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WHEN THE CANNON WENT OFF
97

"We have some, but not as grand as these!" And her face showed her satisfaction.

"It's great to have you girls here!" declared Sam. "What a jolly family we would be if we all lived together!"

"Oh, what an idea!" cried Grace, but she smiled even as she spoke.

Of course the boys had to show the girls all over the farm, and Uncle Randolph took the ladies around, showing them the big barns and the cattle, the chickens, the horses, the pigs, and the orchards, and broad fields of corn, wheat, and other products. Then they came back to look at the neat vegetable garden, and Mrs. Rover's flower plots, and also at the bees.

"I hope for great things from my bees," announced Randolph Rover. "I have taken up the study of them with care, and I think I can produce a variety that will give us extra fine clover honey."

"I thought you had your bees all in one place, Uncle Randolph," said Dick, as he noticed a hive set apart from the others.

"That is a new family I bought last week," was the explanation. "I am keeping them apart for the purpose of studying them. But they are rather wild as yet, and I do not dare to disturb them very much."