d
sow, and the six-weeks-old shoats were in good condition. In a couple of
weeks they would be big enough to sell if Mrs. Atterson did not care to
raise them.

The shoats were worth six dollars a pair, too; he had inquired the day
before about them. There was practically eighteen dollars squealing in
that pen--and eighteen dollars would go a long way toward feeding the
horse and cow until there was good pasturage for them.

These animals named were in the small fenced barnyard. In the fall and
winter the old man had fed a good deal of fodder and other roughage, and
during the winter the horse and cow had tramped this coarse material,
and the stable scrapings, into a mat of fairly good manure.

He looked the horse and cow over with more care. It was a fact that
the horse looked pretty shaggy; but he had been used little during
the winter, and had been seldom curried. A ragged coat upon a horse
sometimes covers quite as many good points as the same quality of
garment does upon a man.

When Hiram spoke to the beast it came to the fence with a friendly
forward thrust of its ears, and the confidence of a horse that has been
kindly treated and looks upon even a strange human as a friend.

It was a strong and well-shaped animal, more than twelve years old,
as Hiram discovered when he opened the creature's mouth, but seemingly
sound in limb. Nor was he too large for work on the cultivator, while
sturdy enough to carry a single plow.

Hiram passed him over with a satisfactory pat on the nose and turned
to look at the white-faced cow that had so terrified Mrs. Atterson. She
wasn't a bad looking beast, either, and would freshen shortly. Her calf
would be worth from twelve to fifteen dollars if Mrs. Atterson did not
wish to raise it. Another future asset to mention to the old lady when
he returned.

The youth turned his attention to the buildings themselves--the barn,
the cart shed, the henhouse, and the smaller buildings. That famous old
decorating firm of Wind & Weather had contracted for all painting done
around the Atterson place for the many years; but the buildings were not
otherwise in a bad state of repair.

A few shingles had been blown off the roofs; here and there a board was
loose. With a hammer and a few nails, and in a few hours, many of these
small repairs could be accomplished. And a coat or two of properly
mixed and applied whitewash would freshen up the whole place and--like
charity--cover a multitude of