The Brown Family in California 



By JASON BROWN 

 CHAPTER ELEVEN 



IN WHICH WE ADD A YEAR'S RESULTS 



ARK indeed is the Valley of Death 

 to those who fear their dear ones 

 treading toward it, and yet have in 

 their power no ability to rescue. 

 How bright is life when we are 

 able, by God's mercy, to lighten 

 those gloomy shadows and turn ill- 

 ness into health! 



So thought I, as on the New 

 Year's eve, I watched the long purplish shadows 

 which the dying sun cast forth from the distant 

 foothills until they trembled, palpitated, wavered 

 and, at last deepened into twilight. Then came 

 darkness burying like Death itself all things from 

 man. 



"Law, Jason," cried my wife, bustling cheerily 

 upon the veranda, "you sitting out here alone! I 

 wondered where you were. What do you think; 

 my young chicks are coming out of the brooder 

 fine and dandy. I'll have the first spring frys on 

 the market." 



"Chickens never had a better mother," I said, 

 looking into her glowing face, radiant with 

 health. "Do you know, wife, as I've been sitting 

 out here, I've been taking stock of our first year 

 in California — adding up our credits and our 

 debits. The greatest item on our credit sheet is 

 your return to strength." 



"Yes, isn't mamma looking well," assented 

 Ethel. "Mrs. Simpson says she is younger than 

 I am." 



"And so I am, you minx," cried my wife, hap- 

 pily. "It's all because good old Doctor Cunning- 

 ham read that advertisement of the California 

 Promotion Committee and sent us Browns out 

 here to California." 



"Gracious, here comes William Simpson and 

 his wife." 



"Here's a New Englander," cried the jovial 

 Simpson, "who not only has not put all his eggs 

 in one basket, but has put the different eggs into 

 the right baskets. 



"Let's take an inventory, Jason, and see what 

 your first year in California has brought you." 



"Well," I said, "I bought twenty acres of good 

 agricultural land, at one hundred dollars an acre. 

 That alone cost me two thousand dollars. I could 

 have secured good agricultural land, but not quite 

 so near the railroad, for from thirty-five to fifty 

 dollars an acre." 



"Good," said Simpson, "and the best thing you 

 did was to put all your land under cultivation." 



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