from the barn the ragged little lad of No Santa Claus Land--now a
sturdy, bright eyed, handsome boy of eight.

The horses were put out and all went in to supper.

"I have always felt sorry for any kind of a slave?" said Samson as they
sat down. "When I saw you on the sand plains you were in bondage."

"Say, I'll tell ye," said Brimstead, as he leaned toward Samson, seeming
to be determined at last to make a clean breast of it. "Say, I didn't own
that farm. It owned me. I got a sandy intellect. Couldn't get anything
out of it but disappointment. My farm was mortgaged to the bank and I was
mortgaged to the children. I couldn't even die."

Samson wrote in his diary that night:

* * * * *

"When Brimstead brings his sense of humor into play he acts as if he
was telling a secret. When he says anything that makes me laugh, he's
terribly confidential. Seems so he was kind of ashamed of it. He never
laughs himself unless he does it inside. His voice always drops, too,
when he talks business."

* * * * *

"The man that's a fool and don't know it is a good deal worse off," said
Samson.

"Say, I'll tell ye he's worse off but he's happier. If it hurts there's
hope for ye."

"They tell me you've prospered," said Samson.

Brimstead spoke in a most confidential tone as he answered: "Say, I'll
tell ye--no wise man is ever an idiot but once. I wouldn't care to spread
it around much but we're gettin' along. I've built this house and got my
land paid for. You see we are only four miles from the Illinois River on
a good road. I can ship my grain to Alton or St. Louis or New Orleans
without much trouble. I've invented a machine to cut it and a double plow
and I expect to have them both working next year. They ought to treble my
output at least."

After supper Brimstead showed models of a mowing machine with a cut bar
six feet long, and a plow which would turn two furrows.

"That's what we need on these prairies," said Samson. "Something that'll
turn 'em over and cut the crop quicker."

"Say, I'll tell ye," said Brimstead as if about to disclose another
secret. "I found after I looked the ground over here that I needed a
brain. I began to paw around an' discovered a rusty old brain among my
tools. It hadn't been used for years. I cleaned an' oiled the thing an'
got it workin'. On a little Vermont farm you could git along without it
but here the ground yells for a