"
"I'll look out for one," replied Humphrey, "any how. Alice, if we only
had a cow, wouldn't that be jolly?"
The crops were now all up, and as the days began to be long, the work
became comparatively light and easy. Humphrey was busy making a little
wheelbarrow for Edith, that she might barrow away the weeds as he hoed
them up; and at last this great performance was completed, much to the
admiration of all, and much to his own satisfaction. Indeed, when it
is recollected that Humphrey had only the hand-saw and ax, and that he
had to cut down the tree; and then to saw it into plank, it must be
acknowledged that it required great patience and perseverance even to
make a wheelbarrow; but Humphrey was not only persevering, but was
full of invention. He had built up a hen-house with fir-poles, and
made the nests for the hens to lay and hatch in, and they now had
between forty and fifty chickens running about. He had also divided
the pigsty, so that the sow might be kept apart from the other pigs;
and they expected very soon to have a litter of young pigs. He had
transplanted the wild strawberries from the forest, and had, by
manure, made them large and good; and he had also a fine crop of
onions in the garden, from seed which Jacob had bought at Lymington;
now Humphrey was very busy cutting down some poles in the forest to
make a cow-house, for he declared that he would have a cow somehow or
another.
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