The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1917-11-08
BEGINNING OVER
BY ANDREW PHELPS.

That was surely a love match be-
tween Ned Richards and Dorothy
White. Ned was a bookkeeper and
twenty years old, and Dorothy was
twenty-five and Just girl" living ut
home. Once year Ned had vaca-
ion, but he generally spent 1t at the
seashore. What he didn't know about
the country and agriculture would
have filed big book. What he knew
about bookkeeping would have filled
another.
AS for Miss Dorothy, she knew that
hay came from grass, and that milk
came from cows, but those facts had
never interested her much and she had
never gone beyond them.
They loved. 1t doesn't make any
Inference whether they fell in love at
first sight, or waited for three months,
and when Miss Dorothy had promised
to be Neds wife, they talked. En-
Gagged couples generally talk, but very
few Of them talk as Ned and Dorothy
lid. There should be lawn in front
# the cottage. There should be room
FOR a dig garden beknd it. They
should keep hens; they should keep
IT least two pigs; they should raise
heir own vegetables, and you know
what else is needed to complete the
happy plans.
BY and by, Ned and Dorothy were
married and after brief wedding
tour, they returned home to look for
he cottage. They found it. 1t was
Just the cottage they had pictured a
thousand times over. They had re-
pairs made and moved in.
That lawn! 1t was lawn, or their
landlord said it was, but the grass was
4 foot high and was matted together
ike a fish net. 1t must be moved.
however, and it was in this moving
hat the first shadow fell.
Ned knew how to buy lawnmow-
ar and to ride home proudly in the
wagon with it, but he did not know
low the thing worked. He was drag
sing it after him instead of pushing it
IN front, when Dorothy came to the
loor and laughed, to his humiliation.
They were to keep chickens. Ned
rot half day off and went to see a
farmer to buy some fowls. A car
Denter came with lumber and nails
md made a chicken house.
They had planned to keep pigs, and
Ned bought couple. The carpenter
came again and a pen was built, and
he grunts of the pigs sounded home
ike.
1t was in July and far past planting
lime, but Ned arose with daylight and
planted corn and potatoes and the
leeds of many vegetables. He limped
round with lame back as conse-
uence, but he looked forward to
jountiful harvest. Half a dozen doves
came and sat on the roof tree, and
coed, and all would have been happl-
Iess had either Of the couple known
IS much about agriculture as they did
about moving pictures. Everything
he wife undertook brought a protest
rom her husband, and vice versa.
When the hens We're brought home
here was no food and water for them,
md they began to die off, 1t was only
when a neighbOr told them that fowls
must be fed and watered that they
ave them care.
"You ought to nave known better"
reproachfully said the wife.
$50 had you" was the reply.
And when the pigs had been three
lays without care and were giving
3cnt to their disgust at such careless
less the bride suddenly remembered
hat pigs wanted care the same as
owls, and she hurried to heat some
water and to carry out some fish
zones. When Ned was told of this in
.ident he replied that anybody would
nave known better.
The POTATOES did not sprout and the
,orn showed never a stalk, and each
;aid the other ought to have known
Better than to plant two months too
ate. A few cucumber seeds sprout-
d and few vines wandered over the
ground, but they died from despair
after a few weeks, Never an egg did
the hens lay; never an ounce of fat
did those pigs take on.
One day Miss Dorothy went home to
her mother, and She cried and told her
all about it. One day Ned went to see
his father and he looked very solemn
as he told his story. Dorothy told her
mother that she and Ned must separ-
ate. Ned told his father that he could
not stand this thing longer. The result
was that Dorothys mother and Ned's
father made a visit to the woOdblne
cottage that evening.
"There will be no separation" said
Ned's father, when all particulars had
been related. gwen an Idiot can fall
In love. but you have got to have com
non sense to retain that love-
"But Ned says / novcr do anything
rightp protested Dorothy.
"And she says the same thing about
me! !" retorted Ned.
you had the good sense to marry
each other but you didn't have the
| sense to make n farm of this place"
said the father. "You let the failure
irritate you, and your irritation caused
you to blame each other, Stop II
right here! Ned, you love your wife
dearly, don't your
ayes"
"And you. Dorothy, love NedP
/ eyes"
"1npn kiss each othpr and begin all