The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1916-10-23
CHAPTER I.
I Buy a Farm on Sight

|son. He was one of the few in
the class with the real literary in
stinct-Ia lad from some nearby
New England village who went
home over Sunday and brought
back unconscious records Of his
changing life there.
This Is what | read:
The April sun has come at last,
and the first warmth of it lays a
benediction on the spirit, even as
1t tints the earth with green. Our
barn door, standing open, framed
a picture this morning between
walls of golden hay-the soft
rolling fields, the fringe of wood
land beyond yelled with a haze of
budding life, and then the far line
of the hills. "A horse stamped in
the shadows; a hen strolled out
upon the floor, cooling softly;
there was a warm earthly smell in
the air; the distant church bell
sounded pleasantly over the fields,
and upon the road l heard the
rattle of Uncle Amos carryall,
bearing the family to meeting.
The strife of learning. the pride
of the intellect, the acadamic urge
where were they? / found my
self wandering out from the barn
yard into the fields, filled with a
great longing to hold pillow in
the furrow till tired out, and then
lie on my back in the sun and
watch the lazy clouds.
So Robinson had spring fever,
too! Then | fell to dreaming.
Home! l, John Upton, academic
bachelor, had no home. no kith
nor kin.
l had my college position, and
a shabby remnant of my old am
billions.
why don't go back to 1t, and
give up this grind?" | thought.
I began to play with the idea.
| sought for a copy of the
Transcript, and ran over the real
estate ads. Here was a gentle.
mans estate, with two buffers
lpantries and a concrete garage
that would hardly do! Besides |
should have to hire help. l must
find something practical to do to
support myself. What?
l went to bed with very poor
opinion of English instructors.
But God, as the hymn remarks,
works In mysterious ways His
wonders to perform. Waking with
my flicker of resolution quite
gone out, l met my chief in the
English department, who quite
floored me by asking if l could
find extra without inter-
fering with my academic duties
Ito be a reader for a certain pub
fishing house which had just con-
suited him about filling va
cancy.
| told him frankly that If I got
the Job l might give up my pres
ent post and buy a farm, but as
he didn't think anybody could
live on a manuscript readers sal
airy, he laughed and didn't believe
me, and two days later l had the
job.
1t 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
the Easter vacation.
Professor Farnsworth of the
economics department had invited
me on a motor trip for the holi-
days. (The professor married a
rich widow
In the course of our wanderings
we reached, one night, a certain
New England village noted for its
views and It's palatial summer es-
tates, and put up at a hotel there.
The professor, whose hobby is
real estate values, fell into a dis
cussion with the landlord on the
subject.
The landlord, to our astonish-
|ment, informed us that building
sites on the nearby hills sold as
high as $4,000 an acre.
What does farm land COST" I
inquired sadly.
"As much as the farmer can in
duce you to pay" he laughed.
But IL you were farmer, you
might get 1t for 800 an acre."
Where is there a farm for
sale?"
The landlord looked at me dubi-
ously. But he volunteered that a
certain Milt Noble might sell, and
told me how to find him.
The next morning we sought
out Milt Noble. When the car
stopped before the house, / in
stantly knew 1t for mine.
I jumped from the motor and
started toward the house on the
run.
"Whoa!" cried the professor
laughing, you poor young idiot"
Then, in a lower tone, he eau
toned; IF our friend Milt seer
you want this place so badly, he'll
run up the price. Where's your
Yankee blood?"
I sobered down to a walk, and
together we slipped behind a cen
tury-old lilac bush at the corner
OF the house, and sought the front
Of the dwelling unobserved.
The house was set with its side
to the road, about one hundred
feet into the lot. A long ell rar