Show 0 nt n ir it HOMER a acroy CROY 17 n gwng gW NU SERVICE TIIE THE STOUT STORY THUS FAR fail amos amo croy cloy ettlel on CB a farm arm in where he married and a son homer was born bora meant church company for dinner dinor or and steer weight guessing dehorn deborn ing of the calves calcei coring caring ot of barns bams weaning of calves and sausage making were jobs jobi that homer helped with ile he always looked forward to helping newt a neighbor in breaking the mules moles quilting day was a day tor for the ladles it lasted all day and they would take turns tarns at eating romer homer began to try bis big literary talents he entered and won a contest by submitting a letter about his most unusual dream ile he won a fl 1 prize ills his father did not think as much of 0 this as he did the item about the call calf CHAPTER X pa think much of anybody who a would drive a fresh broke mule to a spring wagon with women in it that was the difference between pa and newt pa was always safe and conservative but newt newta do anything as pa put it but newt never got hurt and nobody was ever lulled killed in a few minutes our yard would be filled with laughing and talking people and kaiser would be barking his head off just as excited as I 1 was to have company the women would go into the house to change into their swim swimming clothes while the men sat on the front porch and on the benches and talked when the were ready we would all start down through our orchard to the horse pond which was two or three times as wide as a house and eight feet deep it was supplied by a spring and by water pumped from the windmill and was the only one in the neighborhood people said we were lucky to have a pond when the women would start in they their had to inch because their mother hubbards hubbardd Hub bards would fill with air and go straight over their heads it if they watch out ifune it one of the mother hubbards hubbardd Hub bards went a little too high the men would screech with delight it was manners when all the women were in for the men to go back to the house and let the women swim alone after a while we would hear th the e women coming through the orchard it was all right to walk down to the pond with the women but it do to see the women until they had changed into dry clothes after the women were in the house pa would say 1 I guess wed better go down and see if they splashed all the water out and down through the orchard wed go the men would peel off their clothes newt would give a run and go in with a terrific plop but pa would walk slowly in because he wild like newt now and then when there any splashing we could hear a night bird go by with a swish of its wings or a calf would bawl or the bull would give a short little run toward a cow at last the swim would be over and wed start back through the orchard to the house the women would be sitting on the porch and everybody would begin to talk at once paid pad say hamerl Ho merl and id go down into the cave and begin bringing up th e melons ma and phebe would light the lamps an and d set the them m on the porch and pa would woul d hang our lantern in the cherry tree I 1 could hardly wait he would rest the point of his knife on the melon and say Is it going to be ripe or not it wa was S always ripe because pa knew melons As the slices were finished go into the wash boller boiler more work for me tomorrow when everybody had had all they could eat they would sit around and talk me still able to take a few more nibbles at last it would be time to go pa would still be worrying about newts mule dont you think newt its kind of risky to drive him at night loaded with women mules aint as much inclined to run at night as they are in the day amos at the very bottom was the manure shovel which hung on a peg in the stable and was dull and dirty and foul and never cleaned from one years end to another a pariah sometimes a mule would step on it but that matter sometimes he would break off the handgrip that was all right too wed go ahead using the shovel anyway sometimes the handle would become loose and wed nail in any sort of stick no one had any respect for a manure shovel in fact im sure it have cave any respect for itself when a farmer had a sale he even put it up be to tossed ased in with a lot of other odds and ends sometimes the man who had bought it even take the thing home A step above this but only a step was the long handled general utility shovel it was never cleaned and never sharpened and was left standing any old where sometimes it would be left in the granary sometimes it would even get into the smokehouse sometimes it would be left lying on the ground and a wagon wheel would cross it but it maur mattor r it a us is just the sh rel anil ani chrt a tile the way ay it was 3 always referd d to a J t i ere had to be one on a farm and we had i just as well accept the fact that would be tossed in at a sale too next going up the social scale was the scoop shovel a very bright and shining implement I 1 indeed this was used to scoop the fresh chucked shucked corn into the crib when all the co corn n as was in and the seasons crop atas over the scoop shovel was put in the crib and used to get the corn into the feeding baskets sometimes it would bang into a on the floor and get bunged banged up thin then it would be taken to the grindstone and smoothed till it was sharp and even again oh it was an aristocrat when a public we sale came along the auctioneer would holdia hold it up so that everybody could see how bright and shining and sharp it was but there was a sad and realistic touch if it was kept long enough and used enough it would fall to pieces and end up as a manure shovel it made a fellow stop alid and think one day when pa came home from town and I 1 raced out to get the mail I 1 saw on the bottom of the wagon a kind of spade I 1 had never aseen before it was I 1 found later seventeen inches long and five inches wide it was dished like the palm of my hand there were three spades all ominously oiled I 1 asked him what they were and when he said they were tiling Z 31 1 41 1 fit mr air shannon was the newsman of the neighborhood spades my heart hit the bottom of the wagon the only tile we had ever put in was a row to drain the cellar and we had used our everyday spade for that why should pa be getting tiling spades it was not long till I 1 found out that a tiling spade has two uses one of course is for laying tile the other is well I 1 was to find out pretty quick