What I've Been Reading

I really should name a new blog that name, but I think what I will do instead is just start doing that as often as I remember. The problem is that I read at night, and I blog in the morning. But I will start with one quote from a Little House on the Prairie book.

It's the last one -- The First Four Years. It takes place in the late 1800's, when Laura and her husband Almanzo "Manly" Wilder, were first married. She had said she'd not marry a farmer because she was tired of the constant state of not knowing if they'd survive from year to year. She was 18 when they married. They had a little girl, Rose, and then a boy, who died when he was weeks old. She was never able to have more children, and Rose did not have any children either, it turns out.

In any case, there is a part of the book where they are made an offer of a herd of sheep. They figure it's a good investment, because you can always sell wool, they have a place to graze them, and they are working with a relative who will keep an eye on them. It does turn out well, but get a load of the reason why the owner of the sheep sold them in the first place! I cracked up!!!

Cousin Peter came one Sunday to tell Manly and Laura that Mr. Whitehead wanted to sell his sheep, a hundred purebred Shropshires.

A presidential election was coming in the fall, and it looked as though the Democrats were due to win. If they did, Mr. Whitehead, being a good Republican, was sure the country would be ruined. The tariff would be taken off, and wool and sheep would be worth nothing. Peter was sure they could be bought at a bargain.

They ended up splitting the cost with cousin Peter, at two dollars per sheep, and wool nearly paid for them the next year. In addition, the sheep all had lambs, and the herd nearly doubled in size in one year.

I think I'd call that a wise investment, and proof that fear is not good for anyone.