It was Sunday, and after the chores were finished, Bob walked down back of the barn and stood looking at the pond for quite a while, pondering over what the banker and insurance man had said. Then he walked over to the west slope which ran along the side of the small hill where the house and barn stood and examined the contour of the ground carefully. "What are you trying to discover in the hog lot, Bob?" asked his uncle, suddenly coming up behind him. Bob's face was very serious, and he looked up at his uncle a moment before replying. "I was just wondering how much it would cost to hire a man to grade a road up the side of this slope and get rid of the steep hill in front of the barn." "What an idea!" exclaimed his uncle. "Hire a man, indeed! You must be crazy. We don't hire any men to work on this farm." "Oh, yes, you do--you hired me, Uncle Joe." "Well, but that's different, Bob," said his uncle, half smiling. "You don't get paid." "Oh, yes, I do, Uncle Joe. Father said you told him you'd pay me whatever I was worth to you, and I'm willing to wait till you find out, but I certainly expect to be paid money for my work." "Your father shouldn't have told you I'd give you money. Of course," he added quickly, seeing Bob's face cloud, "I expect to get you some new clothes in the fall." "But father said I'm old enough now to buy my own clothes and that this year he'd let me do it. You just keep account of how much work and other things I do for you and pay me what I'm worth," Bob answered. "What do you mean about other things?" asked his uncle quickly. "Well, for instance," said Bob, looking him squarely in the eyes, "you want to borrow a thousand dollars at the First National Bank and they haven't told you whether they'd give it to you or not." "Who told you that?" demanded his uncle coloring. "I don't care to say," replied Bob, "but it wasn't grandmother or grandfather," he added quickly, to clear them of any suspicion of having violated a confidence. "Of course, they didn't," said his uncle. "They don't know anything about it." "I can tell you how you can get all the money you want--enough even to build a new house and a new barn, with silos, new fences, and other buildings. Also a concrete road from the house to the main road and put a bathroom and electric lights in the house, too," Bob added. "Have you gone crazy?" demanded his uncle, scarcely able to believe his ears. "What nonsense are you talking this morning?" "Well, you want to find out how it can be done, don't you?" he asked. "Well, it won't do any harm to tell me," replied his uncle, suddenly remembering his approaching marriage and how far his slender purse would go toward fixing up the place and making it presentable to his bride. "Drain the pond and plant it in corn," said Bob triumphantly. "What's that?" asked his uncle again, not sure he heard correctly.