"What is that?" they cried in chorus.

"A crop of boys and girls. You may think that my mind is chiefly on
corn and potatoes. Not at all. It is chiefly on you; and for your
sakes mamma and I decided to go to the country."

At last, in reply to my inquiries and my answers to advertisements,
I received the following letter:--

Maizeville, N.Y. March 1st, '83

Robert Durham, Esq.

Dear Sir

I have a place that will suit you I think. It can be bought at about
the figure you name. Come to see it. I shan't crack it up, but want
you to judge for yourself.

Resp'y John Jones

I had been to see two or three places that had been "cracked up" so
highly that my wife thought it better to close the bargain at once
before some one else secured the prize--and I had come back
disgusted in each instance.

"The soul of wit" was in John Jones's letter. There was also a
downright directness which hit the mark, and I wrote that I would go
to Maizeville in the course of the following week.