and cow-barn were all under one roof, and would
accommodate several horses and a few cows. There was hay and fodder in
a lot adjoining, and a few ordinary farm implements, a plow, a harrow,
and a cultivator in a shed addition.

"Do you know what it is for?" she asked mischievously, as he pulled
out the plow.

"Do you think I never remembered the granger vote in my ambitions?" he
answered. "I can plow, and I have planted and snapped corn, and cut
fodder, and dug potatoes--I wonder if there are any here?"

"Yes," she answered; "in the cellar, at least a bushel, mostly gone to
eyes, but I forget how thick to cut them. If we were only 'The Swiss
Family Robinson,'" she went on, "we should find yams and pineapples
and oranges and sugar-cane and bananas coming up between the rocks. As
it is, I am thankful to the congressman who sent the peas and
morning-glories."

"There is only about enough wheat and corn to plant fifteen acres,"
Adam said, making a rough calculation in his mind. "I will plow a
little over that, so as to have a patch for the potatoes, and get it
ready as soon as possible."

"I know how to plant corn and potatoes," she said eagerly. "Just as
soon as you get part of the land ready, I will begin. You didn't know
I was brought up on a ranch, did you? I never was very fond of
recalling it. It is a perpetual round of conditions unlike any theory
ever heard of." She shrugged her shoulders, and stopped at the rude
table under the porch to crumb some slices of what looked like a kind
of cornbread.

"What is it?" he asked curiously.

"That is to enable us to make light of our troubles," she replied
solemnly. "Or, for thy more sweet understanding it is, or at least I
hope it will be, yeast. I found a Twin Brothers yeast cake, and from
it, behold the brethren! I know that raised bread is unhealthy, and
that to get the worth of your money you ought to eat the bran also,
and that the best bread, from the hygienic standpoint, is made from
wheat-paste, and is about the consistency of sole leather; but even if
yeast does shorten our lives, I don't know that I shall give it up on
that account."

The planting of their crops took several weeks, and was very hard
work, for neither of them was an expert farmer. When the corn and
wheat came up there were almost no weeds, and the stand was better
than usual for sod land; but they were kept busy warding off the
horses and cattle that preferred the fresh young corn and whe