Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-09-28
THIS GIRL HAS PLUCK.
HER FIvE.AcRE REMNANT OF AN OLD
FARM A GOLD MINE.

With an Equal Amount of Determine
tion Can DO the Same.
To put matters right at the outset,
will state that her right name is not
Sally Brown, and that the five acres
and old farmhouse which she rented
is not in the township, or even in the
State, where I have arbitrarily located
it. But this is immaterial The real
point at issue is that she makes liv-
ing, and more; and that any girl un-
der the same conditions, and with the
same amount of pluck and determine
tion, can do the same.
The circumstances Of loss and death
which left her alone, to fight her own
battles, do not form o part OF this
sketch; nor do dwell ON the lack of
special education which debarred her
from skilled employment in the city.
Suffice it to say that she heard of this
five-acre remnant of an old farm, and
of the few odds and ends of ancient,
dilapidated furniture which the house
contained; and, as the rent of the one
and the cost of the other came well
within her capital of hundred dol
lars, she determined to let them and
her desperation-though inspiration
is the better word-arbitrate her i'm
mediate future.
When she took possession in May,
she had twenty dollars left; but the
furniture was hers, and the house and
five acres for year. One mile away
is small village of twenty or more
houses, through which runs trolley
line. Fifteen miles distant, by this
trolley, is Newport. Between the vii
lage and Newport, at irregular inter-
vals, are scattered summer cottages,
which grow larger and more preten-
tious as they approach the city. Her
only immediate neighbors are an old
man and his wife, who grow things
for the city market. Their land joins
hers, and their house is but few
rods away.
Sally was strong and energetic, but
her knowledge of country resources at
this time was limited. Half of her
twenty dollars was promptly expended
in ounce bushes, for she had heard
that they were very profitable, and she
was much taken aback, when the old
man informed her bluntly that it was
money wasted; ounces were too risky
for rented land, he said. What she
wanted was something that could be
depended upon to bear quickly and
regularly.
This was her first mistake, and,
though it involved but ten dollars, it
was ten dollars that could ill be spared.
Already she had spent fire for provis-
ions, selected chiefly for nutritious
ness and bulk; and now she let half
of the remaining five go to the old man
for plowing and preparing the old
garden behind the house, and the
other half for seeds. The rest of the
land she would have to leave for
awhile.
On first inspection she had thought
the old house uninhabitable, but, by
changing few window -sashes and
adding doorhinge and latch here and
there, she had rendered two or three
of the rooms possible to use. The
kitchen was the best of them, and in
one end of the long, low-ceiling room
was a huge fireplace in which were
swinging cranes and andirons, just as
they had been used fifty years before.
This fireplace would answer all present
needs of cooking and heating.
The old garden was enclosed by
high stone walls, and along these were
rank growths of weeds and half-wild
garden herbs, and even of brushes.
Sally spent many hours, between her
seed-planting, in digging them out
and working over the soil. There
were many plans forming in her mind
for another year-beds of strawberries
and asparagus and parsley, and of
early vegetables; for these the old man
said there was good demand among
the neighboring cottages; and, if grown
early enough to escape sharp compe-
tition, they could be sold to advan-
tage in the city. And, besides these,
Sally was looking forward to a poul-
try -yard-which the old man did not
have-and to growing cress in the
brook which flowed across the foot of
her five acres, and to other things
which she had read about as being
profitable and suitable to girls. But
she would have to wait and work for
them little by little, as she could, for
she had no money. When she spoke
of her plans to the old man, however,
he shook his head sagely, and said
that she had better put one iron into
the fire at time; it would be safer.
One day he asked if she would be
willing to help him wash and bunch
vegetables occasionally, as most of his
time was now taken up in disposing
of his produce at the cottages and in
the city. and his wife was too feeble
for such work. After that Sally spent
half of each day with him, and, though
! her earnings were not large, they were
considerably more than her expenses,
and the work was of value to her as
an object-lesson. In June she helped
him pick his strawberries, and, later,
his currants and gooseberries and rasp-
berries. When the strawberry vines
sent out new runners, she purchased
several thousand, and paid for them