They had seen its blackness, and, plowing down with the spade,
they had tested its depth. They knew that for ages and ages leaf and
bough, falling upon it, had decayed there and increased its fertility,
and so they awaited the test with confidence.
The green young shoots of the wheat, sown before the winter, were the
first to appear, and everyone in Wareville old enough to know the
importance of such a manifestation went forth to examine them. Mr. Ware,
Mr. Upton and Mr. Pennypacker held solemn conclave, and the final
verdict was given by the schoolmaster, as became a man who might not be
so strenuous in practice as the others, but who nevertheless was more
nearly a master of theory.
"The stalks are at least a third heavier than those in Maryland or
Virginia at the same age," he said, "and we can fairly infer from it
that the grain will show the same proportion of increase. I take a third
as a most conservative estimate; it is really nearer a half. Wareville
can, with reason, count upon twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre,
and it is likely to go higher."
It was then no undue sense of elation that Wareville felt, and it was
shared by Henry and Paul, and even young Lucy Upton.
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