reat
army whose march is unceasingly onward. No petty jealousy comes in to
mar the harmony of the true votaries of horticulture. There is
emulation, but not contention. The heart of such a man enlarges as he
pursues his labors, his tastes become refined, his sympathies embrace
all others having kindred aspirations; and the successes he may have
achieved, with the processes by which they are to be secured, become
the common property of all who are wise enough to appreciate them. Our
neighbors were born with no such tastes or impulses as these. That it
was so proved almost as unfortunate for us as it was for themselves.

Our first season's profits did not make us rich, as the whole income was
only a hundred and sixty dollars. But it showed conclusively that we
were able to accomplish something handsome in an entirely new field. The
cost of plants and of preparing the ground was a little rising thirty
dollars. All that remained over these two items was so much in payment
of our own labor, and for this we had never before had a market, as it
was the contribution of odd times, except an occasional half-day lost
from the factory; but as our earnings there were small, this loss was
not of much account. Here, then, was more than a hundred dollars made
out of almost nothing. This was equal to the wages of both Jane and
myself for a quarter of the year. If a half-acre of strawberries, not
yet in full bearing, could do this, it was clear that a whole acre of
well-established plants would go very far toward enabling us to abandon
our factory-life entirely. This was what we were aiming at: we were
willing to work, but preferred working at home. Of course it was simply
a question of how much we could make on an acre. My mother was sure
there could be no doubt about the matter, if she could be allowed to
open a strawberry-garden. She seemed to have given up her long-cherished
preference for the needle, and now began to realize that there might be
something better. Not one of us, however, would hear to the garden,
though we now clearly understood how extremely profitable must be that
mode of bringing the producer and the consumer together.

Practice in any art is a wonderful enlightener of the understanding. It
thus became quite clear to us that the Tetchy family were living
handsomely on the strawberries raised on one acre of land, and cream
manufactured principally at the kitchen pump. As usual on such
occasions, Fred undertook to p