THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



CHAPTER ONE 



PROFIT IN WINTER LAMBS 



SINCE Mother Earth has been so bountiful 

 in her gifts to us, I don't mind admitting 

 that a sense of unconfessed failure prompted 

 us to abandon city life; for we were true 

 Metropolitan tramps, who had chased fame 

 and fortune half over the world, and had 

 only succeeded in gathering a few stray laurel 

 leaves, which were fast dying for want of suf- 

 ficient lucre to keep them alive. 



The country home of story books, covered 

 with roses and jasmine, had been the ideal 

 scene of our old age. To such slothful degra- 

 dation might disappointed pride have led us 

 had finances permitted. As it was, a small 



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