CHAPTER II. 



THE COMMENCEMENT OF OPERATIONS. 



The farm is bought, cheaply because it is in a badly run-down 

 condition, but it is only the middle of September, vid there is 

 time enough yet to do a good deal in the way of improvement 

 before winter sets in. 



The house is pretty good, — a little painting and lime-washing 

 and paper-hanging, will make it cosy enough for a commencement, 

 and it can be patched up so that it will be a snug house, until 

 there is money to make it better. There is too much demand for 

 money on the farm for much to be spent for ornament now. 



On the whole, it is not a bad purchase : seventy-five acres of 

 land, — fifty cleared and twenty-five in wood, — two miles from a 

 busy town which gets two-thirds of its food from the West, and 

 most of its butter from the city markets, and which affords a good 

 supply of stable manure. Our end of the town stretches out in 

 a sort of village which has a nice-looking school-house, hardly 

 more than a mile from us. The neighborhood immediately about 

 is good, and the place looks home-like, if the house is an old one. 

 On this score, our young man is quite satisfied, but he has plenty 

 of hard work ahead, a heavy mortgage on his farm, and barely 

 capital enough to work his way to prosperity. It will take a 

 stout heart, a strong arm, and a clear head to bring him 

 through, but it can be done, and I have placed him in this 

 position because his is the lot of most men who marry young and 

 start in life as farmers. 



His course must be marked by the most patient industry, but 

 the industry must not be all of the body. Farmers who have 



