THE CANTALOUPE COAXER Every spring at the old farm we used to put in a row of hills for cantaloupes and another for watermelons.

But, truth to say, our planting melons, like our efforts to raise peaches and grapes, was always more or less of a joke, for frosts usually killed the vines before the melons were half grown.

Nevertheless, spring always filled us with fresh hope that the summer would prove warm, and that frosts would hold off until October.

But we never really raised a melon fit for the table until the old Squire and Addison invented the "haymaker." To make hay properly we thought we needed two successive days of sun.
When rain falls nearly every day haying comes to a standstill, for if the mown grass is left in the field it blackens and rots; if it is drawn to the barn, it turns musty in the mow.

Usually the sun does its duty, but once in a while there comes a summer in Maine when there is so much wet weather that it is nearly impossible to harvest the hay crop.