mr shannon is coming monday and well get to put these to use get to put these to usel but pa was that way Es especially when it had to do with me working and always with a twinkle in those wonderfully der fully blue eyes of his monday morning mr shannon came walking down the road in his floppy old hat with matches standing up in the band we always called him mr shannon but we called jim vert jim and we called newt kennedy newt although either jim or newt could buy and sell mr shannon he was the neighborhood general utility man he farmed only forty acres so had to work out he never stayed overnight so after a days work he would go down the road he had come along that morning walking slower now sometimes pa would urge him t to stay overnight but he always said 1 I expect id better go the woman dont like to be alone and off he would trudge ile he was the only one who worked for cash the rest swapped work if you came into a neighborhood and found one man worked for cash and the rest exchanged work then you would know he was a small farmer mr shannon was the newsman oi of the neighborhood for he worked first here then there and knew all that was going on when he arrived in the morning and went to the well to pump up a drink ma would come to the kitchen door and ask him the news hed tell us and throw out the last of the water and the chickens would come running to see if it was something to eat then hed fill up the jug and swing it up on his shoulder and go off to work at noon ma would have thought of other questions and mr shannon would think of news hed forgot so the tiling spades on our shoulders we started for the slough our section of missouri was called the rolling prairies there were the hills where a million buffalo must have stood and between those these hills were what we called the file io uh hs pronounce d sli flea aind ar a rioh rio h ayou 0 rt wl wi 4 to put yur foot on thi I 1 tp i were covered with doub gia adi which was long and tough and which would cut your fingers like a sickle blade we used it for our stacks the cattle like it if they ran out of timothy eat it but they fancy it when the spring rain came the tl water would spread out ovet over the slough till it was a quarter of a mile wide sometimes the cattle would be caught on the other side sometimes calves would be caught sometimes a foaling coaling mare pa had set out a row of stakes and we began to run a ditch through the thick matted million year old roots the cattle came up and sniffed the black earth and the birds flocked down and feasted we worked close enough to visit but it was hard grueling labor at noon I 1 would be so weary I 1 would fall asleep on the floor it seemed to me my eyes would hardly close till pa would be calling me and mr shannon would be at the pump day after day we worked at last it was finished and there it was like a gash in a human body little did I 1 realize what later would happen every so often there would be an important event in our lives our visit to see wadley brothers our harness makers pa would go in and say tom do you suppose you can turn me out a set of rope harness 7 which was his humorous way of asking if tom could make him a good set of harness tom would say have you got the money to pay for em amos which was his humorous way of pretending that he even trust pa for a set of rope harness he sat on a stool without any back but also he had a rocking chair and now and then he would move over and rock he smoked a pipe as he worked when he finished a bowlful or got tired of smoking he would knock the pipe and hang the pipe on a rack he had made the store had a delightful leathery smell is there anything in the world like such a pleasant stimulating odor as fresh cut leather on the floor around him were the cuttings from his work like hair around a barber chair when he had a great many of these he would sweep them up and mould them into a horse collar on the walls were the most fascinating pictures in the world it seemed to me the famous ra racers and trotters and pacers of their day maude S dan patch when he spoke of them he spoke tenderly and reverently 1 I would like to go an see them run sometime he would say pa would glance at me and wait a moment because horse racing was wicked so would I 1 he would say almost with a sigh there would be a little silence then tom would say hoare the roads out your way amos tom had much to be thankful for he took immeasurable pride in his work and he and his brother were their own employers tom wore a leather apron like a blacksmiths except it burned full of holes he was an artist in his line and was proud of his handiwork farmers would say a set of wadley brothers harness and there was no higher praise he had surprisingly singly few tools but in some amazing way he got results on one end of his workbench were sheets of leather from which he could quickly and skillfully cut off the pieces he needed I 1 delighted to see him take his knife with its sharp curved blade and draw it through a piece of leather and get exactly the kind of piece he wanted he loved his work and took great pride in doing it well and he loved to have the farmers come in and discuss with him the kind of harness they wanted what about the br itching amos what kind of br itching you got in mind 1 I want g goob heavy br itching tom I 1 dont need it so much in the fields but when I 1 get out on the hard roads with a load joad of corn then I 1 need heavy br itching im getting more and more calls for heavy br itching tom would say and then they would discuss the details as carefully as a tailor and a client making decisions on an a suit you want any money down tom not from you amos you come in in about a week and have a first look at the harness pa would go in from time to time watching the progress of his set of harness what about white gutta percha rings amos im gettin lots of calls for gutta percha rings they look all right while the harness is new but they crack in the sun then they peel and show the iron give me plain iron rings tom after all you cant beat iron j at last would come the day when the harness was done there it would be on a great frame black and shining from the oiling tom had given it and pa and tom would stand side by side admiring it do you want a bossel for the amos i 1 I 1 dont believe I 1 do tom there ain aint t anything a mule cult colt likes to adt 11 bett LIll a lierl I i 1 I put on an a cuple hame all ap mus 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