18 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



cal" one. She isn't a bit more practical than 

 I am, if you get right down to it; but never 

 mind that now. The point is that she laughed. 

 No doubt it did sound funny. 



"All right!" I said. "But we're going to 

 build that house, just the way it lies there, be- 

 fore the end of this year. We're going to 

 spend next Christmas in that very identical 

 house." 



"Why, old man!" Laura chided. She 

 thought I was fooling. We had never got into 

 the way of joking about that home of ours; 

 we'd as soon have jested about an ailing child. 

 By and by, when I kept on nagging, she knew 

 she'd have to deal with me. 



"Why, how are we possibly going to do it?" 

 she asked. That's the sort of question that 

 some people call "practical." 



"I don't know," I said; "but we're going to 

 start right off now and find out. We can't do 

 it here ; that's true enough. It isn't a town-lot 

 proposition. A suburban acre or two won't 

 do. We must have lots of land. That home 

 is going to need a big farm to go with it. It's 

 going to be an old-fashioned homestead sort of 

 thing. I guess we're agreed on that. Well, 



