What the Farm Was. 21 



grain and brought over to him to feed them, and often came my- 

 self and tried to have the cows well cared for, but when spring 

 came three of them died, in spite of all the tail-splitting and salt 

 and peppering, horn boring, lifting with bags, etc., etc., that we 

 and the neighbors could do. Oh, how awful! They died of 

 starvation and neglect that they had during the winter, and 

 $150 of a poor boy's capital was gone, and he found he was 

 cheated on the cows as well as the farm trade. I took the ten 

 cows at $500. When I was feeling somewhat blue over the dead 

 cows, a good neighbor, Mr. Edward McCauley, just to cheer me 

 up, I suppose, to show me that I might have had worse "luck," 

 said: "You got off pretty easy. Why I have helped them 

 skin as many as seven cows out of ten in a single spring on 

 that farm." But let us turn from this terrible picture of 

 suffering for man and beast, for with such treatment of ani- 

 mals, the beings depending for their living on them could 

 hardly suffer much less let us turn from it and take a look 

 at the buildings and fences. The house was about 24 by 28, 

 without counting the half-rotted down wings which we tore 

 down at once. It was a story and a half high, had 7 by 9 

 glass in windows where there was any paint worn off mostly 

 down to the original red priming, loose boards hanging down 

 here and there, fire-places for big logs, and a brick oven with 

 great chimneys to match, a roof that shed water nicely in 

 dry weather, but had to have all the spare milk pans set around 

 under it the first time it rained, and hundreds of rats in the par- 

 titions and cellar and out in the rooms when they chose to come. 

 I never got them in line and counted them, but if any of you had 

 spent a night here you would agree with my estimate. Why one 

 night wife and I worked hard to cut up our sausage meat ready 

 for grinding, and left it standing uncovered in pans. We heard 

 a rat celebration or general training going on later, but it was 

 nothing new, and we did not investigate until morning. Then 

 we found every last bit of that meat gone entirely out of sight in 

 the partitions and between ceiling (or rather lath) and floor 

 above. But still the old house was lined with bricks, below, and 

 was comfortably warm, and we spent many happy days in it, in 

 fact, 14 years. How well that we did not know before we moved 

 in how long we should have to stay before we could do better. 

 How I did hate to bring my young wife and babies into such a 

 home! We had both been used to far better quarters. Well, I 

 painted and plastered the inside a little, patched up the roof, but 

 never put a dollar onto the old house for looks. In truth, we 

 hadn't it to put on. The old house was sold to a neighbor for 

 $10 when we moved into the new one, and covered over, is now 

 doing duty as a horse barn. 



There was an old 30 by 40 barn with a shed on each end. But 

 the doors had fallen off the hinges and the tenants had burned 



