huntr V r OMER HOMER cl li C roy re THE STORY THUS FAR amos croy settled on oil a farm at 11 II sour bourl where he married and a son nomer homer was ai born sunday meant church company for or dinner anil and steer weight SIng De horning borning of the he calves cut cur inc IDE of hams ham weaning of calves calve anil and sao au sage cafe making we jobs job that Homer bad to help with ons on ot of homers ble big thrills wa was helping novi a neighbor break in his bis mules millet nawt used his own system he be would hatab the mule double to a wagon and force them to run away lie he always said that hat a mule was no good until after it had bad run away and he be made money by brea breaking kInc mules proving hit his system was pretty good the neighbors did not dot approve of his method however CHAPTER IX it took experts for this for a crazy quilt is twice as hard as an ordinary quilt but phebe knew how and would go from one to another arranging patches and making suggestions gest ions and now 69 as the days quilting drew to a climax there would be a great hubbub as they tried to decide which color of thread went with which patch and what kind of stitch to use but phebe knew she fancy stitch at all herself because she would be too busy showing others ma would come in and stand in the background handing out patches and picking up the chalk when it rolled off on the floor phebe would lower her voice aunt where do you want the campaign ribbon to go in the middle ma would say the voices would fall away to a hush because they all knew what the campaign ribbon meant it could not be finished in a day sometimes it took a woman years working alone winter evenings to complete her crazy quilt but it was helped along and the women all wanted to say had a part in the quilt they would begin looking out the window to see if the men were coming theres newt mrs kennedy would say one by one the men would arrive and stand in the lot talking to pa never dreaming to go to the house one ond by one the carts and buggies would leave mrs gerilda knabb would come out but there would be no surrey now so I 1 would have to go to the granary and get two sawhorses saw horses I 1 would try to maneuver her horse up but he had been standing all day and wanted to get home mrs knabb standing on top of the sawhorses saw horses would shout choal whoa stand still bowl now 9 and I 1 would shout too to the prancing horse ma and phebe would hear us shouting and would come to the door and begin calling warnings to mrs knabb and instructions to me and now with everybody shout ing the horse would prance more than ever finally pa would come up through the hog lot and take hold of the bit and I 1 would help mrs knabb and pretty soon she would be on and going toward the main road pulling and sawing at the frisky sn snorting animal homer take down the frames ma would say once mote more coming into charge the people in our section took few papers but the ones we did take were read and reread and stacked in a pile and treasured we even kept our mail order magazines that was the final test everybody tried to subscribe to the home weekly but there was a pinch it was a year when pa went to town saturday and asked for the mail there it would be with pas name written across the top in in lead pencil we wait till we got home so ma would put on her glasses and read snatches aloud as we jolted along in the hack but it until after the chores were done and the lamp lighted that we really tore into it item by item then after nearly every one there er was a discussion ma ala would read a name and there would be a silence then pa would say why I 1 saw him not three weeks ago everybody took a farm paper or nearly everybody wallaces farmer was the most popular but th the e iowa homestead was on its heels and there was the mail and breeze but hardly any family took more than one two dollars a year there ma ala would read the farmer aloud and it opened up a world the county weekly know existed there would be mention of towns we never even heard of far off places in iowa and nebraska now and then there would be a mention of ohio pa would lean forward a little every family took a religious paper ours was the rams horn sometimes ot of an evening pa would be reading wallaces F farmer armer ma would be reading the rams horn and I 1 would be breathless in T the e youths companion especially in tracks end by hayden carruth where the indian came crawling through the snow tunnel but there was another kind of paper that everybody took and that was what we called the mail order monthly the reason everybody b 0 dy took it was be juse it was I 1 cheap twenty fie conin a vear once nce the thing iut gut c it kept on coming it w s not tike ike the youths companion Comp tinnin wint ga e you two weeks i notice and meant it sometimes it would keep on a year or two after your subscription aar ran out before it would whack you off the one we took and the one that was most popular in our oui section was comfort published in augusta maine where they all seemed ao to spawn I 1 can still see the heading which said COMFORT key to a million homes the letters in comfort were strung along a gigantic key it seemed to me there was no limit to human ingenuity this along with others of its tribe carried mail order advertisements which had to do with how to make money raising belgian hares how to cure bed wetting and big money in squabs squats there was an ad that was tremendously persuasive to me send ten cents for big mail I 1 loved to get mail and so saved up and subscribed to one or two of course it was all advertising matter and it never had cyp my name right but just the same it was iome something thing coming through the post office addressed to me sometimes I 1 got more mail than pa he would say homer why do you want to carry all that trash home but I 1 clung to it I 1 had many hours with nothing to fill them so I 1 pawed through it from how to get rid of chicken worms to make easy money selling soap sap to your friendly neighbors we had a patent washing machine just as most of our neigh m e bazz j I 1 Z Z it J the one most popular in our sic section was comfort bors had the patent consisted of a big iron ball fastened to a pendulum when you pushed the handle back and forth the pendulum with its iron ball swung to and ato clumping everybody on the shins the printed notice