks around us who were quite as inquisitive as to how we managed to
get along, and that, too, from mere idle curiosity, without any view to
bettering themselves by imitating us.

In addition to these little diplomatic efforts to obtain information as
to how much money our neighbors were making, many others were tried. I
had already suggested to my mother and sister the idea of my undertaking
the business of raising strawberries; and hence, as they both fell in
with the project, our common effort to learn whether our neighbors
really did support themselves by an employment so apparently
insignificant. There was one point about which we were greatly
perplexed. The strawberry-season lasted only fifteen to twenty days,
and we could not understand how the Tetchys could make enough in that
short period to keep them a whole year. It is true we knew that they
could sell at enormous retail prices all that they were able to produce,
and hence we became satisfied that it was simply a question of quantity.
If they could produce enough, even within the short period of twenty
days, they could do all that they appeared to be doing during the
remainder of the year,--that is, comparatively nothing.

Now not one of us had any knowledge of the strawberry-culture. My
father, strangely enough, had never introduced it into our garden,
though he knew what our neighbors had for many years been doing. We had
no agricultural publications to instruct us, and we could not form the
remotest idea of how much fruit an acre could be made to yield. We did
not even know the size of our neighbor's strawberry-bed. But one day,
when the fruit season was over, my sister was bold enough to invite
herself into Tetchy's garden. She and Arthur had been taking a walk, and
he was about parting with her at the garden-gate, when she pushed in
with him, and obliged him to go all round the strawberry-ground. It lay
in one piece, and, though quite large, she managed to count the number
of steps as they strolled round it. Arthur had not the faintest idea of
what she was after, but flattered himself that she was desirous of
having a little more of his society. When Fred came home that evening,
Jane reported to him the number