FARMING IT 



CHAPTER I 



THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBES 



|ROM my youth I had been designed 

 by my ambitious and autocratic fa- 

 ther for the study of the law. In my 

 secret heart I had rebelled against 

 his desires. He had never given me any reasons 

 which seemed to justify this line of conduct 

 except, as he frequently said, " There was plenty 

 of room at the top." I could not deny it, because 

 at that time I had never been to the top to verify 

 his statement, and since that time I have never 

 succeeded in getting above the overcrowded con- 

 dition of affairs at the bottom. 



So far as I could learn of my ancestry, there 

 had never been any lawyers in the family since 

 the progenitor of that family in remote times 

 had burst upon the New World. Consequently, 

 there was never any heredity that had given me 

 a desire for the study of the law ; in fact, I had 

 always rebelled against any and all study what- 

 soever, however necessary, however desirable. 



