146 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



about in that goat business; but my real pur- 

 pose in referring to it is to point what it 

 taught us. 



We bought our goats in the hope that we had 

 found a short cut through a difficulty. First 

 and last, the short cut has cost more in time and 

 labor and money than we'd have spent in gain- 

 ing the end by plain every-day hard work. I 

 don't want to try drawing an infallible con- 

 clusion for others to go by ; but that's the way 

 we've been served every time we've essayed a 

 short cut. We've just about made up our 

 minds that successful short cuts in farming are 

 a good deal like royal roads to learning: 

 There aren't any. We've had thirty goats 

 working for four years on a few acres of hill- 

 side brush patch ; and this spring we're paying 

 men to go over the land and clear up after the 

 goats paying as much as a good job with ax 

 and grubbing-hoe would have cost in the first 

 place. We've lost four years' use of the land 

 as pasture, and we've spent unreckoned time 

 worrying with the fences and the goats. 



We had only wethers, as I've told you. 

 That's contrary to the policy we've settled 

 upon for the farm; excepting the mules we've 

 really needed for the hardest work on the new 



