Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-08-03
CHAPTER I.
l Buy a Farm on Sight.

teachers, do nave genuine love IoE
their work. But I am afraid I was one
of those unfortunates who take up
teaching as a stop-gap, means of live
lihood while awaiting wider Opportu-
mites" | 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.
1t was q 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. | 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 liIacs outside,
the stamp of an impatient horse in the
horse sheds where Hniment for man
posters!
why don't I go back to it, and give
up this grind?" l thought. Then, being
an English instructor, added learned
~, land be a disciple of Rousseau
1t was warm April night, and I
was foolish with spring fever. l 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 eXtravagances except
books and golf balls. / had heard of
farms being bought for 800. That
would still leave me more than 81 200
year. Twelve hundred dollars
year would hardly be enough to run
even a $500 farm on, not for a year
or two, because l should have to hire
help. / must find something practical
to do to support myself What? What
could / do, except put sarcastic COM
ments on the daily themes of helpless
undergraduates? l went to bed with q
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
nent, who quite foored me by asking
me If l could find the extra time
without interfering with my AGA
demiC duties"-tO be a reader for a
certain publishing house which had
just consulted him about filling a va
cancy. L told him frankly that if I got
the job l might give up my present
post and buy a 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
had the job. 1t would be 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 depGftment had invited me on
motor trip for the holidays The
professor married a rich wtdow)
'As the Cheshire cat said to Alice"
he explained, at 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" 1 said 81 want to look at
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
Preached one night a certain elm-hung
New England village noted for its
views and its palatial summer estates,
and put up at the hotel there. The pro-
lfessor, whose hobby is real estate val
ues, fell into a discussion with the
isuaye landlord on the subject, consid-
cred locally. being a state congress
man, he was unable to consider any
thing except lOcalIyD The landlord.
to our establishment, informed us that
building sites on the village street and
the nearby hills sold as high as $4,000
per acre.
What does farm land COST" I in
quired sadly.
"As much as the farmer can induce
you to pay" he laughed But if you
We're a farmer, you might get it for
one hundred dollars an acre"
Il am a farmer said 1. "Where is
there 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 mile
beyond the second estate, you'll come
TO a crOssroad. Turn up that and ask
for Nilt Noble at the first house you
come to. Maybe he'll SELL
1t was a glorious April morning
when we purred softly up the Slab
City road and reached the crossroad.
A groggy signboard hand pointed to
Albany" We ran up the road a nun
dred yards of the fifty miles to Albany,
crossed a little brook, and stopped the
motor at what l instantly knew for
my abode.
I cannot tell you how I knew It.
One doesn't reason about such things
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