“Charles, this is Mr. Johnston, Percy Johnston, as he says; but he thinks he is no kin of General Joe or Albert Sidney.  He’s been looking at the land hereabout, but I don’t think he’ll want any of it after seeing the kind of crops we raise.”

With this introduction, the mother disappeared within the house, and Charles took her seat on the vine-covered veranda.

“I feel that I owe an apology to you, Sir,” said Percy, “for presenting myself here with bag and baggage, and asking to share the hospitality of your home, with no previous arrangements having been made; but by chance I met your friend, Doctor Goddard, on the train, and, in answer to my inquiry as to whom I could go to for correct information concerning the history and present condition and value of farm lands in this section of the country, he advised me to stop off at Blue Mound Station and consult with you.  Had I known that you were to be in Montplain to-day, of course I should have gone directly there.  Your mother very graciously consented to receive me as a belated summer boarder, a kindness which I greatly appreciate, I assure you.

“My mother and I have a small farm in Illinois,—­so small that it would be lost in such an estate as Westover, but the price of land is very high in the West at the present time; and I am really considering the question of selling our little forty-acre farm and purchasing two or three hundred acres in the East or South.  My thought is that I might secure a farm that was once good land, but that has been run down to such an extent that it can be bought for perhaps ten or twenty dollars an acre.  I should want the land to be nearly level so that it would not be difficult to prevent damage from surface washing.  I should prefer, of course, to purchase where there is a good road and not more than five miles from a railway station.

“If I secure such a farm, it would be my purpose to restore its fertility.  If possible I should want to make the land at least as productive as it ever was, even in its virgin state.”

“Well, Sir,” said Mr. West, “if you could accomplish your purpose and ultimately show a balance on the right side of the ledger, it would be a work of very great value to this country.  There will be no difficulty in securing such land as you want with location and price to suit you; but I think that you should know in advance that older men than you have purchased farms hereabout with very similar intentions, but with the ultimate result that they have lost more, financially, than we who are native to the soil; for, while we were once well-to-do and are now poor, we still own our land, impoverished as it is.  However, the farm still furnishes us a comfortable living, supplemented, to be sure, with some income from other sources.

“I am very willing to give as much information as I can regarding our lands and the agricultural conditions and common practices, although I fear that this knowledge will discourage you from making any investments in our worn-out farms.  If you still decide to make the trial, I surely hope you will be successful, for we need such an object lesson above all else.