ground well cropped, and, better still, have gained so much
experience?"

"Well," said our friend, "the more 'stock,' as you call it, you have,
the more money you will lose."

At this rejoinder, H. looked at the speaker as if she thought he had
"eaten of the insane root, which takes the reason prisoner."

"_Lose more money_!" when you can yourself see, by looking at this
book, that in our first six months we have cleared $145 29! And,
indeed, it was absurd of A. to put down so little, for she has allowed
$25 for the land; and if she take that off the rent, she ought to
enter it as profit from the "farm." Besides, think of only putting
down a shilling a day for fruit and vegetables! Very few puddings
would the children get at that rate, supposing we were in London."

"If we were in London," interrupted I, "you know that $90 yearly would
be as much as we could afford to expend for that item in our family. I
have made out all our farming accounts as fairly as I can. I am as
well aware as you can be that a shilling a day would not give us the
luxuries of the garden as we now have them; and though that plenty may
form one of the advantages of residing in the country, we have no
right to put down as a saving of money the value of articles we should
never have thought of purchasing."

"I must allow," said Mr. N., "that you appear to have been strictly
honest in your entries as regards the value of the produce you have
received, but you do not appear to have put down your losses. You keep
a one-sided ledger. You have the credit, but not the debit entry. You