Show CP Country und 00 HOMER C u re CROY SERVICE THE STORY THUS FAR amos amo croy former sergeant serce ant in the civil war left ohio and made his big home near marys ville missouri tie he married susan sewell daughter of another covered wagon pioneer they built up a farm that later developed into one of the best in the a t tat a t e wats it was n not 0 t long lone before homer was born to the cloys the year the brooklyn bridge was built he be received his name from a township to la ohio not after the blind poet ills ilia ont first memory was of a cyclone which blew the barn down and wrecked half ball the he orchard As neighbors were tar far apart he be had few friends in his earlier days it was always hard for homer to make friends he be was naturally reserved and backward CHAPTER III in the center of the table would be a high dish with a single stem and on an this dish would be a cake covered with white icing on a low flat dish close beside the tall one legged dish would be a black chocolate cake this cake always showed the marks made by my mothers knife when she spread the chocolate over the cake but the knife marks show on the white cake I 1 always a looked at the cakes first even if they were the last things to be eaten fried chicken chicke nl no sunday dinner in the summertime would make sense without fried chicken and gravy with the gizzards giz on a little dish by themselves so no one by mistake would get a gizzard but the necks stayed on the big plate why this was I 1 dont know but they were always with the good pieces just as if the scrawny things belonged there toward the foot of the table where in my y mother sat would be two kinds of pies if anybody asked company to sunday dinner and have two kinds of pies it was pretty close ta to an insult in this little cluster of pies and jams would be the fine creamy white coffee sugar as we called it weekdays we used brown sugar or coarse granulated white sugar but not on sunday in this group would be the spiced peaches which my mother had put up but spiced peaches presented presente ct a problem the best kind was the yellow clingstones cling stones but the meat was hard to get oil off so we had to decide whether to try to cut it off or to put the whole thing in our mouths you had to know people pe ople pretty well before you could do that ma ala would make a trip or two back and forth to the kitchen then say Every things on amos and pa would say well folks since youre here you might just as well stay and eat with us in a moment wed all be standing around the table me pretty close and the sight of the food just about driving me crazy newt would look at the table and say 1 I guess you sold anything lately amos and every boded laugh when we were seated be a different air a little awkwardness now will you ask the blessing newt P pa a would say because it was manners n ers to let the company do that then newt would lean forward and clear his throat there would be a silence when he finished then everybody would begin to laugh and talk the sound would rise and fall then there would be a serious note somebody had died or mastitis was in the next county A long pause here then as if to make up for the serious note the talk pendulum would swing up again and pretty soon everybody would be laughing ma would pick up the peacock jan fan and swish it with its lovely rustling let me do that susan mrs kennedy would say when it was again time and ma would say thank you minnie but I 1 can do it but mrs kennedy would pick up the fan and swish the flies anyway you had to be pretty well acquainted for that hat the filling food as we called it would disappear and chicken bones would pile up suddenly ma would jump up and dash out to the kitchen then in a few moments come hopping back gracious I 1 almost forgot the roa roasting sting earsl ears there be the long grimes golden we had got out of our own field wed butter and salt peon em and fly into em because there anything better than yellow field corn roasting ears wed work our way down to the fancy vittles bittles vitt les the pies and cakes and pres preserves arves by this time everybody would be eating more slowly than at first and talking a great deal now mrs kennedy would say susan how long do you cook your watermelon preserves and ma would tell her and id get hungry all over again newta push back in his chair and sigh and say for a while I 1 think the food was going to hold out but thank good goodness nessi it did pa who always joked at the table with newt to make the laugh would say because my family held back after wed eaten everything we could phebe would get up in her quiet way and go to the pantry and bring back a mason jar with a screw top and say maybe some boded like to have a molasses mol molas asies cs cookie nobody would except me some way or other I 1 could always manage a few after dinner wed go out and sit under the water maple and newt would open his vest and say it manners but it was comfort and pad say what counts it be long till the men were sleepy hardly talking at all their heads now and then jerking forward the women never seemed to get sleepy A team would top the hill and we would all try to be first to tell who it was the company would say it looks like so and so pa would say its not his team it must be a stranger then newt would say A mover passed my house yesterday and pa would say theres a lot of changes taking place e 11 the men would continue to come closer by this time the women would be in the door then pa would say jim bertl hes breaking in a new horse the reason we know him pa was good at spotting people then pad go out to the road and call do you want to come in jim 1 I cant amos im breaking a filly better stop jim were going to weigh i I 1 j jim would be tempted id sure like to but I 1 better not you know I 1 V Z A i A ay 2 N wed pick out three or tour four steers and head them for the scale lot how a filly is is the first time you drive her pa fa understood after jime gone ma would say 1 I dont think he ought to break on the sabbath A bit later lafer pa would say do you want to guess on the stock newt of course the company did and