French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-03-23
THE MOST FOOLISH GIRL
so TUE NEIGHBORs SAID.
She. Spent Her Money on Beautlfylns
Her Little House. so She Would be
COntented to Live on the Farm.

Three a ago the man l was to
ma rrv told me he would use the 5000
he had saved as part payment on a
bouse in town. as he could not Deal TO
take me. a city girl, to the little tenant
house on his farm. He gave me the
money to keep for him until the papers
OF purchase were ready.
I said little but thought hard. Next
day l ode out past the tenant house.
1t certainly was a poor affair. / lean
ed over the fence and let my mind run
rior. l pictured a winding driveway
I'D to it. a veranda around two sides,
| white paint upon il, green blinds, dain-
ty curtains, vines owe it. flowers
around the base and a grassy lawn
everywhere. 1 visuaIized the front
lawn separated from the garden with
a fence of hollyhocks.
went up to the house and asked
for a drink of water. The inside was
as u~nattractive as the outside. in my
imagination 1 painted the cheap wood
work white, the walls l colOred yellow,
the floor l stained brown, the fireplace
i C4OduVus L WCAL LII LAO4 IL 4dhSJ
moved the well into the kitchen by the
aid of a pump and elevated tank. The
more I looked at the shoddy little
structure the more excited l became,
and the o sure l was that / could
make my dreams materialize.
That night l told my man my plans.
He objected; said the framework was
lot worth fixing up he could not take
me- to the Vcountry, etc. My mother
wept. At last / asked for the five
hundred dollars and Jim said: eff you
Will 60 out there and live in that house
with a mutt like me I wish it was five
thousand dollars I had to give you
take it" IL
1 learned about turned posts and
wood filters, furniture and curtains
during the next two months. Surely
all the world loves a lover. A college
student built my veranda and screened
&c for a dollar fifty a day; a Progress
editor told me where to buy
my dishes, curtains, carpets and furni-
ture, and what to pay for them. She
sent in my paint inquiry to a big
paint house and they gave me a dis
count; Uncle Sam told me how to
bring the water into the house; the
state planned my grounds and SEM a
to show me how t plant my trees,
and another to teach me the art of but
ter making.
l got the dining-room floor stained
too dark and the green stain scarcely
at all on the roof, but Jim
never once made fun of me. I built a
bookcase big enough for 500 books |
an0 I had not more than 20. l had
boxes at every window, but |
ne smiled and never mentioned econ
0my. When / found We had the |
wheeled dinner wagon too big to go
through the kitchen door and 1 sat
and cried he Just said: Never
mind, little girl,Ill 1 fix it for you"
We had SIT left. and what do you think
We spent it for-farm and domestic
books. half and half.
We have been married two and d !
years. and no palace could ne hap
pier and lovelier than our home. The
is Wiregrass in summer and bur
clover In winter; a Boston ivy climbs
up the chimney, a Kudzu vine covers
0ne end of the veranda. a clematis
testoons the other, while Dorothy Per-
k1nE is lovely at the back door. Ny
splrea. elephant ears, and cannas grow
beautifully. have even put holly
nccks in front of the barn and a
dlmalayan blackberry vine along it's
slce. The homes of many of my erst-
while critics aretoday planted with
from my garden-their places
look pretty, too.
Now. here is the summing I'D of the
whole story:
A few days ago I said. sJim wac T
and he said, you were
not buying paint and bushes, though
thought o were. You really
buying happiness for both of US,
anC no money is too big to pay Tor
Oat."-Writer in Progressive Farmer.