CHAPTER XXVI. 
marketing: the trip to the spindle 
Having come this far in all seriousness of spirit 
may we not turn now to something a little lighter — 
perhaps even to a nonsense verse? If so,— well, 
you remember the old nursery rhyme, that runs : 
"Jack and Jill went up the hill, 
To get a pail of water; 
Jack fell down and broke his crown, 
And Jill came tumbling after." 
In a large sense this expresses the situation that 
confronts the cotton farmer in handling his crop. 
You and I and every man who produces cotton 
must first go up the hill. Like Jack and Jill we 
go there for a purpose; ours is to produce a crop 
that shall, we hope, enable us to keep our farms in 
a good producing condition ; our houses and barns 
in repair; our reading tables reasonably furnished 
with papers, magazines and books ; our family with 
food and raiment ; our children with the advantages 
of education for culture and professional efficiency. 
We have a right to expect these rewards. Jack 
and Jill no doubt knew that water was there; we 
at least know that the kind we want is there. But 
it is hard to get it. The road that leads to the top 
of the hill is a difficult one. That this was so with 
the one that Jack and Jill went up, is evidenced by 
the fact that " Jack fell down and broke his crown." 
It was a steep, rocky road, no doubt ; rough and dif- 
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