so the men and me would start to the pasture As they walked along pa would say are you having any trouble with russian thistles whistles es and newt would say im having one hell of a time there would be a silence because that had slipped and I 1 would think of him not two hours ago addressing god life was hard to understand pa would say Is your jack serving many mares and newt would say two yesterday real man talk now do you guarantee to stand and suck pa would ask then newt would say 1 I do business on any other platform right pa w would say pa was always for the square deal have you got any bangs disease yes I 1 have newt would admit you want to be careful its hard to handle once it gets started 1 I sure know it if you have both bangs disease an and d mastitis youre in a bad way ive got em cm both newt w would say then pa would give him advice and nine times out of ten pad be right he was a good farmer your pasture looks short dont it amos newt would ask im getting a lot of dog fennel pa would say the only thing eat it is sheep newt would say and it dont do them any good pa would answer wed pick out three or four steers and head them for the scale lot stock weighing was a neighborhood party everybody knew wed have a stock weighing and they knew be welcome too and so drive over about the right time when we got the steers up be an ex extra tra wagon in the drive lot and a buggy or two maybe some of the neighbors would have come across the fields on toot foot be coming toward the scale lot laughing lau phing and talking the women a little bt behind hind everybody would crowd up to the fence and look at the steers with ahe the white clover saliva falling ou of their mouths A steer would toss his head to get a fly off or stomp a foot suddenly one of the steers would make a dash and bump up against another the way penned cattle cattie do then hed stand still again the saliva running a little faster what do you say newt pa would ask you saw their pasture you ought to come pretty close that was a sly dig because newt was not much of a steer guesser but he was a natural born mule man no one could beat him when it came to mules even if he guess good newt always made a caremon ceremony I 1 IY of it he would turn his head fro from m si side d e to side and pull his chin and squint it n s sometimes held hed get over th the e fen fence ce and try to run his fingers al along ong th the e backbone to see how firm the fat was write that whiteface down for 11 ma would put it down one by one the men would guess pa last be a little silence because he was the best guesser and knew the cattle 1 I can see pounds then the women would guess lots of laughing because nobody expected much from them one of the men would open the scale gate and the steer would make a dash thinking he was getting away then see the other gate and have to pull up short more white clover drippings droppings drip pings pa would run the marker up and down till the beam was steady then put on his glasses and announce the weight what a shout would go up I 1 more codding than ever what a disgrace to be low man hed have to make all sorts of excuses like he could of guessed closer only he wanted jo 0 o give somebody else a chance then read the guesses more afore laughing now guesses would be placed ed on another steer and hed make a dash thinking too that he was free finally all the steers would be through and ma would announce who was winner usually it was pa he had to appear modest so hed say 1 I got them up and weighed them yesterday then a moment of seriousness got some blackleg in hughes township one of the men would say A silence when everybody was feeling it pa would say at just the right moment ill go out to the patch and see if I 1 cant locate a melon this would make them laugh and the th e silence that had vibrated for a moment would be gone all walk to the house hou se the men in one bunch and the women in another and pa and I 1 would go to the cave and bring up the melons ma would put on her apron and pass around plates and knives and forks and saltcellars salt salte cellars ellars pa would take the butcher knife and stand its point on a melon with everybody watching and knowing a big moment had come down would go the knife crack why its full of seeds pa would say with pretended disgust it be long till be eating the women sitting on chairs and the men planted along the porch edge id have to collect the rinds and carry them to the chicken yard and put them down good side up then I 1 would skip back so as not to miss any of the talk the porch and yard became a sort of grange as we exchanged ideas and caught up on the news mr M r was going to have a public sale the fourteenth lawson scott was going to witch tor for a stock well and so and so had applied for job as knabb teacher about choring time d leave and as they drove away lonesomeness hung in the air then we would change our clothes feed the stock get the dijk milk buckets and start down across th the corncobs corn cobs after the chores were finished ma would get supper and wed draw up our chairs to the kitchen table but no blessing because it was only cold mush and milk and oilcloth we would go into the sitting room and ma would take the ahe paper bag off ob the chimney and light the lamp and we would talk over everything that had happened and exchange news because ma ala had got some from the women and pa some from the men and phebe who lived with us had got some pa would get out wallaces farmer and take off his shoes with the brass eyelets and set them neatly beside his chair so no one would break their neck ma would look through the church papers wed brought home then get out the bible and begin to read now and then she would stop and ask pa something and he would put down the farmer and say hed heard it explained this way then she would begin to read again along in the autumn pa would say 1 I think wed better dehorn ill see if I 1 can see jim vert in town saturday when he come came home he w would say 1 I saw jim and he promised to come tuesday how many have you got ma ala would ask and aad pa would say on a rough estimate sixty TO BE |