would be easy to see! It was around Hedgeville. Why, on a farm, the work
never is done. It's work all day, and then get up before daylight to
start again. And even Paw Hoover, who had a good farm, was always saying
how poor he was, and how he wished he could make more money."

"I'll bet he was always buying new land, though," said Eleanor, looking
wise.

"Yes, he was," admitted Bessie. "He always said that if he could get
enough land he'd be rich."

"He probably had too much as it was, Bessie. The trouble with most
farmers is that they don't know how to use the land they have, instead
of that they haven't enough. They don't treat the soil right, and they
won't spend money for good farm machinery and for rich fertilizers. If
they did that, and studied farming, the way men study to be doctors or
lawyers, they'd be better off. How many acres did Paw Hoover have? Well,
it doesn't matter, but I'll bet that my father gets more out of one acre
on his farm than Paw Hoover does out of two on his. You see, the man
who's in charge of the farm went to college to study the business, and
he knows all sorts of things that make a farm pay better."

"Paw Hoover was talking about that once, saying he wished he could send
Jake to college to study farming. But Maw laughed at him, and Jake
couldn't have gone, anyhow. He was so stupid that he never even got
through school there in Hedgeville."

"I suppose he is stupid," said Eleanor. "But after all, Bessie, when a
boy doesn't get along well in school it doesn't always mean that it's
his fault. He may not be properly taught. Sometimes it's the school's