148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



from my face while resting my aching back, 

 thoughts something like these came to me : " Rob- 

 erts, you are in the right place for you have not 

 yet skill nor money to enter into a wider life; but 

 someday you will climb out of this ditch and stay 

 out, and leave digging for some other young fellow 

 to learn what a day's manual labor really means. 

 He who would intelligently direct must first have 

 learned how to serve." 



I had begun to feel that somehow I must get 

 clear of this exacting muscular labor, but eighty 

 acres of arable land could not be made to support 

 a mere planner and pay laborers at the same time 

 to do the heavy work. The farm was like the 

 turkey of the man from Missouri too large for 

 one and not quite enough for two. Animal in- 

 dustry, I knew by experience, was profitable and it 

 was beginning to dawn on my awakening mind, 

 that through livestock, the productivity of the land 

 could be maintained, even increased, and a good 

 profit secured. In this I saw a surcease from too 

 exacting toil and a possibility of making myself 

 worthy to be the representative of my neighbors 

 in some honorable position at the State Capitol. 

 I wonder how many other ambitious young men 

 have caught that political bee in their bonnets, who 



