The ground was too wet for the use of the hoe, but there was plenty of weeding to be done, while I answered the questions of neighbors who came to offer their sympathy.  I also looked around to see what could be sold, feeling the need of securing every dollar possible.  I found much that was hopeful and promising.  The Lima-bean vines had covered the poles, and toward their base the pods were filling out.  The ears on our early corn were fit to pull; the beets and onions had attained a good size; the early peas had given place to turnips, winter cabbages, and celery; there were plenty of green melons on the vines, and more cucumbers than we could use.  The remaining pods on the first planting of bush-beans were too mature for use, and I resolved to let them stand till sufficiently dry to be gathered and spread in the attic.  All that we had planted had done, or was doing, fairly well, for the season had been moist enough to ensure a good growth.  We had been using new potatoes since the first of the month, and now the vines were so yellow that all in the garden could be dug at once and sold.  They would bring in some ready money, and I learned from my garden book that strap-leaved turnips, sown on the cleared spaces, would have time to mature.

After all, my strawberry beds gave me the most hope.  There were hundreds of young plants already rooted, and still more lying loosely on the ground; so I spent the greater part of the morning in weeding these out and pressing the young plants on the ends of the runners into the moist soil, having learned that with such treatment they form roots and become established in a very few days.

After dinner Mr. Jones appeared with his team and heavy plow, and we selected an acre of upland meadow where the sod was light and thin.

“This will give a fair growth of young corn-leaves,” he said, “by the middle of September.  By that time you’ll have a new barn up, I s’pose; and after you have cut and dried the corn, you can put a little of it into the mows in place of the hay.  The greater part will keep better if stacked out-doors.  A horse will thrive on such fodder almost as well as a cow, ’specially if ye cut it up and mix a little bran-meal with it.  We’ll sow the corn in drills a foot apart, and you can spread a little manure over the top of the ground after the seed is in.  This ground is a trifle thin; a top-dressin’ will help it ’mazin’ly.”

Merton succeeded in getting several crates of raspberries, but said that two or three more pickings would finish them.  Since the time we had begun to go daily to the landing, we had sent the surplus of our vegetables to a village store, with the understanding that we would trade out the proceeds.  We thus had accumulated a little balance in our favor, which we could draw against in groceries, etc.