"I suppose not."
"And we shall be killing two birds with one stone—getting cheap drainage and likewise wiping out a very ugly spot right across the road from your new house."
"That is so. And you are getting the timbers cheap enough, if they are any good. I wouldn't have had the heart to offer Miss Pringle such a price."
"It is more than anybody else would have given her," Hiram declared, smiling. "And it is worth all you are paying for it to have those unsightly sticks chopped down."
"Guess you are right, Hiram."
"The logs will serve the purpose we want them for very well indeed. We'll lay two in the bottom of the ditch, six inches or so apart, and a third log on top to cover the aperture. Earth packed down upon them will soon form a firm culvert into which all the superfluous water will drain.
"I'll put a man into Miss Pringle's patch with an axe and soon knock down everything that is standing. The whole patch will be covered with green by midsummer."
"Smart boy, Hiram!" exclaimed Mr. Bronson. "Will you snake the logs right across the road into the wheat field?"
"As soon as the ditches are begun and you send up that pair of Percherons you promised me. I can't do that work with Jerry."
"You shall have the Percherons in a few days. They are a well mated pair and young. By the way, your disc-plow, harrow, check-row planter, and the mowing machine are on the siding at Pringleton. I'll send a truck over for them tomorrow. We don't want any demurrage charges piling up on us."