Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-02

dwelling on our lacks we should come out strong for our compensations.
 In other words, we should make the best of it, whatever it is.
 The other day I came down from the mountain woodIot, tired to the tips of my toes. My back aohed and my legs ached and my fingers ached and my ears stung with the cold and my feet were wet and claInmy from work ing hours in the snow. It was already darkening into stormy night, and there were the cows and the horses and the hens and the pig to be fed, before I could get into dry clothes and eat my own supper and sit down by the stove. Wow! I began wonder ing to myself what fit of temporary idiocy had ever led me to choose such surroundings and such away of iv- ing.
 We'll, the first thing was to go down cellar and get some roots for the cows. Right over the bin where the carrots are stored runs a wide shelf. As I was filling the carrot basket, l couldn't help seeing it in the lantern light, And right there my grouch began to weaken and waver.
 On that shelf were some dozens of cans of corn; other dozens of tona- toes; other dozens of peas; other doz- ems of beans; a lot of pears and peach es and blackberries and blueberries and raspberries and sweet. pickles; all except the peaches from homegrown fruits apd vegetables, canned at home and canned to eat-not just to sell. Right behind me was the well-filled potato bin. Just beyond were the ap- pie barrels. The other side of the l stairs were onions and beets and tur- nips and ruta-bagas and celery. In the barrel were thirty gallons of home made cider vinegar, with a cask of last falls cider souring to renew it as used. On one low bench stood con- tainers with mess pork and lard and Sauer-kraut and cucumber pickles, etc; on another. jar after jar of butter and water -glassed eggs, put down when at their best for use when the cold weather should stint the milk pail and lessen egg production. As I came up with my roots for the cows 1T passed through the woodShed in which snug under cover, were piled six CT more cords of sawed. split, sea soned, dried hard wood for fuel, with i ten cords more stacked just outside and other loads coming every day to be ready for tte saw the following week.
 And the butcher has sent word that he'd be round to dress that pig, day after tomorrow.
 In the store-house was the crib of corn, bags of wheat and other grains, and the barrels of white flour. entire wheat four and "canaiTle"-that last the best griddle cake material yet dis l covered.
 Up at the barn was a-now-fu4 Of hay, floor congested with sweet ! corn stalks, scaffold of yet un- threshed oats, and bin of ground feed.
 If all the coal miners in the coun- | try should strike. I should still have 1 plenty of the best possible fuel If all the railroad men should strike and | stop the transportation. of foods, I | should still have enough to eat. As
 l contrasted this situation with that Of the average city dweller, dependent
 for every days supplies on the corner grocer and the coal man and the
 milkman, my grouch vanishes com pletely, and I began, figuratively
 speaking, to hug myself in self -grat- l ulation.
 The farm looked pretty good to me,
 now let me tell you. It had cost hard
 work, to be sure, to get7these things ready; hard work for the good man
 to raise and gather them, hard work | for the good wife to can and preserve
 some of them, but-there they were.
 And, if the mining and manufactur- l ing and transportation worlds chose to go mad and bite off their own noses 1 in the endeavor to spite somebody
 else's face. why, we could pull through
 and at least make a live of it from our own reserves.
 Later, when the chores are all done
 and the supper of home produced pork
 and beans and brown bread and rnince pie put where it would do the most | good. and the old chunk" stove roar ing merrily, and the big lamp shin ing brilliantly, and my wet boots off
 and my warm slippers on, I picked up my paper and stretched out my toes 1 toward the stove and read, first thing, that sixteen hundred families in Oma- ha were without even pound of coal and that even more in Chicago were
 without food because of the withdraw
 al of freight trains. and that New
 York had only four days supply e1 certain necessities on hand with none
 in sight going that way-why, then
 took off my glasses and wiped them
 carefully, and laid them on the arm of
 the chair and lifted up both hands