"In 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression, Elliott Merrick and his wife Kate, bought a ramshackle farm on a Vermont hillside for $1,000. Merrick, a young writer with a healthy dose of idealism and a determination to live in the country, had just sold his first book.". "This book describes Merrick's and his family's often haphazard attempts to make a go of it on these stony, wintry acres, in a house that was falling down around them. Through it all, they believed wholeheartedly in going directly after the things they wanted most: to write and to farm, however they could." "A tale about old houses, farming, writing, and the joys of country life, this book is as fresh today as when it was originally published more than half a century ago."--BOOK JACKET.