Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1916-07-26
CHAPTER I.
1 Buy a Farm on Sight.

lcdc11luS DIS d SIOp-Sdp, " iA'S
uhood while awaiting wider opportu-
nities." I had been accredited with |
brilliant promise" in my undergrad |
uate days, and the college had taken |
me into the English department upon |
graduation.
Well, that was seven years ago. |
was still correcting daily themes.
It was a warm night in early April. !
I had a touch of spring fever, and
wrote vicious, sarcastic comments on
the poor undergraduate pages Of unex-
pressiveness before me, as through my
open windows drifted up from the
yard a snatch Of song from some re-
turning, theater party. I closed my
eyes in memory-memory Of my grand
fathers farm down in Essex county.
The sweet call Of the village church
bell came back to me, the drone Of the
preacher the smell Of lilacs outside,
the stamp of an impatient horse in the
horse sheds where liniment for man
and beast was advertised on tin
posters!
"Why don't I go back to it, and give
up this grind?" thought Then, being
an English instructor, I added learned
~, "and be a disciple Of ROusseau!'
It was a warm April night, and I
was foolish with spring fever. 1 be-
gan to play with the idea. l got up
and opened my tin box, to investigate
the visible paper tokens Of my little
fortune. There was, in all, about
$4,000, the result of my legacy from
my parents and my slender savings
from my slender salary, for l had
never had any extrayagances except
books and golf balls. 1 had heard Of
farms being bought for 81, 800. That
would still leave me more than $1,000
year. Twelve hundred dollars a
year would hardly be enough to run
even a $500 farm on, not for a year
or two, because I should have to hire
help. I must find something practical
to do to support myself What? What
could I do, except put sarcastic COM
ments on the daily themes Of helpless
undergraduates? I went to bed with
very poor opinion Of English instruc
tors
But God, as the hymn remarks,
works in a mysterious way his Won
ders to perform. Waking with my
flicker of resolution quite gone out,
met my chief in the English depart
ment, who quite foored me by asking
me if I could find the extra time
without interfering with my aca-
demic duties"-tO be a reader for a
certain publishing house which had
just consulted him about filing a va
cancy. 1 told him frankly that if got
the job I might give up my present
post and buy farm, but as he didn't
think anybody could live on a manu-
script readers salary, he laughed and
didn't believe me, and two days later
1 had the job. It would be a secret
to disclose my salary, but to a man
who had been an English instructor
in an American college for seven years
it looked good enough. Then came in
the Easter vacation.
Professor Farnsworth Of the eco
Monies department had invited me on
a motor trip for the holidays. CThe
professor married a rich widow)
GAS the Cheshire cat said to Alice
he explained, sit doesn't matter which
way you go, if you don't much care
where you are going to-; and we don't
do WEI"
YES I said, "1 want to look al
FARMS
But he only laughed, too. "Any.
how, we won't look at a single under
graduate" he said,
= In the course Of our motor flight
from the Eternal Undergraduate, we
reached one night a certain elm-hune
New England village noted for its
views and its palatial summer estates
and put up at the hotel there. The pro
fessor, whose hobby is real estate val
ues, fell into a discussion with the
suave landlord on the subject, consid
cred locally. being a state congress
man, he was unable to consider any
thing except locallyD The landlord
to our establishment, Informed US tina
building sites on the village street ant
the nearby hills sold as high as $500
per acre.
"What does farm land costT I in
quired sadly.
GAS much as the farmer can Undue
you to pay" he laughed. "But If 20
were a farmer, you might get it TO
one hundred dollars an acre."
81 am a farmer" said I. "Where /
there a farm for sale?"
The landlord looked at me obviously
But he volunteered this Information
when you leave in the morning
toward Slab City, about half a mil
beyond the second estate, you'll com
to a crossroad. Turn up that and as
for Milt Noble at the first house 20
come to. Maybe he'll SELL"
It was a glorious April morn1n
when we purred softly up the Sla
City road and reached the crossroat
A groggy signboard hand pointed t
Wo ran Hn tho rood hrr