Page:Henry Ford's Own Story.djvu/87

 damp earth and the feeling of space reminded her of the country. She liked it.

"All right, let's buy this one," she said.

A few days later they signed the contract. The lot cost seven hundred dollars, fifty dollars down and the rest in monthly payments. Ford drew from the savings bank two hundred dollars, his bank balance at the time he left the farm, and bought lumber. After that he spent his evenings building the house.

While he hammered and sawed Mrs. Ford was at work in the yard. She set out rose bushes, planted a vegetable garden behind the shed. The neighboring women came over to get acquainted, and asked her to come in some time and bring her sewing as soon as she got settled. After those six months in a dreary boarding house it must have been pleasant to her to see the beginnings of a home and a friendly circle again.

"This seems to be a nice neighborhood; I think we're going to enjoy it here," she said later to her husband, holding the lantern while he nailed down the floors, long after dark.

"That's good—glad you like it," he answered. "I wish the place was finished, so I could get to work."

Meantime, at the Edison plant, he was making his first experiments in applying his machine-idea to the managing of men.