u, but you have to be
careful how you get mixed up with them Methodists; they go too far
and are apt to overdo things. You mind when there was them big
revival meetings at Millford a few years ago. Well, sir, Brown, the
druggist, got religion and burned up all his pipes and tobacco; they
tell me they were as fine a stock of briar-roots and amber
mouthpieces as any person would care to see; people who raked over
the as ashes tell me it was a' terrible sight altogether--and he was
a smart man up to that time, makin' good ney sellin' rain-water for
medicine. Now, Buddie, go slow. I don't mind you goin' to church and
chippin' in your nickel when the plate passes, and it's all right to
buy stuff at their sales. I mind when the Church of England ladies
raffled off that quilt, I bought two ten-cent throws, and never
kicked when I didn't get it. I says: 'Oh, well, it's gone for a good
cause.' But don't let them get too strong a hold on you."

"But, father," Bud said earnestly, "I want to stand up for everything
that's right. I want to be straight and honest, and help people, and
I've just been thinkin' about it--it's not fair to plug wheat the way
we've been doing--it's not right to pretend that it's all first class
when there's frozen grain in it."

Thomas Perkins grew serious.

"Buddie, dear," he said, "you're gettin' cluttered up with a lot of
bum ideas. A farmer has to hold his own against everybody else.
They're all trying to fleece him, and he's got to fool them if he
can. I'm honest myself, Bud, you know that; but there's nothing
pleases me quite so well as to be able to get eighty-seven cents a
bushel for wheat that I would only be gettin' fifty-three for if I
hadn't taken a little trouble when I was fillin' it up."

"But it would make a fellow feel mean to get caught," Bud said,
trying to get hold of an argument that would have weight.

"A fellow needn't be caught, Bud, if he ain't too graspin'. You don't
need to plug every time. They know blame well when a fellow has some
frozen wheat, and it don't do to draw in No. I hard or No. I Northern
every time. It's safest to plug it just one grade above what it is.
Oh, it's a game, Bud, and it takes a good player. Now, son, you run
along and bring up the cows, and don't you be worryin' about
religion. That's what happened me brother Jimmy, your own poor uncle.
He got all taken up with the Seventh Day Adventists, and his hired
help was gettin' two Sundays a week--he woul