How We Started. 25 



rather surprising. When the tenant left he said the seven cows 

 were all dry. It was customary to dry cows up about this time 

 of year anyway, and these particular cows had not been fed in a 

 way that would tend to keep up the flow of milk, even to the 

 usual drying-up time. We were milking the two cows we 

 brought over right along. They had been well fed through the 

 fall. Soon I noticed that the bags of the seven were filling up. 

 I milked them out. They filled again. Again I milked them, 

 and as they seemed to be gaining in their milk, I began milking 

 regularly, and it is a fact that we made quite a little butter from 

 those poor, neglected animals. They were not half fed then ; but 

 they were better fed and much better cared for than they had 

 been used to, and they did all they could to show their gratitude. 

 We got them all through the winter alive, but there was little to 

 go and come on, I assure you ; the hay (?) left by the tenant 

 was so poor, and there was so little of it. It was almost wicked 

 that we could not do better by them in the way of feed, but, 

 friends, they fared as well as we did in the house. We actually 

 went without necessities to get a little grain for those cows 

 enough to keep them on their feet, if possible. Towards spring 

 I cut brush for them to eat every pleasant day. I was up with 

 one several nights, and with the help of kind neighbors got her 

 through alive. Weakness from lack of enough good food was all 

 that ailed her. Certain it is that without the warm, comfortable 

 shelter half of them would have died. I haven't exaggerated in 

 the least about this matter, friends. This is the simple truth. 

 This is just the way we started. Would it be possible to start 

 nearer the bottom of the ladder in farming? And still, slowly 

 but surely, we worked up. Take courage, reader, if you are 

 sorely pressed now, you also can work your way up. 



These were the days of one-horse farming, literally. I 

 drew some manure from town with one horse. I drew sawlogs 

 on a sled with one horse. My wife went to town to trade with 

 this same one-horse wagon that I drew the manure in, sitting on 

 the high spring seat, and generally having the children with her.. 

 My credit was perfectly good, and we could get trusted for all we 

 wanted, but it ground me terribly to ask for credit, and the Lord 

 only knew when I could pay. I was neither a knave nor an ig- 

 noramus. I fully realized that the chances for paying were slim, 

 and that to buy on credit, knowing my hard-up condition so 

 much better than others did, was almost the next thing to steal- 

 ing. But what could we do ? It was hard to starve. Well, to 

 tell the whole truth, I often sent my wife to town to get things, 

 while I made some excuse about being so busy. I know it did 

 not hurt her to go as it did me. 



And right here, friends, it is only simple justice to say that 

 if I had not had a wife that was a real partner, and did her part 

 better than I did mine, we never would have pulled through this 



