98 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



following these improvements gave a greater 

 profit than we could possibly have secured on 

 any other sound investment. Every dollar we 

 put in was doubling itself. We had nothing 

 to worry about on that score. Our one care 

 was to plan this field work so as to have it in- 

 telligent, and so as to keep within the sum we 

 felt free to use in that way. I've touched upon 

 this point before; I refer to it again because 

 of its bearing upon our summing up of things 

 at this time. Our field work in the first year 

 or two wasn't chargeable to expense, as on a 

 "going" farm. The crops we got in those 

 years would suffice to feed our work team at 

 least ; so we would "break even" there. I think 

 we could have induced even the fussiest of 

 bookkeepers to see the matter so. 



Our table living was costing us nothing at 

 all, even at that stage. That's literally true. 

 In town our outlay for groceries and meat had 

 been about $600 a year, and we were getting 

 no more than any townsman gets for his money 

 stuff that at its best was only fair-to-mid- 

 dling. At the end of our first year of work, 

 when Laura balanced her housekeeping ac- 

 counts, she dared me to guess what we had 

 spent in that year for table supplies. It 



