f course. But
he's afeared you're goin' to waste Mrs. Atterson's money for her."

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," quoted Hiram, grimly. "If a farmer
didn't take chances every year, the whole world would starve to death!"

"Well," returned Henry, smiling too, "let the other fellow take the
chances--that's dad's motter."

"Yes. And the 'chancey' fellow skims the cream of things every time.
No, sir!" declared the young fellow, "I'm going to be among the
cream-skimmers, or I won't be a farmer at all."

So the plow was put into the bottom-land Wednesday--and put in deep. By
Friday night the whole piece was plowed and partly harrowed.

Hiram had drawn lime for this bottom-land, proposing to use beside only
a small amount of fertilizer. He spread this lime from his one-horse
wagon, while Henry drag-harrowed behind him, and by Saturday noon the
job was done.

The horses had not mired at all, much to Mr. Pollock's surprise. And the
plow had bit deep. All the heavy sod of the piece was covered well, and
the seed bed was fairly level--for corn.

Although the Pollocks did not work on Saturday afternoon, Hiram did
not feel as though he could stop at this time. Most of the farmers had
already planted their last piece of corn. Monday would be the fifteenth
of the month.

So the young farmer got his home-made corn-row marker down to the
river-bottom and began marking the piece that afternoon.

This marker ran out three rows at each trip across the field, and with
a white stake at either end, the youth managed to run his rows very
straight. He had a good eye.

In this case he did not check-row his field. The land was
rich--phenomenally rich, he believed. If he was going to have a crop of
corn here, he wanted a crop worth while.

On the uplands the farmers were satisfied with from thirty to fifty
baskets of ear-corn to the acre. If this lowland was what he believed it
was, Hiram was sure it would make twice that.

And at that his corn crop here would only average twenty-five dollars to
the acre--not a phenomenal profit for Mrs. Atterson in that.

But the land would be getting into shape for a better crop, and although
corn is a crop that will soon impoverish ground, if planted year after
year on the same piece, Hiram knew that the humus in this soil on the
lowland was almost inexhaustible.

So he marked his rows the long way of the field--running with the river.

One of the implements left by Uncle Jeptha had been a