farmer, nor was there anything in the
man's manner to yield hope to Mrs. Atterson that she could feel secure
in her title to the farm. So Hiram said nothing to her about meeting the
man.

But the youth was very much puzzled. It really did seem as though Pepper
was afraid to show that paper to Mr. Strickland.

"There's something queer about it, I believe," declared the youth to
himself. "Somewhere there is a trick. He's afraid of being tripped up on
it. But, why does he wait, if he knows the railroad is going to demand a
strip of the farm and he can get a good price for it?

"Perhaps he is waiting to make sure that the railroad will condemn a
piece of Mrs. Atterson's farm. If the board should change the route
again, Pepper would have a farm on his hands that he might not be able
to sell immediately at a profit.

"For we must confess, that sixteen hundred dollars, as farms have sold
in the past around here, is a good price for the Atterson place. That's
why Uncle Jeptha was willing to give an option for a month--if that was,
in the beginning, the understanding the old man had of his agreement
with Pepper.

"However, we might as well go ahead with the work, and take what comes
to us in the end. I know no other way to do," quoth Hiram, with a sigh.

For he could not be very cheerful with the prospect of making only a
single crop on the place. His profit was to have come out of the second
year's crop--and, he felt, out of that bottom land which had so charmed
him on the day he and Henry Pollock had gone over the Atterson Place.

Riches lay buried in that six acres of bottom. Hiram had read up on
onion culture, and he believed that, if he planted his seed in hot beds,
and transplanted the young onions to the rich soil in this bottom, he
could raise fully as large onions as they did in either Texas or the
Bermudas.

"Of course, they have the advantage of a longer season down there,"
thought Hiram, "and cheap labor. But maybe I can get cheap labor right
around here. The children of these farmers are used to working in the
fields. I ought to be able to get help pretty cheap.

"And when it comes to the market--why, I've got the Texas growers, at
least, skinned a little! I can reach either the Philadelphia or New York
market in a day. Yes; given the right conditions, onions ought to pay
big down there on that lowland."

But this was not the only crop possibility be turned over in his mind.
There were other vegetables