The Fat of the Land | Page 7

with rooms, and covered all over with
yellow-brown shingles." She had it all settled in a minute.

"What will the paper on your bedroom wall be like?" I asked.
"I know perfectly well, but I shan't tell you."
Seating myself on an out-cropping boulder, I began to study the
geography of the farm. In imagination I stripped it of stock, crops,
buildings, and fences, and saw it as bald as the palm of my hand. I
recited the table of long measure: Sixteen and a half feet, one rod, perch,
or pole; forty rods, one furlong; eight furlongs, one mile. Eight times
40 is 320; there are 320 rods in a mile, but how much is 16-1/2. times
320? "Polly, how much is 16-1/2 times 320?"
"Don't bother me now; I'm busy."
(Just as if she could have told in her moment of greatest leisure!) I
resorted to paper and pencil, and learned that there are 5280 feet in
each and every mile. My land was, therefore, 5280 feet long and 2640
feet wide. I must split it in some way, by a road or a lane, to make all
parts accessible. If I divided it by two lanes of twenty feet each, I could
have on either side of these lanes lots 650 feet deep, and these would be
quite manageable. I found that if these lots were 660 feet long, they
would contain ten acres minus the ten feet used for the lane. This
seemed a real discovery, as it simplified my calculations and relieved
me of much mental effort.
"Polly, I am going to make a map of the place,--lay it out just as I want
it."
"You may leave the home forty out of your map; I will look after that,"
said the lady.
In my pocket I found three envelopes somewhat the worse for wear.
This is how one of them looked when my map was finished.
[Illustration:]
I am not especially haughty about this map, but it settled a matter
which had been chaotic in my mind. My plan was to make the farm a

soiling one; to confine the stock within as limited a space as was
consistent with good health, and to feed cultivated forage and crops. In
drawing my map, the forty which Polly had segregated left the
northeast forty standing alone, and I had to cast about for some good
way of treating it. "Make it your feeding ground," said my good genius,
and thus the wrath of Polly was made to glorify my plans.
This feeding lot of forty acres is all high land, naturally drained. It was
near the obvious building line, and it seemed suitable in every way. I
drew a line from north to south, cutting it in the middle. The east
twenty I devoted to cows and their belongings; the west twenty was
divided by right lines into lots of five acres each, the southwest one for
the hens and the other three for hogs.
Looking around for Polly to show her my work, I found she had
disappeared; but soon I saw her white gown among the trees. Joining
her, I said,--
"I have mapped seven forties; have you finished one?"
"I have not," she said. "Mine is of more importance than all of yours; I
will give you a sketch this evening. This bit of woods is better than I
thought. How much of it do you suppose there is?"
"About seven acres, I reckon, by hook and by crook; enough to amuse
you and furnish a lot of wild-flower seed to be floated over the rest of
the farm."
"You may plant what seeds you like on the rest of the farm, but I must
have wild flowers. Do you know how long it is since I have had them?
Not since I was a girl!"
"That is not very long, Polly. You don't look much more than a girl
to-day. You shall have asters and goldenrod and black-eyed Susans to
your heart's content if you will always be as young."
"I believe Time will turn backward for both of us out here, Mr.
Headman. But I'm as hungry as a wolf. Do you think we can get a glass

of milk of the 'farm lady'?"
We tried, succeeded, and then started for home. Neither of us had much
to say on the return trip, for our minds were full of unsolved problems.
That evening Polly showed me this plat of the home forty.
[Illustration:]
CHAPTER IV
THE HIRED MAN
Modern farming is greatly handicapped by the difficulty of getting
good help. I need not go into the causes which have operated to bring
about this condition; it exists, and it has to be met. I cannot hope to
solve the problem for others, but