Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money онлайн

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They were in debt, through the illness of the husband, a mill worker, whom the doctors had told to get into some line of work that would give him plenty of outdoor exercise.

In the residential section of the city, near by, were many back yards either sown in grass or covered with weeds, and utterly neglected and uncared for.

The wife visited many of the homes where these conditions prevailed, and offered to give their back yards thorough cultivation during the season, for one-half of what might be grown on them. Some of the people refused the offer but enough agreed to the proposition to keep both the wife and her husband constantly employed.

They raised a great deal more of all kinds of garden produce than both the families of the owners and the renters could use, and one-half of the excess they sold at good prices in the city, even selling some of it to the people who had refused them the use of their ground.

The next year they had offers of more back yards than they could cultivate, but their three boys helped them with the work, and together they succeeded so well that they not only lived better than they ever had before, but were entirely out of debt and had a bank account besides.