“I sell cream.  I have a special trade in Richmond, and I ship my cream direct to the city.  I also sell a few hogs and some wheat.  I usually put wheat after corn, and have fourteen acres of wheat seeded between the corn shocks over there.  Sometimes I don’t get the wheat seeded, and then I put the land in cowpeas.  I usually raise about twenty-five acres of cowpeas, and the rest of the cleared land I use for meadow and pasture.  I usually sow timothy after cowpeas, and I like to break up as much old pasture land for corn as I can put manure on.”

“I was told that you had been offered fifty dollars an acre for your farm, Mr. Thornton, but that you would not consider the offer.”

Mr. Thornton laughed heartily at this remark.

“That must have come from the Richmond land agent,” he said.  “Someone else was telling me that story a short time ago.  The fact is one of those real estate agents was out here last spring and he asked me if I would consider an offer of fifty dollars an acre for our land.  I told him that I didn’t think that I would as long as any one who wishes to buy can get all the land he wants in this section for five or ten dollars an acre.  That’s as near as I came to having an offer of fifty dollars an acre for this land.  The land adjoining me on the south is is for sale, and I am sure you could buy that farm of about seven hundred acres for four dollars an acre after they get the timber off.  Some of the land has not been cropped for a hundred years, I guess; and there are a few trees on it that are big enough for light saw-stuff.  A man has bought the timber that is worth cutting, and he is running a saw over there now; but he’ll get out all that’s good for anything in a few months.”

“May I ask how long you have been farming here, Mr. Thornton?”

“Twelve years on this farm,” he replied.  “You see this estate was left to my wife and her sister who still lives with us.  We were married twelve years ago and I have been working ever since to make a living for us on this old worn-out farm.  Of course I have made some little improvements about the barns, but we’ve sold a little land too.  The railroad company wanted about an acre down where that little stream crosses, for a water supply, and I got twelve hundred dollars for that.”

“Now, I’ve already taken too much of your time,” said Percy.  “I thank you for your kindness in giving me so much information.  If there is no objection I shall be glad to take a walk about over your farm and the adjoining land, and perhaps I can see you again for a few moments when I return.”

“Certainly,” Mr. Thornton replied.  “There is no objection whatsoever.  We are going to Blairville this morning, but we shall be back before noon and I shall be glad to see you then.  I fear you have been given some misinformation by the real estate agents.  Some of them, by the way, are Northern men who came down here and bought land and when they found they could not make a living on