Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/112

 Elsewhere it has been told how Samuel Gage, a shiftless farmer, once stopped to talk with Jethro as he was driving by, to ask about Scobee and to proffer sympathy. Incidentally he had mentioned the sad case of Linda Joel and the tiny farm that was falling into ruin because her boy, Enoch, had been lost in the War. The chance reference had made a deep impression upon Jethro. He could not get the picture of those uncultivated fields out of his mind.

One morning he hitched up a team and drove over to Samuel Gage's place which adjoined his farm on the south. He took one of the large Virginia hams with him which it was his custom to buy in quantity direct from Smithfield. His workers had evinced a liking for this delicacy at their breakfasts and Jethro was far from niggardly in the way he treated his help. The best of victuals were none too good for men who worked in the soil. Besides it did not matter much about the cost, for Jethro no longer needed money. He had more than enough for his few simple wants.