"Gowdy," reflected Melissa; "haven't I heard that name before?" "It didn't seem altogether new, somehow," acknowledged Jared. But neither of them immediately associated this name with the authorship of _Onward and Upward._ They laid no more stress on the title-page of a book than you, dear reader, lay on the identity of the restaurant cook that gets up your dinner. "It seemed all right enough," said Jared, reverting to the frame. "Why, yes," assented Melissa. "I don't see what could have been more appropriate." "Well, you watch me," said Jared, "and I'll get up something equally as good." For this choice collocation of words he was indebted to a political editorial in the county weekly. Next morning he was strolling along the roadway, carefully scrutinizing a stretch of dilapidated fence. "What you up to, Jared?" inquired Uncle Nathan Hoskins, who happened to be driving past. The fresh morning air had a tonic effect upon Uncle Nathan; he showed himself disposed to be sprightly and facetious. "Lookin' after my fences," said Jared shortly. "'Bout time, ain't it?--he, he!" continued Uncle Nathan. "Just about," assented Jared. "Might 'a' begun a little sooner, mebbe," proceeded Uncle Nathan, running his eye over several rods of flat, four-inch stuff, weather-worn and lichen-stained, that sagged and wobbled along the road-side. "So far gone ye hardly know where to begin, eh?" "Where would _you_ begin?" "Well, that len'th right in front of you has got a little more moss on it than 'most any of the others." "All right; I'll begin here," returned Jared. He struggled up through the tangled growth of smartweed and bittersweet, tore a length of lichened boarding from the swaying posts, and walked down the road with it. Here at last was a suitable setting for the Squash. V Yes, _the_ Squash, before which all other squashes were to pale. It was to be his best and biggest work, and worthy of the post he designed it to take at the next Exhibition of Western Artists. He enlarged its scope so as to take in a good part of the barn's interior; he boldly added a shovel--an implement that he had never attempted before; and he put in not only bins, but barrels--chancing a faulty perspective in the hoops. All these things formed a repellent background of chill gray-blue, but they brought out the Squash. It shone. Yes, it shone like a beacon-light calling the weary and sophisticate town-dwellers back to the peace and simplicity of country life. And it was inclosed by four neatly mortised lengths of fencing, lichened and silvered by a half-century, it may be, of weather taken as it was sent. Furthermore, the abundance of simulated seeds developed by his bold halving of his model was re-enforced by a few real seeds pasted upon the lower part of the frame. "If all that don't fetch 'em," said Jared, "what will?"