BENNIE’S SWEET POTATOES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XXV, 19 December 1896, Page 215

BENNIE’S SWEET POTATOES.

The little farm on which Bennie lived with his mamma and sister Bessie did not look well that summer.

‘ It is all going to rack and ruin,’ sighed Mrs Hudson, Bennie’s mamma, when she looked at the neglected fields.

Bennie’s papa had died in the autumn, and there had been no money to hire help. Bennie had felt very sorry because they could plant no sweet potatoes. He was very fond of them, and besides he had helped his papa so much with them the year before he felt that he knew all about them. He watched Mr Leonard put in two acres with a great deal of interest and some envy. Mr Leonard was the new school teacher, a young man who was not very well, and did a little farming outside of school hours for the sake of his health. His tract of land was between Bennie’shome and theschool-bouse, so Bennie often had an opportunity to watch him at work. The other farmers all called Mr Leonard a bookfarmer ; he had never lived on a farm, and all he knew about it was what he learned from books. Sometimes he made funny mistakes, but he always laughed and said he did not care because he was getting so well and strong. One Saturday Bennie walked over to the fence and looked through at the sweet potato patch ; he had been watching the green vines creeping over the sandy ridges all summer, and he thought they were about ready to dig-

it seemed Mr Leonard thought so. too, jorhe was busy, down on his hands and knees, and had already made considerable progress, being half through with the patch. But Bennie perched himself upon the fence and looked at him in wide-eyed wonder, for Mr Leonard used no spade or pitchfork, but taking hold of the vines with his bands he pulled them up as though they were radishes or turnips. Now Bennie knew that he left the largest and best ones in the ground this way, but he thought that such a wise young man as the school teacher must surely know it, too. He wanted to say something about it, but he was a very bashful little boy, and when he tried to speak it seemed very hard work.

He cleared his throat once or twice, and Mr Leonard looked up and said, ‘Good morning, Bennie,'then pulled away at the vines faster than ever. ‘ Perhaps he means to dig over the field again,’ thought Bennie, and as mamma called him to dinner then, he went away and did not say anything. But in the afternoon he came back, and watched Mr Leonard finish pulling the vines. ‘ Now then I am through—all but gathering them up,’ said he, looking at Bennie, who was on top of the fence.

Bennie turned red under his freckles, but he managed to say : ‘ Why-ee, Mr Leonard ? the best potates are all in the ground yet.’

‘ Oh, no, Bennie !’ laughed Mr Leonard, ‘ I pulled them all up.’ • But the biggest ones are in the ground,’ said Bennie, although he did not like to dispute with his teacher. ‘Nonsense. Bennie!’ said Mr Leonard; then, as he noticed the earnest little face, he said, ‘Come and see if you can find any in the ground. I'll give you every one you find, my little man !’

‘O Mr Leonard!’ cried Bennie. Then he jumped down from the fence and went to digging like a little beaver in the first hole he came to. Soon he uncovered and laid before his astonished teacher three large, smooth-skinned, yellow potatoes. ‘ Why-ee, Bennie !’ said Mr Leonard. Then he laughed aloud. ‘ You are a better farmer than I, —run home and get a sack, —I said you could have all you found in the ground.’

Bennie ran home. ‘O, mamma!’ he said, ‘let me have a big sack, quick, and let Bessie come too,’ and then he told her all about it.’

Mamma gave him the sack, and Bessie ran off by his side. They dug all the afternoon and until after sundown. What a lot there were! Why, they had more than Mr Leonard !

‘ You will have to run home and get more sacks, Bennie,’ said he. ‘ Oh, no ! I don’t want but one sack jI do not think it would be fair to take them all. You did not know how many there were,' answered Bennie. At last he consented to take half the potatoes, and Mr Leonard helped him carry them home. ‘ If I farm next year I am going to take Bennie for my partner,’ he told Mrs Hudson. And Bennie and Bessie had sweet potatoes for their supper. Kittie Frisbee Harbaugh,