t get any of the gravy on the table cloth," cautioned Mrs. Larabee.
"It was clean this week, and I don't want to have to put another one on
before Sunday."

Dick felt a guilty flush come over his face as he saw that he had
dropped a small piece of butter on the cloth. But he thought it wisest
to say nothing.

"Aren't you going to eat that crust of bread?" asked his uncle, as Dick
laid aside a portion that was burned black.

"It's a little too--too brown," replied the boy, who did not fancy
burned bread.

"That makes it all the better," said Mr. Larabee. "Bread should be well
cooked to be digestible. Always eat your crusts. 'Sinful waste makes
woeful want,' as the proverb says. I had to eat my crusts when I was
young."

Dick managed to get it down, and the meal finally came to a close. He
felt considerably better after it, and when his uncle proposed a walk
around the place, he was ready to accompany Mr. Larabee.

Dick found much to admire in the well-kept grounds. Several men were at
work, and the manner in which they hastened with their tasks when their
employer approached spoke volumes for the way in which they regarded
him.

Dick paused in the stable to admire the horses, of which his uncle kept
several. Without thinking he pulled a wisp of hay from a bale and
offered it to one of the animals.

"Don't do that!" exclaimed his uncle sharply. "You'll scatter it all
over the barn. The man has just swept the place up, and I don't like a
litter of dirt around."

He stopped to pick up some pieces of hay Dick had inadvertently dropped,
and looked so cross that the boy wished he had kept out of the stable.

However, Mr. Larabee seemed a bit ashamed of himself a little later, for
he showed Dick where he could find some withered apples to feed to the
pigs.

"Only don't scatter 'em on the ground," he cautioned. "I hate to see
apples thrown about. I keep a man to look after the orchard, and I like
it nice and tidy."

Now Dick was not a careless youth, but he thought this was carrying
things a little too far. However, he brightened up a bit when his uncle
announced that he had to leave his nephew to his own devices for a time,
as he had some duties to attend to.

Dick managed to while away the afternoon looking at the sights around
the place, for his uncle had a large farm, though he was wealthy enough
not to need the income from it. Still he was the kind of a man who can
not own the smallest bit of land without