Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-30
BY HELENA DAVIS.

Little Nan was the child of poor par
ents who had emigrated to the far West
to make home on the plains where rain
fell SO seldom that one crop in three
years was about the average amount
raised in that desolate country. AS there
had been two successive crop-failures
when this story opens Mans father found
himself in a troubled quandary as to how
he could manage to pull through till mn
other year when rains might fall to bless
the soil and produce plenty for man and
beast
One day as Nan, her father and mother
sat at their frugal dinner the father
sighed. shook his head and said: There s
only two ways out o. the woods as l can
see One way is to sell out and move
somewhere else and tother way Is to-to
put plaster on the farm" As he
spoke he looked towards his over-worked
wife for an answer. He knew how much
she opposed a mortgage plaster" in
common farmer parlance-and he had
named the only alternative in consequence
of her too strong opposition to raising
money through a loan.
We'll" and Mans mother meditated.
rot knowing just how to decide. "I'ye
always opposed n mortgage, for so few
people ever git rid of one after they've
put 1t on. But hate to say sell, for as
things are now we'd git scarcely anything
for the land and nothing for the improve
ments that's cost US FIVE years Of hard
work and privation. II we could only
hang out till next year It'll be big crop
then and Well put something by for the
next drouth."
But there's no way of hanging out"
explained Mans father. We've got just
0lNn m % L. IL
Then what? And how're we to feed the
cows and horses without money to buy
corn an hay? Hope" and the puzzled
farmer again shook his head, 1.-The iic's
up. It's either sell or plaster
Little Nan looked first at her mother
and then at her father, her blue eyes full
of trouble, for she, like all \children of
the poor, felt the strain of hard times as
keenly as did her parents. She was in her
twelfth year and had lent her little help
about the farm, making garden, tending
the chickens and pigs; and the very
thought of selling the place made an ache
at her heart and a lump In her throat.
And what pleasure Nan had taken In help
ing to fix the little frame two-room house
attractive! She had covered the walls of
the big" room with colored picture
cards and newspaper cuts till the place
looked quite cheerful. She had spent all
her spare time sewing carpet rags, and as
a result there were three great grain bags
full of pound-weight balls ready to take
to the weaver as soon as there could be
got together enough money to pay him
for making the rags into a carpet And
in the windows of the big room were
pretty vines growing In tin cans that
were neatly papered. Mans own hands
had planted these and Mans own hands
trained them and kept them wntered and
washed, though the task Of watering the
vines was not an easy one since Nan was
obliged to go to the bottom of a steep
hill to the well and to draw the water up
in the heavy buckets that were attached
to ropes which swung over a wheel. But
Nan was an Industrious little girl and did
not mind work when there were good re-
suits.
And so Nan sat a sad listener to what
her troubled parents said about selling