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“What?” Almanzo asked

“He said Mother’s butter is the best butter he ever sahere! And he paid her— Guess what he paid her! Fifty—cents—a—pound!”

Almanzo was amazed He had never heard of such a price for butter

“She had five hundred pounds!” Alice said “That’s two hundred and fifty dollars! He paid her all that ht now, to take it to the bank”

In a little while Mother drove away, in her second-best bonnet and her black bo to town in the afternoon, on a week-day in harvest-ti before But Father was busy in the fields, and she would not keep all that ht

Almanzo was proud His mother was probably the best butter-maker in the whole of New York State People in New York City would eat it, and say to one another how good it was, and wonder who made it

Chapter 20

Late Harvest

Now the harvest ht, and there was a frosty chill in the air All the corn was cut and stood in tall shocks The round where the pumpkins lay naked above their withered leaves

Almanzo’s milk-fed pumpkin was enormous He cut it carefully from the vine, but he could not lift it; he could not even roll it over Father lifted it into the wagon and carefully hauled it to the barn and laid it on some hay to wait till County Fair time

All the other pumpkins Almanzo rolled into piles, and Father hauled them to the barn The best ones were put in the cellar to make pumpkin pies, and the rest were piled on the South-Barn Floor Every night Almanzo cut up some of them with a hatchet, and fed them to the cows and calves and oxen

The apples were ripe Alainst the trees, and climbed into the leafy tops They picked every perfect apple carefully, and laid it in a basket Father drove the wagonful of baskets slowly to the house, and Almanzo helped carry the baskets down cellar and lay the apples carefully in the apple-bins They didn’t bruise one apple, for a bruised apple will rot, and one rotten apple will spoil a whole bin

The cellar began to have its winter smell of apples and preserves Mother’scaain

After the perfect apples had all been picked, Almanzo and Royal could shake the trees That was fun They shook the trees with all theirdown like hail They picked theon; they were only cider-apples Almanzo took a bite out of one whenever he wanted to

Noas tiarden-stuff Father hauled the apples away to the cider- beets and turnips and parsnips and carrying them down cellar He pulled the onions and Alice braided their dry tops in long braids The round onions hung thick on both sides of the braids, and Mother hung them in the attic Almanzo pulled the pepper-plants, while Alice threaded her darning-needle and strung red peppers like beads on a string They were hung up beside the onions