64 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



rained and rained. After a week or so it be- 

 came just the least bit in the world monotonous 

 to sit up all night with umbrellas over our 

 heads to keep off the drip of the leaky roof- 

 and monotony, you know, grows tiresome by 

 and by. You can stand for a lot of disagree- 

 able things if there's the tang of variety in 

 them; but when that's gone they become flat 

 and stale and unprofitable. We began to 

 hanker for a tight roof over us and a dry bed. 

 We weren't yet ready to figure on the big 

 house; but we built the henhouse and moved 

 into that for a while. It was well made, roomy, 

 screened, and comfortable a sight better than 

 any of the homes on the farms surrounding us. 

 We got leave of our tenant to build this house 

 on the knoll where our real home would stand 

 after a while, if we wouldn't let it lap over on 

 his cleared land. We had to hack out a place 

 for it in the heart of the thicket. I did that 

 myself, working with brush-hook and ax, and 

 then Lee and I did the carpentering. Neither 

 of us knew beans about framing a building, but 

 we got along. It beats all what you'll think 

 you can't do till you try. Since that time I've 

 done all sorts of things around the farm, from 

 well-digging to practicing obstetrics in the pig 



