“I’ve got an awful lot of ’em,” the boy muttered hungrily.

* * * * *

At the farm, the next morning at daybreak, Roger was awakened by the sound of George’s voice.  It was just beneath his window: 

“But cattle are only part of it, Dave,” the boy declared, in earnest tones, “just part of what we can have up here.  Think what we’ve got—­over three hundred acres!  And we want to make every acre count!  We want to get in a whole lot more of hogs—­Belted Hampshires, if we can afford ’em—­and a couple of hundred hens.  White Leghorns ought to fill the bill.  Of course that’s just a starter.  I’ve got a scheme for some incubators—­electric—­run by the dynamo which we’ll put in down by the dam.  And we can do wonders with bees, too, Dave—­I’ve got a book on ’em I’d like you to read.  And besides, there’s big money in squab these days.  Rich women in New York hotels eat thousands of ’em every night.  And ducks, of course, and turkeys.  I’d like a white gobbler right at the start, if we knew where we could get one cheap.”  The voice broke off and there was a pause.  “We can do an awful lot with this place.”

Then Dave’s deep drawl: 

“That’s so, George—­yes, I guess that’s so.  Only we don’t want to fool ourselves.  That ain’t Noah’s Ark over thar—­it’s a barn.  And just for a starter, if I was you—­” Here Dave deliberated.  “Of course it’s none of my business,” he said, “it’s for you and your grandfather to decide—­and I don’t propose to interfere in what ain’t any of my affair—­”

“Yes, yes, Dave, sure!  That’s all right!  But go on! What, just for a starter?”

“Cows,” came the tranquil answer.  “I’ve been hunting around since you wrut me last month.  And I know of three good milkers—­”

“Three?  Why, Dave, I wrote we want thirty or forty!”

“Yes—­you wrut,” Dave answered.  “But I’ve druv all around these parts—­and there ain’t but three that I can find.  And I ain’t so sure of that third one.  She looks like she might—­” George cut in.

“But you only had a buggy, Dave!  Gee!  I’m going to have a Ford!”

“That so, George?”

“You bet it’s so!  And we’ll go on a cow hunt all over the State!”

“Well—­I dunno but what you’re right,” Dave responded cautiously.  “You might get more cows if you had a Ford—­an’ got so you could run it.  Yes, I guess it’s a pretty good scheme.  I believe in being conservative, George—­but I dunno now but what a Ford—­”

Their voices passed from under the window, and Roger relaxed and smiled to himself.  It was a good beginning, he thought.

They bought a Ford soon afterwards and in the next few weeks of June they searched the farms for miles around, slowly adding to their herd.  To Roger’s surprise he found many signs of a new life stirring there—­the farmers buying “autos” and improved machinery, thinking of new processes; and down in the lower valleys they found several big stock farms which were decidedly modern affairs.  At one such place, the man in charge took a fancy to George and asked him to drop over often.