32 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



and he would be in possession of the farm, 

 under a perfectly good contract, for the next 

 seven or eight months. We had to negotiate 

 with him for the privilege of coming upon the 

 land to live in the meantime. 



We discovered at once that we weren't go- 

 ing to be riotously fond of this tenant. He 

 was very fussy, very jealous of those rights of 

 his. He grudged the permission he gave us to 

 pitch camp in the thicket down between the 

 empty granary and the big spring. That was 

 the only available spot, and we took it. It 

 really suited us first-rate. 



We got into town in the early morning of 

 that May day. By noon we had secured a big 

 tent and had bought camp tools and supplies 

 laundry soap, and rope, and salt, and 

 matches, and an ax, and some canned toma- 

 toes, and a bottle of witch-hazel, and coffee, 

 and oilcloth, and flour, and a couple of water 

 buckets, and baking powder a wagon-load of 

 truck. Right after dinner we went out with 

 this stuff. By the middle of the afternoon we 

 had the tent set up and our beds laid out for 

 night. I brought wood and water then, and at 

 sunset we had our supper, holding our plates 



