Then Hal bought, for a trifle, a lot of old butter-tubs and firkins that Mr. Terry was not sorry to be rid of. He sawed them down just the height he wanted; and they made very good flower-pots for some of the larger plants. They were so beautiful, that it would be a shame to leave them out to perish in the cold blasts.
"And somehow they seem just like children to me," he said, his brown eyes suffused with tenderness.
On the last Saturday he cast up his accounts, and took a small inventory.
"We shall have potatoes and vegetables for winter; and we have a barrel of flour, and a hundred of meal, besides lots of corn for the chickens; then my salary will be a little more than thirty-six dollars a month, counting eleven months; and fifty dollars for our poultry."
"Why, we'll be as rich as kings!" was Granny's delighted reply. "You're a wonderful boy, Hal!"
"And if I could sell some flowers! Anyhow, there will be the spring things. It does look a little like prosperity, Granny."
"I'm so thankful!" and Granny twisted up her apron in pure gratitude.
"Charlie had better go to school again. I wish she could learn to be a teacher; for she never will like to sew."
"No," replied Granny, with a solemn shake of the head.
"And she is getting to be such a large girl! Well, I suppose something will come. It has to all of us."