One of them was a shaggy old orchard of good and thriving but utterly neglected apple-trees.
"Man alive," I said, when we went out to see it in the morning, "you've got a gold mine here!" And I told him how in our neighbourhood we were renovating the old orchards, pruning them back, spraying, and bringing them into bearing again.
He had never, since he owned the place, had a salable crop of fruit.
When we came in to breakfast I quite stirred the practical Mrs.Clark with my enthusiasm, and she promised at once to send for a bulletin on apple-tree renovation, published by the state experiment station.

I am sure I was no more earnest in my advice than the conditions warranted.
After breakfast we went into the field, and I suggested that instead of ploughing any more land--for the season was already late--we get out all the accumulations of rotted manure from around the barn and strew it on the land already ploughed and harrow it in.
"A good job on a little piece of land," I said, "is far more profitable than a poor job on a big piece of land." Without more ado we got his old team hitched up and began loading, and hauling out the manure, and spent all day long at it.

Indeed, such was the height of enthusiasm which T.N.Clark now reached (for his was a temperament that must either soar in the clouds or grovel in the mire), that he did not wish to stop when Mrs.Clark called us in to supper.

In that one day his crop of corn, in perspective, overflowed his crib, he could not find boxes and barrels for his apples, his shed would not hold all his tobacco, and his barn was already being enlarged to accommodate a couple more cows! He was also keeping bees and growing ginseng.
But it was fine, that evening, to see Mrs.Clark's face, the renewed hope and courage in it.

I thought as I looked at her (for she was the strong and steady one in that house): "If you can keep the enthusiasm up, if you can make that husband of yours grow corn, and cows, and apples as you raise chickens and make garden, there is victory yet in this valley." That night it rained, but in spite of the moist earth we spent almost all of the following day hard at work in the field, and all the time talking over ways and means for the future, but the next morning, early, I swung my bag on my back and left them.
I shall not attempt to describe the friendliness of our parting.