Here's our story, page by page,
Happy youth and middle-age,
Smile and tear-drop, weal and woe
Such as all who live must know—
Here it is all written down,
Not for glory or renown,
But the hope when we are gone
Those who bravely follow on
Meeting care and pain and grief
Will not falter in belief.
We have been building a home for the last fifteen years, but it beginsto look now as though it will not be finished for many years to come.This is not because the contractors are slow, or the materials scarce,or because we keep changing our minds. Rather it is because it takesyears to build a home, whereas a house can be builded in a few months.
Mother and I started this home-building job on June 28th, 1906. I wastwenty-five years of age; and she—well, it is sufficient for thepurposes of this record to say that she was a few years younger. I wasjust closing my career as police reporter for the Detroit "Free Press,"when we were married. Up to a few months before our wedding, my hourshad been from three o'clock, in the afternoon, until three o'clock inthe morning, every day of the week except Friday. Those are not fithours for a married man—especially a young married man. So it wasfortunate for me that my managing editor thought I might havepossibilities as a special writer, and relieved me from night duty.
It was then we began to plan the home we should build. It was to be ahall of contentment and the abiding place of joy and beauty. And it wasall going to be done on the splendid salary of twenty-eight dollars aweek. That sum doesn't sound like much now, but to us, in January, 1906,it was independence. The foundation of our first home was something lessthan five hundred dollars, out of which was also to come theextravagance of a two-weeks' honeymoon trip.
Fortunately for all of us, life does not break its sad news in advance.Dreams are free, and in their flights of fancy young folks may be asextravagant as they wish. There may be breakers ahead, and trials, daysof discouragement and despair, but life tells us nothing of them tospoil our dreaming.
We knew the sort of home we wanted, but we were willing to beginhumbly. This was not because we were averse to starting at the top.Both Mother and I had then, and have now, a fondness for the best thingsof life. We should have liked a grand piano, and a self-making ice box,and a servant, and an automobile right off! But less than five hundreddollars capital and twenty-eight dollars a week salary do not providethose things.
What we could have would be a comfortable flat, and some nicefurniture. We'd pay cash for all we could, and buy the remainder of thenecessary things on time. We had found a wonderful, brand-new flat whichwe could rent for twenty-five d