Show HIS EYES OPEN chy there are no mail order catalogues one home FARMER WILLIAMS LESSON n time of adders ty he got to un der stand who were his real friends prosperity in stand ing together copyright 1906 by affied chark what got there bisa inquired farmer williams as he kicked off felt boots and set them carefully be bind the stove to dry what 1 thought it looked like of them there chicago catalogs caty logs though I 1 hain t seen one dost ter quite a few years back me an your ma to buy mighty nigh everything ever thing we used out of them catalogs caty logs when we first come to kansas land sakes 1 I have to laugh now sometimes when I 1 think ot the way we would git fetched in awhile they s some cheap things lit them catalogs caty logs an then agin they a a lot t aint so cheap never kin they come an then its too late to send em back but as I 1 was a sayla we faint bought bothin out of a catalog fer a right smart years now an the way it come about I 1 bad as well tell cause I 1 dont think really remember much about it when we come to kansas long in the first of the 80 s we got along right well we was able to pay cash fer what we got and we got the money fer everything we sold we was pay in out on the place right along crops was good an we was a fedin like the lod was a on our efforts and the happy home we dreamed about when we first got mar ried was in sight but they come a change in kansas long in the last halt of the times got hard and kep a gittin tighter four straight years it was so dry bad to soak the hogs acore hey d hold swill though I 1 will say they was some extry reason on ac count of the swill bein so thin wheat jest died in the ground fer rain and the hot winds ailed the ever bastin sap out of the corn they no pasture no nothing you can know we was a feelen blue about that time but we was young and strong and thought with the chickens an hogs we could git through anyway then one day you got to complain in and lookin so thin it worried us your is a good doctor take it all around but nothing abe could think of done you any good well you kep a gittin pin dller and pin dller till you got so st wouldn t do bothin but set n a chair by the kitchen stove wrapped in your old shawl an you looked so pitiful that we made up our minds to have the doctor even it it took th last chicken on the place well he come and after bed looked at you awhile an felt your pulse he shet his watch up with a snap an aaa quiet like better fix up a warm place fer her in the front room don t have too much light nor any drafts to strike her then we knowel it want no small sickness we had to fight an when we got you fixed up in bed hollered tollered toll ered doc out on the porch an I 1 says well doc aez I 1 the matter with our little girl I 1 don t want to ye mr wll hams says he but I 1 m afraid she s in for a siege of typhoid fever well after he was gone I 1 went out in the kitchen an told your ma but she says brave as kin be well ezra it the lord has seen fit to put that much more on our load we must bear up an fight it out doia our duty the best we kin leavin the rest to him an I 1 thought so too so we jest kep our hearts brave an done what seemed right t do the hardest thing was to figure out where t git the medicine an fruit an dainty things your sickness called why cert nice mr williams jest let Us know what yeu want for we been bradin much with the stores in huston bryin mostly from the catalog folks know aa so we dian didn t have any credit there to speak of but I 1 went t foster th druggist an I 1 told him how things was I 1 haie no money t pay fer th medicine an things an the prospects ter the next year was sd poor er poorer than th last why mr he says jest let us know what you want an we 11 carry you along till times come better ter you we re all in a tight now but we hang t geth er things Is all coln to come out right in the end I 1 have balth in th coun try an in the people that live here an nobody s sick baby Is a coln to suffer it I 1 kin help any wll it was the same thing at harlow s grocery an th coal yard everywhere in th town mr williams well see through on this it made me feel mean an small acme way though I 1 dont know why an often when put in a few oranges or so methin like that sayin in a sort of way little so methin fer th sick baby williams why somehow it made a hard lump come up in my throat an I 1 had a queer teelin in my eyes kinder fachy like know r well to be short about it fer eight weeks you kep a gittin weaker an weaker an we hep a feelen more n more hopeless it was a sad christ mas in our home that year your ma v as jest ore out with batchin an try in to do her work between times an I 1 was 0 o nigh sick alth trouble an discouragement t I 1 to go around by the barn an jest cry like a baby but I 1 never let on to your ma though ner she t me tried t encourage enco urae each other though we in our hearts t all our cheerful words was lies an each one inched the other knowel it too well jest th night before new years doc called us outside your room oh how my heart sunk thea I 1 dont want to hold out any false hopes to you people he says but I 1 think with proper care from now on your little girl Is goin t git well elsie it seemed jest like a ton ot hay had been lifted off my chest right As ter our ma why she jest busted down an cried as hard as she could after doc was gone we went out to the kitchen an kneeled down right there an thanked god ter the most glorious new year s gift he avei give t anybody in th world the health of our baby girl you 1 now your pa ain t no er shouter yer ma bein a baptist has furnished I 1 aez les burn it most of th fer our house but jest then I 1 seen how it was that they comes times in peoples lives when jest got to have so methin bigger an greater than anything hu man t turn to with a great joy er a great borrer well it was a long time yet before you waa strong enough t play out doors an it was a hard winter I 1 burned every post of the fence around the south eighty ter firewood acore it was over but it seemed like we had so much t be thankful ter that we was strang t care ter any any ot th smaller troubles that we come accost it really hain t so bad to look back at it now after th trouble as over but them hard years in kansas drove nearly all our neighbors t give up their land an move away broke in hopes an pocketbook them ot us as stayed Is well fixed now but we alt fer everything we got an fit hard too an 0 yes about th caty logs well after you was well an things begun t take a turn fer th better one night ma brought out that chicago book an laid it on the kitch en table an says ezry what do you want t do with thise an I 1 aez les bum it an your ma aez jest what I 1 was chinkin too an so we did burn it an what s more we ain t never had one in th house since an we never send away ter anything we can git at any of the stores in huston cause we wan to deal with them as has an int rest in the country we live in an in us people that live dost by why you needa t of put yours la th stove too elsie I 1 dian didn t mean yes I 1 don t know but what it s jest as well done it after all |