pasted on the side said that running this machine was a pleasure I 1 would look at the notice nolice and wonder what kind of man had written that my mother was not strong so I 1 always had to help with the washing how long and dreary and harrowing monday was carry water from the wash boiler on the kitchen stove and dump it into the ezy family washer then push the damned handle back and forth till I 1 thought I 1 would die now and then ma would come out I 1 would swing up the lid and she would peer into the steamy depths A moments rest and id hope the clothes had been washed long enough but they never had the lid would have to go down and the pendulum again started swinging bachand back and forth I 1 used to read as I 1 pushed the handle A book was too heavy and too awkward to hold but COMFORT key to alillion homes was just about right so I 1 would grasp it in one hand and read about people in newport it did not take me long to discover they were a pretty bad lot also I 1 thought I 1 would like to have a fling at it myself one day as I 1 was pushing the pendulum back and forth I 1 read an announcement which said the magazine was going to have a true dream contest open to any subscriber this was before the post office department got ideas and that all you had to do was to write plainly on one side of the paper and see that your subscription was paid up As I 1 swayed the pendulum back and forth I 1 began to think up a true dream A little trouble with my conscience there still the newport set have hesitated I 1 laid the scene in the 0 ozarks although I 1 had never been there the idea dealt with myself and a companion who had gone on a camping trip in the ozarks the poor man got lost and I 1 dreamed where he was and I 1 went to the cavern where he had fallen and lowered a rope which I 1 happened to have I 1 handy and pulled him out then we looked at his watch which had stopped when he had fallen alien into the water it had shipped ped ai exactly flythe the hour I 1 had likened frim fr rim im my adreani I 1 felt eft pretty hopeful about the watch touch I 1 wrote it plainly on one side ot of the paper as instructed and sent it to our national true dream contest without saying a word to anyone the watch touch might not realy really work I 1 expected the winner would be in the next number lor for I 1 did not know that a monthly magazine had problems our weekly have to contend with one day I 1 would be sure I 1 would win the next I 1 would be sure I 1 that being the nature of hope one day pa went to town alone and when I 1 saw him coming I 1 rushed out to get the mail as I 1 always did there among the advertising matter was an envelope addressed to me on a typewriting machine the first I 1 ever received the big mail concerns wrote my name in lead pencil except now and then when I 1 seemed promising enough to have my name printed on a slip of paper and pasted on when this happened I 1 was sure to get mail from them for quite a while but after a time they would get discouraged and id have to make new contacts but there it was I 1 opened it dear mr croy we take pleasure in telling you that you have won first place in our national true dream contest and we are herewith enclosing check for first prize I 1 opened the check and there it was a check for a dollar it was a thrilling moment I 1 went around to the side where pa was un hitching and said with a tremendous effort at casualness well I 1 got a check he stopped with a tug in his hand and looked at me incredulously A check here it is I 1 fluttered the document how much is it for I 1 told him how did you get it I 1 told him take it in and show it to your mother he said and led the horses down across the lot to the water tank ma thought it was wonderful it long till pa came up from the barn walking faster than usual took off his overshoes and sat down in his rocker well susan it seems the boys got a checkl check it was a supreme moment for me how long did it take you homer two hours two hours he repeated and I 1 could see he was doing mathematics 1 I guess better read his piece aloud susan I 1 tried to look as modest as I 1 could As ma read the expression on pas face changed he quit rocking and sat there puzzled and disappointed the piece about le arnin the calf to drink was fine helpful anybody could put it to use but a dream id made up out of my heads he praised it a little but only a little for he a man to say something he mean finally choring time came and he put on his overshoes and started back to the barn lot but ma disappointed it was a fine piece one day shortly after this as I 1 was going down the street in town I 1 saw in the window of the racket store a picture I 1 knew the instant I 1 saw it that I 1 wanted it was a panel containing pictures and a caption which said six famous american authors under each was printed the name henry wadsworth longfellow john greenleaf whittier nathaniel hawthorne ralph waldo emerson james russell lowell edgar allan poe I 1 looked at them and thought what great men they were and wished that 1 I myself sometime could do something worth while I 1 was able some way or other to raise the money and bought the panel when I 1 got home my mother wanted to know what I 1 had I 1 was suddenly self conscious and did not show it to her because my secret was so precious she came up aft er I 1 had gone to my room and there was nasr the panel unwrapped she looked at me for a moment seemed to understand my hesitation in showing it and said ill help you put it up and she did but neither ot ol us mentioned the significance of the picture in july my father would say to my mother ive just been through the water watermelon patch and some borne good melons are coming on I 1 think we might have a swim swimming nIng party then hed say to me in h his is sly hil humorous way horper homer would you mind telling the neighbors of course I 1 because nothing was more fun than a swimming party the evening of the party wed get the chores done early and eat an early supper then get the plates and knives and benches ready and go out on the front porch to wait tor for the neighbors seem to r me e never come but at last wed see them coming down the road in newt kennedys Kenn edys spring wagon pad lean forward 1 I do believe hes got a new mule on the spring he s goin to kill somebody sometime you lust just mark my word TO 0 BE CONTINUED