310 HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 



ers, though we had done no better at crop- 

 growing than the poor tenant before us. The 

 abundance of the fields is good, and we're very 

 thankful that it has come to us; but if it had 

 been withheld we shouldn't be bankrupt in con- 

 tent if only life were given us here in the hills. 

 It's a feeling that seems to belong to this per- 

 fect setting, regardless of all the minor cir- 

 cumstances. Just to look out into the soft 

 glory of a misty morning; just to see life astir 

 at the height of a fervid summer noontime; 

 just to draw close about the kindly hearth-fire 

 on a blustery winter evening; just to feel the 

 good earth under us and the deep sky over us 

 and the sheltering hills round about us that's 

 enough. 



Though we've fared so much better than she 

 in the circumstances of life, Jake's poor old 

 mother knows as well as we do what this feel- 

 ing is. Yes, she knows it better, for it hasn't 

 been tangled up in her heart with so many 

 other feelings. 



Early one Sunday morning we went up the 

 mountainside to make her a little visit. Her 

 cabin was very bare. On the table was a bit of 

 the cold cornbread she had made her breakfast 

 upon, and on the back of a rusted sheetiron 



