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130 -ment. should any new ones be wanted, winter is the best time for purchasing them, for being out of season the shopmen will sell them cheaper. Feed your cattle regularly, and be careful not to give them too much food, for it is more injurious than not quite enough, give your laboring animals time to digest their food before employing them again. They will work the better" By following these and other similar maxims, Jake could always manage to have every thing in the neatest order, at much less cost and trouble than his neighbors, produce larger crops, do more work, and save more money for his employer. I often thought while looking at his handy work or dexterity with the plough. "You want but one thing, Jake, to make you a man, and that is temperance. Would that you could add to your maxims, 'taste not, touch not, handle not the intoxicating bowl,' and follow it as strictly." He was an honest man, however, and hated a thief more than any biped living, and was quite sharp in detecting them. One summer we had an exceedingly fine watermelon field, from which we lost many every night. I informed him of this, and he promised to stop it, bidding me follow him. We went to a tavern, a short distance from our farm, the landlord of which he suspected of being the culprit. We found the landlord behind the bar, and, for an excuse called for something to drink. While drinking, Jake managed to turn the conversation on mellons.