Hidden Treasure Part 34

"What!" said his uncle; "$250 worth of manure on each acre. That wouldn't be possible."

"Well, that's what the paper said--plenty of water and plenty of manure, and the crops take care of themselves."

"That's right, Joe," said his wife. "Bob showed me the same article.

The farm averaged over $2000 per acre and I think it would be a good idea to buy the outfit next year, Joe. The same as our growing of vegetables under gla.s.s. I'm very much interested in growing vegetables out of season--there isn't much work to do in winter and we can easily take care of them, and in that way we may find we could make more money on less ground than by doing general farming."

"Well, it's worth looking into," said her husband. "All of our things so far have panned out pretty good and I'm not willing to pa.s.s up anything now without giving it a thorough investigation. By the way, Bettie, don't you think we ought to put an orchard on 'Old Round Top?'

That's one field we can't very well plow."

"What had you thought of planting, Joe?"

"I thought peaches would be a good crop there--peaches ought to do well on the south slope."

"Well, you know a peach orchard doesn't live very long and it's rather a fickle crop," she replied.

"I tell you what I was thinking of, Uncle Joe," said Bob.

"What's that?" asked his uncle.

"Planting it with peaches with black walnut trees in between."

"What do you want with black walnuts?" asked Bob's uncle.

"Well, when the trees are grown, you have the walnuts, and when the trees get older black walnut timber, which is very valuable. A hill such as Round Top that isn't much good for anything else, would raise good black walnut timber. Of course, you'd have to dynamite the holes good and deep where you put the trees, so they'd have no trouble getting good roots. Once they were well started, I don't think there'd be any trouble with them."

"I hadn't thought of that, Bob," said his uncle, "but I guess we had better look into it. By the time the peach trees were dead, the walnut trees would have a good start. How many trees will it take to plant it?"

"I figure if we took the whole twelve acres, it would require twelve hundred peach trees," said Bob.

"But that would be a good many peach trees to take care of, Uncle Joe."

"Yes, but we won't be building any concrete buildings by the time they begin bearing, so why not plant it all in peach trees with the black walnuts in between, as you say?"

"I'll have Edith write to a grower to-night, if you wish, Joe, and find what the peaches will cost," said his wife.

"How about the black walnuts?" asked Bob. "Shall we plant the trees or nuts?"

"I think we had better plant nuts and let them grow themselves. We can stick a lot of them between the peach trees and, of course, the peach trees will be dead long before the walnuts get to be any size."

Much to the regret of every one, two days later Ruth and Edith said good-by to Brookside Farm and went back to their New England homes.

They had intended to stay a few weeks longer, but a telegram from Edith's father saying her mother had been taken suddenly ill and needed her, caused them to decide that they should return at once.

When Bob came back from an inspection trip with John White and the County Commissioners over the new concrete road, they had packed their trunks and were ready to leave for the afternoon train. He drove the girls and their Aunt Bettie to town in the car and was particularly depressed when he said good-by at the station--somehow or other they had become part of the life at Brookside Farm, and now that they were going he began to realize how much he would miss them. Even the good- natured Ruth, in her impetuous way and ability to get into trouble, had added much to the life on the farm. Edith was very quiet all the way to the station, and Bob could not tell whether it was worrying over the possible illness of her mother or her disappointment in having to return so soon, or maybe, as he hoped, it was for another reason she was silent--at any rate, she had little to say to him as he bid her good-by, but just before she ascended the steps of the train, when, for a second, they looked full into each others' eyes, he seemed to feel that perhaps he was right in attributing it to that reason.

So the girls went on their way and Bob went back to work.

XXIII

CHRISTMAS AT BROOKSIDE FARM

One evening a few days before Thanksgiving, shortly after they had moved into the new house, Bob sat before the open fire talking with his aunt and uncle, when the latter said:

"Bob, it's just a little over nine months since you came to live with us and turned our farm upside down, digging after 'Hidden Treasure.'

Do you remember the Sunday we let the water out of the old pond?"

"Yes, I do, Uncle Joe."

"Do you remember the conversation you and I had that day?"

"I haven't forgotten that either, Uncle Joe," said Bob with a smile.

"Well, it's getting around kind of close to payday, don't you think, Bob?"

"Oh, I don't need any money, Uncle Joe. I received $250 for my honey this fall, and I haven't spent very much yet."

"That's no reason why you should not be paid just the same. You've done your work. I don't know what you feel you've earned, but what would you say if I gave you $540--that's at the rate of $60 per month with board."

"Do you mean to pay me in money, Uncle Joe?"

"Of course, in money. I don't suppose you want to take it out in sand and gravel, do you?"

"No, Uncle Joe, of course not; but do you think I've earned that much money, Uncle Joe?"

"Yes, and more, but that's as much as I feel I can pay you, and if you stay with us another year, and we prosper as well as we did this year, what do you say to calling it $75 per month with board?"

"That'll be splendid, Uncle Joe, and I'll be perfectly satisfied."

"All right," said his uncle, "then it's a bargain, and here's your check for the money," and he handed him a check already made out and drawn to his order for $540.

"Thank you, Uncle Joe," said Bob, looking first at the check and then at his aunt and uncle in turn. "I hope you both feel I've earned it all."

"Oh, yes, you've earned it all right, Bob; don't worry about that,"

said his uncle.

"If I were you," said his aunt, "I'd stop in at Bush & Company, tailors, and have a couple of nice suits of clothes made--a specially good one for Sunday and another one for general dress-up wear. You should have a new overcoat, too, and some other nice things. You're nineteen years old now, Bob, and you've been working pretty hard this summer, and not paying much attention to your clothes. We'll like you just as well in your old clothes as we will in the new ones, but while you're a farmer, that's no reason why you should not have some good clothes, the same as other boys. You know, Brookside Farm has established a reputation, and while I don't believe in wasting money on clothes, I think we should all be dressed comfortably and be neat."

"All right, Aunt Bettie, I'll be going to town to-morrow and I'll take care of it."

Time flew quickly at Brookside Farm, while they hurried to finish their concrete buildings and get their new fences up before the ground froze up solidly.

After this was done, Joe Williams fixed up a lot of wire racks to take care of his seed corn, and carefully winnowed out his prize oats for good fertile seed. The chickens, too, claimed considerable of their combined attention.

Now that Edith had gone they both began to realize how much help she had been in her quiet way and the many things she had done while there. Bob kept hoping she might be able to return the coming year, although the letters she wrote gave him no encouragement to hope.

"Merry Christmas, Bob," called his aunt, as he came in from doing his ch.o.r.es on Christmas morning, and she handed him a handsome gold watch and chain.