INS AND OUTS OF THE MATTER 341 



night, as of course she must return to be near the 

 Infant. 



As she sat there she pictured for the hundredth 

 time how she would invest her little capital and re- 

 arrange her life, if Amos consented to sell her the farm, 

 how best to restore the home without elaborating 

 the care of it, and take one or two people to live with 

 her who had been ill or needed rest in cheerful sur- 

 roundings. Not always the same two, for that is para- 

 lyzing after a time when the freshness of energetic 

 influence wears off; but her experience among her 

 friends told her that in a city's social life there was an 

 endless supply of overwrought nerves and bodies. 



The having a home was the motive, the guests the 

 necessity. Then she closed her eyes again and saw 

 the upper portion of the rich meadow land that had 

 lain fallow so long turned into a flower farm wherein 

 she would raise blossoms for a well-known city dealer 

 who had, owing to his artistic skill, a market for his 

 wares and decorative skill in all the cities of the eastern 

 coast. She had consulted him and he approved her 

 plan. 



The meadow was so sheltered that it would easily 

 have a two weeks' lead over the surrounding country, 

 and the desirability of her crop should lie in its 



