THE EXPECTATION OF PLENTY 39 



very brink of the roasting pan; we had plenty other 

 kinds of meat, yet a duck a week for eight weeks 

 would still be a pleasing variety. But if all Med- 

 lock Farm had been gambled on ducks and we 

 had lost two-thirds of them on the way to market- 

 that would have been big trouble; we should have 

 had nothing but a diminished number of dollars 

 to trade for other kinds of food. God rewards the 

 diversifier with "great commodity." Each season 

 brings its unexpected bounty, its unanticipated 

 bumper crop. "The expectation of plenty" is the 

 normal viewpoint for those who practice farming 

 for use. 



So, with revised ideas of what we should, must, 

 or can eat; with a sane concept of the value of 

 labor, and an intelligent determination not to let 

 failure get us down, we are finally in proper frame 

 of mind to draft a plan. 



