“The seven acres where we had the buckwheat and afterward the potatoes last year are to be set with strawberries this May.  I tell you, here’s where the real serious business comes in.  J.B. hasn’t done a thing this winter but study the soil in that seven acres and figure out what kind of berries to plant.  He’s given a lot of thought to what sort of fertilizers to use, and I tell you if there’s any such thing as improving soil, the soil in that strawberry land is going to be improved.  Tons of stuff are going into it and it’s going to be well mixed in, too.  Then if cultivating and irrigating and all the rest of it can bring us big fruit, we’ll get it.  J.B.’s idea is the more we put in the more we’ll get out, and the better quality.  Of course it’s lucky for us we have him to pay out the money for getting things going, but I believe Strawberry Acres will support itself some day and bring us in good returns.

“Anyhow, I must say I’m beginning to like the whole thing, though it’s hard work and plenty of it.  Never was so hungry in my life.  Joanna sets it up to us in good shape, but we’ll be glad to see you back.  House seems sort of empty, in spite of four fellows tumbling over each other in it.

“With love, your brother, ALEC.

“P.  S. The old asparagus bed is trying so hard to show signs of life we’ve given it a good salting.  The Ferrys’ crocuses are up, grass all full of them—­look mighty pretty.”

This was certainly very satisfactory, when one considered that Alec had been in the beginning only second to Max in scoffing at the idea of living on a farm, not to mention working on one.  More than any of the boys Alec had preferred life in the city, had been the one who cared most about his personal appearance, and had prided himself upon doing things in the urban way.  For him to be willing to put on old clothes and rough boots, and soil his hands with manual labour, indicated a change of thought and ideals hardly to have been expected so soon.  Sally put away the letter, rejoicing at these indications of growth, for growth it surely was, in his case.  His work in the office where he had been employed had been work likely to lead no further, nor to promise any promotion to a position of greater honour.  But on Strawberry Acres it seemed to Sally that, with Jarvis Burnside for a leader, Alec might develop qualities as yet only to be guessed at.

The most interesting part of Josephine’s long letter, which reached Sally on the ninth, was, as is usually the case in feminine letters, toward its close.  After every other subject had been touched upon, Sally’s correspondent remarked: