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.