Description

These stories are, in the main, recollections of a childhood spent on a northwestern farm, They aim to emphasize the attractiveness of life in the country and to add to its charm by awakening an intelligent interest in its many activities. The order of the stories is governed partly by the sequence of seasons at which the various industries can be best observed, and partly by the logical relation of these industries to one another. Thus We have early in the book stories of a wheat field and of the planting of corn, followed later by descriptions of harvesting, stacking and thrashing, the buying and selling of Wheat, its storage, and the grinding of wheat into flour. The stories relating to lumber, coal, and iron, and the industries to which they give rise, are scattered among the farm stories to lend variety to the themes and to give the reader a broader view of industrial life. The stories of animals are true stories of actual occurrences.