CHAPTER LII 
THE THIRD RECKONING 
On the afternoon of December 31 I called a 
meeting of the committee of ways and means, 
and Polly and I locked ourselves in my office. 
It was then two and a half years since we com- 
menced the experiment of building a factory 
farm, which was to supply us with comforts, 
luxuries, and pleasures of life, and yet be self- 
supporting: a continuous experiment in eco- 
nomics. 
The building of the factory was practically 
completed, though not all of its machinery had 
yet been installed. We had spent our money 
freely, — too freely, perhaps; and we were now 
ready to watch the returns. Polly said: — 
«There are some things we are sure of: we 
like the country, and it likes us. I have spent 
the happiest year of my life here. We've enter- 
tained more friends than ever before, and they’ve 
been better entertained, so that we are all right 
from the social standpoint. You are stronger 
and better than ever before,and so amI. Credit 
the farm with these things, Mr. Headman, and 
you'll find that it doesn’t owe us such an awful 
amount after all.” 
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