Among some delightfully "potted biographies are the records of peasants
or the sons of very poor farmers who have risen from poverty—to be precise, a wage of 12 a year !---to considerable wealth and position. The best of these successful climbers draws a useful moral. His view is that the small man makes a mistake if he begins with the small holding and e,xpects it to provide a surplus. He must in the early years work for others as well as for himself; must have not one but two professions. One man dates his success frcm the purchase of three drills, which he used to let out along with himself. He concludes : I have always made money by hiring out myself and any machine I might have to my neighbours. Why, that pays." And he so spoke and acted after he had taken a fair-sized farm. Smaller men whom I know of as successful, both in Denmark and Sutton Bridge, make good by a like method. * s *
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