Part 25 (2/2)

”Other refuge have I none,”

but it gained courage and persuasiveness until it filled the room and the heart of the man with,--

”Cover my defenceless head, With the shadow of Thy wing.”

A gentle smile and the relaxing of closed hands completed the story of our loss, though the real weight of it came days and months later.

It was long before we could take up our daily duties with anything like the familiar happiness. Something had gone out of our lives that could never be replaced, and only time could salve the wounds. The dear man who had gone was no friend to solemn faces, and living interests must bury dead memories; but it was a long time before the click of Jane's hammer was heard in her forge; not until Laura had said, ”It will please _him_, Jane.”

CHAPTER LVIII

BACTERIA

January, February, and March pa.s.sed with more than the usual snow and rain,--fully ten inches of precipitation; but the spring proved neither cold nor late. During these three months we sold b.u.t.ter to the amount of $1283, and $747 worth of eggs; in all, $2030.

The ploughs were started in the highest land on the 11th of April, and were kept going steadily until they had turned over nearly 280 acres.

I decided to put the whole of the widow's field into corn, lots 8, 12, and 15 (84 acres) into oats, and 50 acres of the orchards into roots and sweet fodder corn. Number 13 was to be sown with buckwheat as soon as the rye was cut for green forage. I decided to raise more alfalfa, for we could feed more to advantage, and it was fast gaining favor in my establishment. It is so productive and so nutritious that I wonder it is not more generally used by farmers who make a specialty of feeding stock. It contains as much protein as most grains, and is wholesome and highly palatable if properly cured. It should be cut just as it is coming into flower, and should be cured in the windrow. The leaves are the most nutritious part of the plant, and they are apt to fall off if the cutting be deferred, or if the curing be _done carelessly_.

Lot No. 9 was to be fitted for alfalfa as soon as the season would permit. First, it must receive a heavy dressing of manure, to be ploughed under. The ordinary plough was to be followed in this case by a subsoiler, to stir the earth as deep as possible. When the seed was sown, the land was to receive five hundred pounds an acre of high-grade fertilizer, and one hundred pounds an acre of infected soil.

The peculiar bacterium that thrives on congenial alfalfa soil is essential to the highest development of the plant. Without its presence the gra.s.s fails in its chief function--the storing of nitrogen--and makes but poor growth. When the alfalfa bacteria are abundant, the plant flourishes and gathers nitrogen in k.n.o.bs and bunches in its roots and in the joints of its stems.

I sent to a very successful alfalfa grower in Ohio for a thousand pounds of soil from one of his fields, to vaccinate my field with. This is not always necessary,--indeed, it rarely is, for alfalfa seed usually carry enough bacteria to inoculate favorable soils; but I wished to see if this infected soil would improve mine. I have not been able to discover any marked advantage from its use; the reason being that my soil was so rich in humus and added manures that the colonies of bacteria on the seeds were quite sufficient to infect the whole ma.s.s. Under less favorable conditions, artificial inoculation is of great advantage.

Wonderful are the secrets of nature. The infinitely small things seem to work for us and the infinitely large ones appear suited to our use; and yet, perhaps, this is all ”seeming” and ”appearing.” We may ourselves be simply more advanced bacteria, working blindly toward the solution of an infinite problem in which we are concerned only as means to an end.

”Why should the spirit of mortal be proud,” until it has settled its relative position with both Sirius and the micro-organisms, or has estimated its stature by view-points from the bacterial world and from the constellation of Lyra. Until we have been able to compare opinions from these extremes, if indeed they be extremes, we cannot expect to make a correct estimate of our value in the economy of the universe. I fancy that we are apt to take ourselves too seriously, and that we will sometime marvel at the shadow which we did not cast.

CHAPTER LIX

MATCH-MAKING

The home lot took on a home look in the spring of 1898. The lawn lost its appearance of newness; the trees became acquainted with each other; the shrubs were on intimate terms with their neighbors, and broke into friendly rivalry of blossoms; the gardens had a settled-down look, as if they had come to stay; and even the wall flowers were enjoying themselves. These efforts of nature to make us feel at ease were thankfully received by Polly and me, and we voted that this was more like home than anything else we had ever had; and when the fruit trees put forth their promise of an autumn harvest in great ma.s.ses of blossoms, we declared that we had made no mistake in transforming ourselves from city to country folk.

”Aristocracy is of the land,” said Polly. ”It always has been and always will be the source of dignity and stability. I feel twice as great a lady as I did in the tall house on B---- Street.”

”So you don't want to go back to that tall house, madam?”

”Indeed I don't. Why should I?”

”I don't know why you should, only I remember Lot's wife looked back toward the city.”

”Don't mention that woman! She didn't know what she wanted. You won't catch me looking toward the city, except once a week for three or four hours, and then I hurry back to the farm to see what has happened in my garden while I've been away.”

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