HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 15 



lived at Omaha in those days. To make the 

 barest beginning on that home of ours up there 

 would have taken a small fortune. We had no 

 fortune, and there was no chance of our ever 

 getting one. Laura knew that as well as I 

 did. I don't know why that didn't make us 

 disgruntled or melancholy; but it didn't. 

 Eighteen years is a long time to wait for the 

 thing you want, as we wanted that home. 



It was worth waiting for. Fulfillment of 

 great desire is always worth waiting for. We 

 have found fulfillment of our desire. 



As I'm putting these words on paper, it's 

 midnight. Excepting the lamp on my desk, 

 lights are out in the house. Laura and the 

 children went to bed an hour ago. It's early 

 May, but the nights are still cool here. I 

 built up a fire at sunset; a fire of oak and 

 hickory logs banked against a big blackjack 

 backlog. After supper we sat around the 

 hearth, and I held little Peggy on my lap and 

 read to her out of the Jungle Books until she 

 grew drowsy. After that, Laura and I sat 

 together for an hour or so, not talking much, 

 but looking into the red flare and flicker of the 

 flames, thinking. By and by she told me 



