cap found--A drink of buttermilk--Oscar's opinion of it--Jerry's love for
it--Another delay--Feeding the fowls--A mysterious letter--The Shanghae
rooster's complaint--Curiosity excited--The suspected author--Clinton's
education--Keeping dark about the letter--Who Clinton was--Where
he lived--Killing caterpillars--How caterpillars breed--The young
turkeys--The brood of chickens--The hen-coop--Clinton's management of
the poultry--His profits--Success the result of effort, not of luck--The
"rooster's letter" not alluded to--The piggery--The barn--"The horse's
prayer"--A new-comer--Her name--A discovery--Relationship of Clinton to
Whistler--Mrs. Davenport--Oscar conceals his dislike of Whistler--The
shop--Specimens of Clinton's work--Going home.


CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LETTER.

A forgotten duty called to mind--Letter writing--A mysterious
allusion--The private room--No backing out--Making a beginning--Getting
stuck--Idling away time--Prying into letters--A commotion among the
swallows--Teaching the young ones how to fly--A good lesson lost--Mary
and her book--Her talk about the pictures--A pretty picture--A wasted
hour--Making another attempt--His success--Effects of being in earnest--A
copy of Oscar's letter--Emily's inquisitiveness--A rebuke--The message
she wanted to send--The meadow lot--Mulching for trees--Going to the old
wood lot--Cutting birch twigs-Forgetting to be lazy--The load--A ride to
the Cross-Roads--Mailing the letter--Paying the postage in advance.


CHAPTER XIX.