Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-01-24

L
,aid: 'but l think we can do It Then we
might keep q few bees Ny grandmother,
In the country"
'Oh, yes, know They sell honey by the
pound Fifty pounds Of honey at twenty
cents a pound, that would be ten dollars
Ten dollars will go further in the country
than twenty five in the city. Susan, we'll
be rich"
.'But thsre'll be drawbacks," suggested
Mira Pratt
"Oh, yes, 'lashins and slashins Of them
There'l be lions in the way, but we'll slay
them with pluck and industry"
"Don't mix METAPHOR" corrected again
Mira Pratt
swell, I say It DOESN'T matter"
"There will be SO much for US to learn"
"But we can't do more than go to tho old
woman's home at last, even II we fail, and
we'll do that il we stay here. We can learn
anything any body else can, Susan"
| The two women were very much in earn
est
"Wen succeed or die trying" they said.
They shook hands on that, too The rest
Of the winter they skimped down to the last
notch and saved SIS more apiece. They
had then $50 to begin to set up housekeep-
ing. l fancy they had almost as much
| pleasure planning out their home and their
chicken houses as they did after they bad
made their venture q success.
For they did make it a success
March lst they took the leap They felt
as II they were jumping of the end Of pier
in the night, into water Of unknown depth.
1t did require courage
But they jumped. Their plan probably
required more talking over than II men
had been starting into it. They got books
on poultry raising
They leased for five years three acres Of
ground, with house Of three rooms on it
That was their home, kitchen, bedroom and
sitting room They meant TO devote their
wealth to their poultry yard. They selected
. place near enough . good-sizsd town B.,
afford q market fer their products Such
simple make-shift buildings as they could do
with at first were erected, very cheaply.
There was the awful possibility Of failure,
and the old woman's home always before
them Mrs Pratt read from her hen book: /:
'An acre of ground will be enough yard
room for 100 fowls No more than afty
should be kept in one house For that num-
ber building should be thirty feet long, ten
feet wide, eight feet high In the front and
i've feet in the rear, with sloping root"
Susan, how does that strike your
"I think understand it, murmured her
friend
"There must be separate apartments for
the sitting hens, and
oh, come, now! Must we have parlor
bedrooms for the old hensf"
'.Something like that, take IT. Listen:
There must be such provision that the
brooding fowls cannot get together and
quarrel
"L'ke women In boarding house." mur-
NJ Prat.
I'D fight and break their eggs, and 20
learn the bad habit of eating them" con-
tinued PIatt
She put the book down.
"We'n begin with 100 henA Each one
will make q profit Of Q dollar Q year.
There will te $lOO We can't live on that
There's our vegetable garden and our
bees"
"Yes, we might raise nearly all our own
eating. It's one Of the aspirations Of my
life to have an onion bed"
They bought scrub chickens at first and
all the Plymouth Rocks they could afford
Their early chicks were out Of the shell in
the beginning of May. Mis- Plat under
took to remove her first hen from the nest.
1t seemed to her that fowl was out Of tenn
pr. She edged around to the rear. The
hens head was around before her.
'Quawaw-awkl" said the han
Oh, DEAR said Mis- Platt
If lions are in the way we'll slay them,n
said Ma Pratt
Miss Platt put out her hand timidly,
Chicky, chickyi Henny, hennyr she
coaxed She patted the hen's tail to pet
her.
Chicky dartsd out her sharp bsak and
took piece out of Miss Platss finger.
'.Mercyr' she exclaimed, II didn't know
hens would bite. Susan, did you"
&No. ECPLcu oooSA-
Miss Platt retreated She put . strip Of
plaster upon the wounded finger and drew
on . pair Of gloves Pale but determined
Susan following close behind, she advanced
to the charge again. She drew . long
breath, put out both hands together and
captured the enemy. But it was long
time before Nra Pratt ventured to pet q
sitting hen
The two women worked hard They
could not have lived without their garden.
But they did all the work in it themselves.
except plowing. Their bones ached and
their hands were blistered. Sometimes at
night they were 50 discouraged that they
hardly dared look one another in tbs face
lest each should guess the others thought
But they had burned their ships behind
them and could not 60 back IL they would
They found for one thing that vegetable
gardening could be learned out Of books,
with patience and hard trying. The town
gave . market for all the Vegetables they
could sell People who bought their lettuce
and caulihowers, recommended them to
their neighbora They had everything first
claA Their celery was Of the whitest and
crispest and had the true hickory nut flavor.
Their cabbage heads were poem, as cab
bage heads go so solid and symmetrical and
sweet were they. Miss Platts onion bed
panned out fsmously. She planted the Queen
variety for earliest, and sold the tender
green onions in bunchs at the beginning Of
summer.
There was this about their produce that
helped get it q market Everything they
sold was SO clean and fresh and tastefully
arranged that it looked more like flowers