nhood in the new activity of the "beloved southland." This story is
especially interesting because it shows what one girl has done just with
what she had, and how she found that she had a great deal more to work
with than she had dreamed. The writer of the many letters from which the
account is framed, is a little over twenty years old, and lives on a
farm of two hundred acres, twenty-five of which are cleared. The nearest
village, which consists of just a score of houses, is three miles from
her farm. The land is not productive without fertilizer, but at the best
produces a fair crop of corn and sweet potatoes.

This is the way the farm looked when she first saw it: "Around the house
was an old-fashioned flower garden planted years before. The woods and
creek were beautiful. The day we arrived, after we had crossed the creek
and were inside the clearing, what we saw made us forget the long drive
through black stumps and fallen trees. The oaks were just coming into
leaf. The dogwoods formed a semi-circle around the place and were white
with bloom against the green of the pines, while the wisteria hung in
great clusters and the bridal wreath was one heap of white flowers."

This was the first entrancing glimpse. But any one who knows about farm
work, realizes that this view of a run-down, neglected old place means a
long struggle. Nature has reached out hands to pull the whole
cultivation back into the wilderness. In that tangled fragrant clearing
was waiting a severe test for a trained farmer, not to say, for a
beginner. But this girl was determined to live on the farm, and she
stood ready to face all difficulties in the attainment of her desire.
That neglected garden was typical. She soon had it cleaned and the bulbs
reset, and it was not long before there were flowers for every month in
the year. All difficulties seem to have been met with a spirit of
determination and of cheer. "We were crazy," she declares, "to live on a
farm and determined not to fail; but as soon as one problem was solved,
another would bob up. There was never a day without some unexpected
happening, and adventures were plentiful."

She would have amply proved that she appreciated the attractiveness of
farm life if she had not classified her thoughts and set them down so
neatly. To her the charm of life on the farm consists, first, in the
fresh air and wholesome food, with plenty of fruit and vegetables,
together with the pleasure of helping to p