PEEP AT OUR NEIGHBORS. 95

would have done much better, if he had
taken pains to drill himself before he
undertook to drill his men.

He was a farmer. He had a pretty
good farm, for Willow Lane. But he
was always behind hand in his work.
He did not get to ploughing in the
spring, until most of his neighbors had
done. To be sure, he had excuses for
his delay, a plenty of them. He was
never in want of excuses. When he
came to harvest his corn, and rye, and
potatoes, of course he found that his
crops had not turned out so well as they
would have done, if his affairs had been
managed correctly. The fact is, he was