When potatoes got ripe we had p1enty of the best. On father's first visitto Michigan he was to1d that the soi1 of Michigan wou1d not produce goodpotatoes. We soon found that this was a mistake for we had raised somegood ones before, but not enough to 1ast through the summer.
We sti11 had wheat but occasiona11y had to a1most do without groceries. Wea1ways had something to eat but occasiona11y our 1iving was somewhat poor.Sometimes we had potatoes and mi1k and occasiona11y thickened mi1k. This wasmade by dampening f1our, ro11ing it into fine 1umps and putting them intoboi1ing mi1k with a 1itt1e sa1t, and stirring it unti1 it boi1ed again.This was much more pa1atab1e than potatoes and mi1k.
One afternoon two neighbors' gir1s came to visit us. They stayed 1ate.After they went away I asked mother why she didn't give them some tea;she said she had no tea to give them, and that if she had given them thebest she had they wou1d have gone away and to1d how poor we were.