with the
Dixon party to a substantial dinner. For the boys, after the first few
furrows were satisfactorily turned, had gone back to the cabin and
made ready the noon meal. The ploughmen, when they came to the cabin
in answer to Sandy's whoop from the roof, had made a considerable
beginning in the field. They had gone around within the outer edge of
the plantation that was to be, leaving with each circuit a broader
band of black and shining loam over which a flock of birds hopped and
swept with eager movements, snapping up the insects and worms which,
astonished at the great upheaval, wriggled in the overturned turf.

"Looks sorter homelike here," said Younkins, with a pleased smile,
as he drew his bench to the well-spread board and glanced around at
the walls of the cabin, where the boys had already hung their
fishing-tackle, guns, Oscar's violin, and a few odds and ends that
gave a picturesque look to the long-deserted cabin.

"Yes," said Mr. Bryant, as he filled Younkins's tin cup with hot
coffee, "our boys have all got the knack of making themselves at
home,--runs in the blood, I guess,--and if you come over here again
in a day or two, you will probably find us with rugs on the floor and
pictures on the walls. Sandy is a master-hand at hunting; and he
intends to get a dozen buffalo-skins out of hand, so to speak, right
away." And he looked fondly at his freckled nephew as he spoke.

"A dibble and a corn-dropper will be more in his way than the rifle,
for some weeks to come," said Mr. Howell.

"What's a dibble?" asked both of the youngsters at once.

The elder man smiled and looked at Younkins as he said, "A dibble, my
lambs, is an instrument for the planting of corn. With it in one hand
you punch a hole in the sod that has been turned over, and then, with
the other hand, you drop in three or four grains of corn from the
corn-dropper, cover it with your heel, and there you are,--planted."

"Why, I supposed we were going to plant corn with a hoe; and we've got
the hoes, too!" cried Oscar.

"No, my son," said his father; "if we were to plant corn with a hoe,
we shouldn't get through planting before next fall, I am afraid. After
dinner, we will make some dibbles for you boys, for you must begin to
drop corn to-morrow. What ploughing we have done to-day, you can
easily catch up with when you begin. And the three of you can all be
on the furrow at once, if that seems worth while."

The boys very soon understood