transplanted garden beets, the transplanting aids the growth in other
ways and Hiram expected to have table-beets very early.

In the garden itself he had already run out two rows of later beets, the
width of the plot. Bunched beets will sell for a fair price the whole
season through.

Hiram was giving his whole heart and soul to the work--he was wrapped up
in the effort to make the farm pay. And for good reason.

It was "up to him" to not alone turn a profit for his employer, and
himself; but he desired--oh, how strongly!--to show the city folk who
had sneered at him that he could be a success in the right environment.

Besides, and in addition, Hiram Strong was ambitious--very ambitious
indeed for a youth of his age. He wanted to own a farm of his own in
time--and it was no "one-horse farm" he aimed at.

No, indeed! Hiram had read of the scientific farming of the Middle West,
and the enormous tracts in the Northwest devoted to grain and other
staple crops, where the work was done for the most part by machinery.

He longed to see all this--and to take part in it. He desired the big
things in farming, nor would he ever be content to remain a helper.

"I'm going to be my own boss, some day--and I'm going to boss other men.
I'll show these fellows around here that I know what I want, and when I
get it I'll handle it right!" Hiram soliloquized.

"It's up to me to save every cent I can. Henry thinks I'm niggardly,
I expect, because I wouldn't go to town Saturday night with him. But I
haven't any money to waste.

"The hundred I'm to get next Christmas from Mrs. Atterson I don't wish
to draw on at all. I'll get along with such old clothes as I've got."

Hiram was not naturally a miser; he frequently bought some little thing
for Sister when he went to town--a hair-ribbon, or the like, which he
knew would please the girl; but for himself he was determined to be
saving.

At the end of his contract with Mrs. Atterson he would have two hundred
dollars anyway. But that was not the end and aim of Hiram Strong's
hopes.

"It's the clause in our agreement about the profits of our second season
that is my bright and shining star," he told the good lady more than
once. "I don't know yet what we had better put in next year to bring us
a fortune; but we'll know before it comes time to plant it."

Meanwhile the wheel-hoe and seeder he had insisted upon Mrs. Atterson
buying had arrived, and Hiram, after studying the instructio