the minds of Hiram Strong and Mrs. Atterson was
tremendous.

Especially was the young farmer inspired to greater effort. He saw the
second growing season before him. And he saw, too, that now, indeed,
he had that chance to prove his efficiency which he had desired all the
time.

The past year had cost him little for clothing or other expenses. He had
banked the hundred dollars Mrs. Atterson had paid him at Christmas.

But he looked forward to something much bigger than the other hundred
when the next Christmas-tide should come. Twenty-five per cent of all
the profit of the Atterson Eighty during this second year was to be his
own.

The moment "Mr. Damocles's sword", as Mother Atterson had called it, was
lifted the young farmer jumped into the work.

He had already cut enough wood to last the family a year; now he got Mr.
Pollock, with his team of mules, to haul it up to the house, and then
sent for the power saw, asked the neighbors to help, and in less than
half a day every stick was cut to stove length.

As he had time Hiram split this wood and Lem Camp piled it in the shed.
Hiram knocked together some extra cold-frames, too, and bought some
second-hand sash.

And he had already dug a pit for a twelve-foot hotbed. Now, a
twelve-foot hotbed will start an enormous number of plants.

Hiram did not plan to have quite so much small stuff in the garden this
year, however. He knew that he should have less time to work in the
garden. He proposed having more potatoes, about as many tomatoes as the
year before, but fewer roots to bunch, salads and the like. He must give
the bulk of his time to the big commercial crop that he hoped to put
into the bottom-land.

He had little fear of the river overflowing its banks late enough in the
season to interfere with the celery crop. For the seedlings were to be
handled in the cold-frames and garden-patch until it was time to set
them in the trenches. And that would not be until July.

He contented himself with having the logs he cut drawn to the sawmill
and the sawed planks brought down to the edge of the bottom-land, and
did not propose to put a plow into the land until late June.

Meanwhile he started his celery seed in shallow boxes, and when the
plants were an inch and a half, or so, tall, he pricked them out, two
inches apart each way into the cold-frames.

Sister and Mr. Camp could help in this work, and they soon filled the
cold-frames with celery plants destined t