After a visit to the sheep and poultry departments, each occupying a large farm by itself, we felt that we had seen much to think and talk over.

It was hard to get Winnie away from the poultry-houses and yards, where each celebrated breed was kept scrupulously by itself.  There were a thousand hens, besides innumerable young chickens.  We were also shown incubators, which, in spring, hatch little chickens by hundreds.

“Think of fifteen hundred eggs at a sitting, Winnie!” I cried; “that’s quite a contrast to the number that you put under one of your biddies at home.”

“I don’t care,” replied the child; “we’ve raised over a hundred chickens since we began.”

“Yes, indeed,” I said.  “That for you—­for you have seen to it all chiefly—­is a greater success than anything here.”

I was thoughtful as we drove home, and at last my wife held out a penny.

“No,” I said, laughing; “my thoughts shall not cost you even that.  What I have seen to-day has made clearer what I have believed before.  There are two distinct ways of securing success in outdoor work.  One is ours, and the other is after the plan of Houghton Farm.  Ours is the only one possible for us—­that of working a small place and performing the labor, as far as possible, ourselves.  If I had played ‘boss,’ as Bagley sometimes calls me, and hired the labor which we have done ourselves, the children meanwhile idle, we should soon come to a disastrous end in our country experiment.  The fact that we have all worked hard, and wisely, too, in the main, and have employed extra help only when there was more than we could do, will explain our account-book; that is, the balance in our favor.  I believe that one of the chief causes of failure on the part of people in our circumstances is, that they employ help to do what they should have done themselves, and that it doesn’t and can’t pay small farmers and fruit-growers to attempt much beyond what they can take care of, most of the year, with their own hands.  Then there’s the other method—­that of large capital carrying things on as we have seen to-day.  The farm then becomes like a great factory or mercantile house.  There must be at the head of everything a large organizing brain capable of introducing and enforcing thorough system, and of skilfully directing labor and investment, so as to secure the most from the least outlay.  A farm such as we have just seen would be like a bottomless pit for money in bungling, careless hands.”

“I’m content with our own little place and modest ways,” said my wife.  “I never wish our affairs to grow so large that we can’t talk them over every night, if so inclined.”

“Well,” I replied, “I feel as you do.  I never should have made a great merchant in town, and I am content to be a small farmer in the country, sailing close to shore in snug canvas, with no danger of sudden wreck keeping me awake nights.  The insurance money will be available in a few days, and we shall begin building at once.”