26 TOMS EXPERIENCE 
I regret that I kept no account of what are usually 
called living expenses; but they were not large, al- 
though we lived as well as we ever did in [llinois. 
After selling-all my crops, and paying the above 
and all other bills that I owed, I found myself with 
$1,295 cash on hand, and entirely out of debt. 
A MISTAKE, 
I now decided to “commute” my 160 acres home- 
stead, pay for it at $1.25 an acre, and get my patent 
from the government. I don’t know now why I did 
this. There was no need for it at all, for I had not 
the slightest notion of selling out; in fact, would 
not have sold for twice what anybody would have 
given me for my land, and as long as I remained 
there my homestead claim was just as good as a deed 
from the government. 
But I had never owned a foot of land in my life, 
and I wanted to have a quarter section that was 
mine—really, wholly MINE, without any proviso or 
contingency in favor of Uncle Sam or anybody else. 
It was a whim,! guess, and the gratification of it cost 
me $200 that might as well have been saved; and yet I 
never saw a piece of paper in my life that looked as 
beautiful to me as did that patent from the United 
States of America to Thomas Taylor, his heirs and 
assigns forever, for the southeast quarter of Section 
, Township , Range ,in the county of 
,and Territory of Dakota. So I think, after all, 
that I got about as much pleasure out of that $200 




