f the
soil had been revealed when they dug the earthworm.

For thousands of years the riches of yonder hillside had been washing
down upon the bottom, and this alluvial was rich beyond computation.

Here were several acres, the young farmer knew, which, however
over-cropped the remainder of Uncle Jeptha's land had been, could not be
impoverished in many seasons.

"It's as rich as cream!" muttered he, thoughtfully. "Grubbing out these
young pines wouldn't take long. There's a heavy sod and it would have
to be ploughed deeply. Then a crop of corn this year, perhaps--late corn
for fear the river might overflow it in June. And then----

"Great Scot!" ejaculated Hiram, slapping his knee, "what wouldn't grow
on this bottom land?"

"Yes, it's mighty rich," agreed Henry. "But it's a long way from the
house--and then, the river might flood it over. I've seen water running
over this bottom two feet deep--once."

They finished the al fresco meal and Hiram leaped up, inspired by his
thoughts to brisker movements.

"Whatever else this old farm has on it, I vow and declare," he said,
"this five or six acres alone might be made to pay a profit on the whole
investment!"

CHAPTER IX. THE BARGAIN IS MADE

Henry showed Hiram the "branch", a little stream flowing into the river,
which marked the westerly boundary of the farm for some ways, and they
set off up the steep bank of this stream.

This back end of the farm--quite forty acres, or half of the whole
tract--had been entirely neglected by the last owner of the property for
a great many years. It was some distance from the house, for the farm
was a long and narrow strip of land from the highway to the river, and
Uncle Jeptha had had quite all he could do to till the uplands and the
fields adjacent to his home.

They came upon these open fields--many of them filthy with dead weeds
and littered with sprouting bushes--from the rear. Hiram saw that the
fences were in bad repair and that the back of the premises gave every
indication of neglect and shiftlessness.

Perhaps not exactly the latter; Uncle Jeptha had been an old man and
unable to do much active work for some years. But he had cropped certain
of his fields "on shares" with the usual results--impoverished soil,
illy-tilled crops, and the land left in a slovenly condition which
several years of careful tillage would hardly overcome.

Now, although Hiram's father had been of the tenant class, he had farmed
other