Status bar question-applet !!

Question

I wrote an applet (below) that is supposed (among other things) to write to the status bar but what happens is that "Applet started." always overwrites the text I'm trying to write to the status bar. Why is that and how can I fix that? The code is:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Multiplication extends JApplet implements ActionListener {
     JLabel showAnswer;
     JTextField answer;
     int usersAnswer, product, value1, value2;
     public void init()
               Container c=getContentPane();
               c.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
               showAnswer=new JLabel("Type in the answer: ");
               answer=new JTextField(10);
               answer.addActionListener(this);
               c.add(showAnswer);
               c.add(answer);
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
               multiplication();
          public void multiplication()
               value1=0+(int) (Math.random()*9);
               value2=0+(int) (Math.random()*9);
               showStatus("How much is "+value1+" times "+value2+"?");
               product=value1*value2;
               usersAnswer=Integer.parseInt(answer.getText());
               if (usersAnswer==product) {
                    showStatus("Very good!");
               while (usersAnswer!=product) {
                    usersAnswer=Integer.parseInt(answer.getText());
                    showStatus("No.Please try again.");
}

Answer 1

I modified my code a little bit and now it works but I still can't figure out how to overwrite the initial string ("Applet started."). Can someone help me,please !!!
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Multiplication extends JApplet implements ActionListener {
     JLabel showAnswer;
     JTextField answer;
     int usersAnswer, product, value1, value2;
     public void init()
               Container c=getContentPane();
               c.setLayout(new FlowLayout());
               showAnswer=new JLabel("Type in the answer: ");
               answer=new JTextField(10);
               answer.addActionListener(this);
               c.add(showAnswer);
               c.add(answer);
               showStatus("");
          public void start()
               showStatusBar();
          public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
               multiplication();
          public void multiplication()
               usersAnswer=Integer.parseInt(answer.getText());
               if (usersAnswer==product) {
                    showStatus("Very good!");
               if (usersAnswer!=product) {
                    showStatus("No.Please try again.");
          public void showStatusBar()
               value1=0+(int) (Math.random()*9);
               value2=0+(int) (Math.random()*9);
               showStatus("How much is "+value1+" times "+value2+"?");
               product=value1*value2;
}