The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-07-05
Mr.. Perkins Farming.
BY CLARA AUGUSTA.
-s%e%e<e4e*o+s+e%e%o+e%s+

TT IFE in the country is dream of
l. perpetual happiness" So read
the newspaper extract that Harry
Perkins was bordering over, and he
was so much impressed by it that he
read it aloud to his wife along with
which followed it.
Evidently, the writer had becoma
enamored to farm life, in theory if
not in practice.
Now, Anna" said Mr.. Perkins,
crossing his legs and throwing him
self back in his chair, as he invari-
ably did when he was commencing
an argument, that sounds promis-
ing! That fellow knows what he is
talking about. And you know how
we have always thought we should
enjoy the country. Fresh milk, that
has not passed through the milllman's
manipulations; butter, golden as but
tercups; Strawberries every morning
for breakfast; chickens of ones own
raising; honey fresh from the comb:
pure air and water; natural society,
no gossip. Anna, the experiment is
worth trying"
But, Henry, you have good stu
alton, and the children are at school,
and you don't know anything about
farming!"
'Do you take me for fool, Anna
Perkins?" cried her husband, indig-
nantly. Don't you suppose / have
got brains enough to learn, if indeed
there is anything to learn? Don't
you think [ am as bright man, nat
urally, as old Ducy, who brings us
our cabbages, or the red-haired milk
man who brings butter and eggs and
charges five per cent more for them
because he knows they are fresh?
Humph! fresh! If he knows they are,
it is more than we know when we
come to use them"
"Oh, of course, Henry; you know
enough in your way" said his wife.
But 1t don't seem to me that you
can know much about farming, hav-
ing never had any experience"
Il can learn. Anybody can learn
in two weeks time as much as any
of those old rural clodhoppers know,
and have mind to try it. 1t would
be good for the children. The change
of air would benefit my lungs, and
you would get fat, Anna, on the new
milk and the good things generally"
Mrs. Perkins shook her head doubt
fully, but Perkins was sanguine, and
that very day he saw real estate
agent who had for sale a farm so
nearly approaching the condition of
the Garden of Eden, before it be-
came infested with snakes, that Per-
kins went out to look at it, and con-
chIded to invest $4,000 in it.
Real estate" said the agent sis by
all means the safest of investments.
Railroad bonds are ticlIlish, savings
banks are risky because Canada is SO
near, and it takes small fortune to
buy 500 government bond; and es
for mining stocks-why, a man must
be mad as a March hare to think Of
them! But real estate, my dear sir.
real estate is right there every time!
1t can't be stolen, and you have got
it where you can see it. And farm
ing is the noblest and most independ-
ent life in the world"
Mr.. Perkins became the proprietor
of Walnut Dell farm, and took his
family thither, Why it was called
walnut Dell" it would have pazzled
a philosopher to determine, since the
nearest approach to a walnut tree on
the premises was horse-chestnut,
which looked as if the ''sere and yell
low leaf had overtaken it in its
prime. 1t had a discouraged appear
ance, and so had everything else
about Walnut Dell farm. But this
was owing, Mr., Perkins Informed his
wife, to the fact that, since the owner
died two years ago, the place had