ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN 's ASSOCIATION. 61 



A little while ago I was taking a trip in the southern 

 part of the State. I was waiting at the depot, and a 

 lady came to me and asked me to take her mother to a 

 certain city. Of course I said I would be glad to do 

 so; the old lady of between seventy-five and eighty sat 

 down in the seat with me, and we began talking". She 

 was a farmer's wife, and we had this conversation. I 

 said, "You look as if you were not strong." "jSTo," 

 she said, "I have not been strong, and the truth is, I 

 have had a hard life. My husband and I bought our 

 farm, and we had to mortgage it, and we were saving 

 with all the power we had of saving when my husband 

 was taken sick. We had seven children, and he had 

 asthma for fourteen years and I took care of him and with 

 all the efforts 1 could make to save that farm from this 

 mortgage, I worked, and I did it." She said, " I have 

 some young sons coming on and they helped me free 

 the farm from the mortgage." And then her eyes 

 lighted up w^hen she said, " I was able to educate three 

 of my sons, and then after fourteen years illness my 

 husband died." She said, "I think I could have borne 

 the work of the farm, but taking care of him, 

 as well as the work of the farm, broke me down." 

 I was anxious to know how she was placed, and I said, 

 " When your husband died, what did you get ? " And 

 the old lady looked at me as if she had never thought 

 in that line in her life. "Why," she said, "I got what 

 they set off for me." It was a little pittance, and she 

 was living in a very straightened way, her children in 

 a better condition, and yet, with all the effort of pay- 

 ing off the mortgage and saving the farm, it was not 

 hers. Helen Gougar wrote a story a few years ago 

 that was right to the point. The lady in her story was 

 telling her troubles and how she was getting through 



