Driven Back to Eden | Page 8

at the bright-colored papers of
flower-seeds on her plate. To Winnie were given half a dozen china
eggs with which to lure the prospective biddies to lay in nests easily
reached, and she tried to cackle over them in absurd imitation. Little
Bobsey had to have some toys and candy, but they all presented to his
eyes the natural inmates of the barn-yard. In the number of domestic
animals he swallowed that day he equalled the little boy in Hawthorne's
story of "The House of the Seven Gables," who devoured a
ginger-bread caravan of camels and elephants purchased at Miss
Hepzibah Pyncheon's shop.
Our Christmas dinner consisted almost wholly of such vegetables as we
proposed to raise in the coming summer. Never before were such
connoisseurs of carrots, beats, onions, parsnips, and so on through
almost the entire list of such winter stock as was to be obtained at our
nearest green-grocery. We celebrated the day by nearly a dozen dishes
which the children aided my wife in preparing. Then I had Merton
figure the cost of each, and we were surprised at the cheapness of much
of country fare, even when retailed in very small quantities.

This brought up another phase of the problem. In many respects I was
like the children, having almost as much to learn as they--with the
advantage, however, of being able to correct impressions by experience.
In other words, I had more judgment; and while I should certainly
make mistakes, not many of them would be absurd or often repeated. I
was aware that most of the homely kitchen vegetables cost
comparatively little, even though (having in our flat no good place for
storage) we had found it better to buy what we needed from day to day.
It was therefore certain that, at wholesale in the country, they would
often be exceedingly cheap. This fact would work both ways: little
money would purchase much food of certain kinds, and if we produced
these articles of food they would bring us little money.
I will pass briefly over the period that elapsed before it was time for us
to depart, assured that the little people who are following this simple
history are as eager to get away from the dusty city flat to the sunlight,
breezy fields, brooks, and woods as were the children in my story. It is
enough to say that, during all my waking hours not devoted to business,
I read, thought, and studied on the problem of supporting my family in
the country. I haunted Washington Market in the gray dawn and
learned from much inquiry what products found a ready and certain
sale at some price, and what appeared to yield to the grower the best
profits. There was much conflict of opinion, but I noted down and
averaged the statements made to me. Many of the market-men had
hobbies, and told me how to make a fortune out of one or two articles;
more gave careless, random, or ignorant answers; but here and there
was a plain, honest, sensible fellow who showed me from his books
what plain, honest, sensible producers in the country were doing. In a
few weeks I dismissed finally the tendency to one blunder. A novice
hears or reads of an acre of cabbages or strawberries producing so
much. Then he figures, "if one acre yields so much, two acres will give
twice as much," and so on. The experience of others showed me the
utter folly of all this; and I came to the conclusion that I could give my
family shelter, plain food, pure air, wholesome work and play in plenty,
and that not very soon could I provide much else with certainty. I tried
to stick closely to common-sense; and the humble circumstances of the
vast majority living from the soil proved that there was in these pursuits

no easy or speedy road to fortune. Therefore we must part reluctantly
with every penny, and let a dollar go for only the essentials to the
modest success now accepted as all we could naturally expect. We had
explored the settled States, and even the Territories, in fancy; we had
talked over nearly every industry from cotton and sugarcane planting to
a sheep-ranch. I encouraged all this, for it was so much education out of
school-hours; yet all, even Merton, eventually agreed with me that we
had better not go far away, but seek a place near schools, markets,
churches, and well inside of civilization.
"See here, youngsters, you forget the most important crop of all that I
must cultivate," I said one evening.
"What is that?" they cried in chorus.
"A crop of boys and girls. You may think that my mind is chiefly on
corn and potatoes. Not at all. It is chiefly