144 TOM'’S EXPERIENCE 
“JT thank you, Mr. Taylor,” he said, ‘‘ for the time 
you have given me, and for the great amount of 
practical information I have derived from this con- 
versation. Yon seem to understand exactly what 
men in my situation want to know. 
‘Perhaps that is because, only a few years ago, 
I was exceedingly anxious to get the same kind of 
information myself.” 

And that is the principal reason why I have writ- 
ten this book. I know there are thousands of people 
in the Eastern and Middle States—farmers, and ten- 
ants for other farmers, such as I was; mechanics like 
Mr. Harmon and his friend; widows like Mrs. San- 
ford; struggling, discouraged Jim Hardys, and men 
and women in almost every station in life, who daily 
look wistfully toward the Great West, wondering 
whether there is not somewhere out there something 
better for them than the present hard struggle for 
daily bread, and the ceaseless planning, scrimping 
and saving to make ends meet. How hard the battle 
is that these people are fighting from day to day 
and year to year, none know but themselves—and 
God. 
To help them in their battle fur a foothold on God’s 
earth, and a home to be called their own, is my main 
object in telling the story of my four years’ experi- 
ence, and the stories of other toilers, who, like them- 
selves, knew not what to do until the way was 
vointed out to them. 
~*~ 

