HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 49 



knee-deep on that low ground; it hadn't been 

 pastured at all before our coming. Within 

 twenty-four hours of the time we pitched our 

 tent we had something started an animal 

 converting waste into something of value. It 

 didn't strike us in just that way then; we 

 hadn't thought so far ahead ; but there, in min- 

 iature, was the whole scheme of our later work 

 in farming. What we thought about then was 

 just the solid satisfaction of having a gallon 

 of yellow milk to drink for supper, with a 

 couple of gallons more set away in the spring, 

 making cream for breakfast. We would have 

 chickens, too, in a day or so; we had shipped 

 our flock from the old home. And so soon as 

 we could find a little space for it somewhere 

 we meant to start a bit of garden, just to keep 

 our hands in. 



It rained that night. When it rains in the 

 Ozark country in the springtime, it rains. 

 There was no stormy wind, no uproar, but only 

 a' steady, sluicing downpour that set our little 

 corner all afloat in no time. The tent wasn't 

 proof against it ; it spattered through upon us 

 in a thick, fine mist, drenching us. We tried 

 making canopies of the bedclothes, sitting up 

 in bed and holding them over our heads ; but 



