0 HOW WE CLIMBED; Mrs. W. F. S., South Carolina; February 1924

Thirteen years ago, my husband and I started our home as tenants; we owned one horse, a cow and one shoat and had a few hundred dollars, saved before we were married. With this money we bought a one-acre lot and built a five-room bungalow; we had just enough left to buy wire for a garden fence. We started our first year of married life without money for out-buildings. Husband did the field work; I did the work of the home. I sold butter, eggs, chickens.

It took all of the first year's income to build a barn and smoke-house but we persevered, making a little more each year. In the third or fourth year, my husband made twenty-one bales of cotton with only thirteen dollars paid out of labor until gathering time. He always raises enough corn for feed and some to sell; we also have plenty of hay. We produce everything that can be successfully grown in this climate. Mules and farm machinery have been purchased as needed.

The first extra dollars we could spare we decided to invest in Building and Loan stock.

We now have eighty-one acres of land, a remodeled home with water works, electric lights and many other conveniences.

Two years ago our County Home Demonstration Agent opened a curb market in our town, something new to all of us club members. I was the first woman there and the first to make a sale. This market has been a success from that day and grows each month. We open two days a week in the winter and three in summer. I sell butter, eggs, chickens, vegetable, flowers and some preserves and pickles. I make quite a little sum on flowers. Dahlias and gladioli sell best.

My sales for last year amounted to $900. This is my income, and with it I buy clothes, table supplies, carry Building and Loan, help support three orphan children and give a tenth to religious and other good causes.

We have not “happened” on any “good luck”--it has been done by hard work and systematic saving.