Ill 



You mustn't get it into your mind that our 

 intentions weren't serious as to actual practical 

 farming at Happy Hollow. There are spots 

 in what I've written that might lead you to 

 mistake us for a happy-go-lucky pair of ama- 

 teurs, interested mainly in doing some artistic 

 tricks on our land, but not deeply concerned 

 over the matter of turning the land into a suc- 

 cessful, profit-making farm. I haven't been 

 dwelling much upon that part of the proposi- 

 tion. 



Our first desire was to make our ideal home 

 at Happy Hollow; but we were bent also upon 

 making a real farm. To put it bluntly, we had 

 to make our acres do something for us, in a 

 substantial way, or we couldn't afford to keep 

 them for very long. Running a farm that 

 doesn't pay, just for the fun of it, is pretty 

 expensive sport. If there's a balance on the 

 right side at the year's end, though it's only a 

 little, the farmer may hang on hopefully; but 



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