My first order to this house was for three heavy wagons with four-inch tires, three sets of heavy harness, two ploughs and a subsoiler, three harrows (disk, spring tooth, and flat), a steel land-roller, two wheelbarrows, an iron scraper, fly nets and other stable equipment, shovels, spades, hay forks, posthole tools, a hand seeder, a chest of tools, stock-pails, milk-pails and pans, axes, hatchets, saws of various kinds, a maul and wedges, six kegs of nails, and three lanterns.  The total amount was $488; but as I received five per cent discount, I paid only $464.  The goods, except the wagons and harnesses, were to go by freight to Exeter.  Polly was to buy the necessary furnishings for the men’s house, the only stipulation I made being that the beds should be good enough for me to sleep in.  On the 25th of July she showed me a list of the things which she had purchased.  It seemed interminable; but she assured me that she had bought nothing unnecessary, and that she had been very careful in all her purchases.  As I knew that Polly was in the habit of getting the worth of her money, I paid the bills without more ado.  The list footed up to $495.

Most of the housekeeping things were to be delivered at the station in Exeter; the rest were to go on the wagons.  On the afternoon of the 30th the wagons and harnesses were sent to the stable where the horses had been kept, and the articles to go in these wagons were loaded for an early start the following morning.  The distance from the station in the city to the station at Exeter is thirty miles, but the stable is three miles from the city station, the farm two and a half miles from Exeter station, and the wagon road not so direct as the railroad.  The trip to the farm, therefore, could not be much less than forty miles, and would require the best part of two days.  The three men whom I had engaged reported for duty, as also did Thompson’s son, whom we are to know hereafter as Zeb.

Early on the last day of the month the men and teams were off, with cooked provisions for three days.  They were to break the journey twenty-five miles out, and expected to reach the farm the next afternoon.  Polly and I wished to see them arrive, so we took the train at 1 P.M.  August 1st, and reached Four Oaks at 2.30, taking with us Mrs. Thompson, who was to cook for the men.

Before starting I had telephoned a local carpenter to meet me, and to bring a mason if possible.  I found both men on the ground, and explained to them that there would be abundant work in their lines on the place for the next year or two, that I was perfectly willing to pay a reasonable profit on each job, but that I did not propose to make them rich out of any single contract.