MY TEN-ROD FARM; 



OB, 



HOW I BECAME A FLORIST. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE COMING OF TROUBLE. THE BEGINNING OF HOPE. 



MY name is Maria Oilman. I am a widow. These are 

 my two children, John, fifteen years of age, who is study- 

 ing to be a gardener, and Mary, twelve years old, who at- 

 tends the high school at the Centre, where I reside. I own 

 the house in which I live, the furniture, the large green- 

 house in the yard, and, in fact, the entire estate, -one hun- 

 dred and sixty feet by seventy-five, which I familiarly 

 speak of as my Ten-Rod Farm. I keep a man-servant and 

 a maid-of-all-work. My income is two thousand dollars 

 a year, and I am out of debt. Five years ago I was poor 

 and in great affliction. Now I am independent, though not 

 quite free from sorrow, for the memory of my husband will 

 always remain with me. 



If it would interest you, I will give you a portion of my 

 life history, and explain how it was that I, a comparatively 



