WILKES was at the side gate to meet Adelaide and Percy, and the
grandmother stood at the door as they reached the veranda.

"Lucky for us you got back before the Thanksgiving scraps are all
gone," she said to Percy, "but I suppose even our Thanksgiving fare
will be poor picking after you've been living in Washington and
Boston."

"Even the Thanksgiving dinner on the boat was not equal to this,"
said Percy, as they sat down to the table loaded with such an
abundance of good things as is rarely seen except on the farmer's
table. The "scraps," if such there were, had no appearance of being
left-overs, and there was monster turkey, browned to perfection and
sizzling hot, placed before Mr. West ready for the carving knife.

Percy had opened the letter from the chemist, but said to Mr. West
that it would take him an hour or more to compute the results to the
form of the actual elements and reduce them to pounds per acre in
order to make possible a direct comparison between the requirements
of crops, on the one hand, and the invoice of the soil and
application of plant food in manure and fertilizers, on the other
hand.

"Please let me help you make the computations," said Adelaide, much
to the surprise of her parents, who knew that she took no interest
in affairs pertaining to farming. "I like mathematics and will