Show 0 al CP r HOMER cl CROY ic S SERVICE E kv i crr THE STOUT STORY THUS PAR FAR ann amos croy who had served erred in the civil war as a sergeant was one as 0 the lne covered wagon pioneers pioneer from ohio who settled on en ho acme rne tead stead land near Maryy lUe iniss missouri there he be met and won susan sewell a daughter of another settler who lived twelve miles away their early years were spent in building the farm arm from the ground up one room log home sod fod barn new orchard well and out buildings roads were never considered by the original settlers but new arrivals insisted so 10 community roads and a school was added to the community some still till went to town by way of the trails it was shorter to cut through over the farms arms than go by the road CHAPTER II 11 with a baby corri coming ing a one room home would not do so uncle jim and uncle dexter and probably another uncle came in and a bedroom was attached and there I 1 was born and there the room still stands it was a shock a few years ago when I 1 went back and found the room was being used as a henhouse I 1 find myself hesitating to mention the year because it all seems so fearfully long ago it wa slit be surprised to see how spry I 1 am it was really the year brooklyn bridge was built there 1 and here are some other things that came in that year the old wal dorf astoria was opened the last spike was driven in the northern pacific ind joseph pulitzer bought the new york world and this was the year mark twains kwains life on the mississippi appeared the new room was a good hospital aunt mandy sewell drove up and stayed a week and the event went off all right it was not long until my mother was up and doing the a washing and baking and cooking and things were back to normal I 1 am sometimes asked where I 1 got my first name and if it was because my parents loved the blind poet it quite that romantic I 1 was named for the township in ohio where my father came from I 1 was not given a middle name A childs first memory is I 1 believe usually about people my first memory is about my mother and a W wholly holly unimportant one we were walking in the orchard and I 1 picked up an apple and put it in the pocket of my dress the apple became caught was tight in the pocket a tragedy to me and my mother worked the apple out I 1 expect psychiatrists could explain something or other by that but I 1 cant my aly next memory is of a hole in the living room floor the floor tilted a little and my father had bored an auger hole so that when my mother scrubbed the water would d drain ain off I 1 would try to look through ge the hole and would wonder what was on the other side and I 1 always have wondered what was on the other side and now a confused memory one quite a bit more involved it was chat that something dreadful was happening and indeed it was my father came riding one of the plow horses in from the field at a gallop and leaped off opened the gate and let them go in the barn lot with the harness on then he came running to the house and we all got into the cyclone cave and sat wrapped in quilts now and then pa would lift up the doors and look out when we finally came out the barn had been blown away and one of the horses killed so destructive are the cyclones of this section and so sharply defined are they that this one had swept through the orchard my father and mother had set out and had mowed half of it down and left the other standing and there it was all my early days the half down half up orchard the scarred and twisted trees my mother used to talk about her orchard when she wanted to rest she would take her chair with the leather bottom pa had woven and go out and sit under one of the trees the sewells made another run and the barn was rebuilt I 1 remember another trifling flash sitting on a joist and watching uncle sewell mortise a hole I 1 developed a deep affection jor for that barn for barns do things to you I 1 do not remember my first day at knabb school except the disgrace I 1 got into but I 1 can still see the schoolhouse that however is easy for it is still much as it was then ive often read of the little red schoolhouse but I 1 never saw one in our section all country schoolhouses were white and for that matter they still are there it was a coal house in the yard an iron pump a cyclone cave and at the back of the lot two small structures with half moons in the sides two or three horses would be tied to hitching posts for the scholars who lived too far away or were too small to walk when it was time for school to take up the teacher came to the door and rang a hand bell and that was the end of it the only difference in the schoolhouse between my day and now is that someone with advanced ideas on education and eyestrain decided that all light should come from the south so the north windows were closed up the children seem a bit blinky eyed I 1 horses borses still chomp at the hitch rack the family car be tied up the coal house still stands but a new kind ot of stove has come in it is full of coils and has all sorts of fancy devices but I 1 suspect the big boys dont get to go out so often for a scuttle of coal and instead of having every seat taken up there are now only half a dozen tots tots too small to be toted off to town by the school board bus but back to the disgrace the boys seemed like giants and I 1 was afraid of them when recess time came the big girls must have seen my uneasiness for they took me to their backhouse to relieve myself when I 1 returned the boys were waiting and taunted me until I 1 felt I 1 was disgraced for life I 1 think it was the first time I 1 realized the world is made up of two sexes and never shall they meet at least in certain places when school dismissed of an afternoon the scholars would come out and some would start one direction and some another then I 1 would start north and pretty soon I 1 would come to the top of a hill and there would be the croy farm that was the way all farms were spoken of the newt kennedy farm the scott farm the farm they had personalities just as people have sometimes a family would move away but their place was still called the duncan farm or the farm it took a long time to call a place by the A s t he was on his way to feed the hogs name of 0 the e new people if the man was a tenant the situation was about hopeless life was hard during the week but what a wonderful day sunday was we got up the same time as usual but there was a different tempo pa got up more leisurely and started the fire iri in the itchen stove pa would pump a bucket of water for ma start the kitchen stove going then start for the barn lot As I 1 lay in bed or dressed I 1 could follow his progress by the sounds first there would be the creaking of the barn door and a whinny of welcome from the horses then a stall kicking so eager were they to be fed the sound of pa scooping up the corn then the shutting of the barn door this meant he was was on the way to feed the hogs there would be a dreadful uproar as the hogs saw him coming the nearer he got the worse the noise the sound S ancl of the hogs fighting among themselves abruptly the uproar would die away and peace and contentment would descend upon the hog lot the hogs were feeding he would go to the steer yard and there would be the sound of corncobs corn cobs snapping as the steers followed him then the sound of corn being poured into the troughs and the soft thud of the cattle as they bumped sides crowding up to the troughs now and then a steer would give a grunt that meant one steer had chugged another with his head with the horses and steers fed pa would unhook the windmill there would be a sharp clang as the gears meshed then a whirring as the wind laid hold of the blades then I 1 could hear him coming to the house no time for fir lazing now and I 1 would spring into my pants pa think much of anybody who get dressed by the time the stock was fed my mother would be up putting corncobs corn cobs and coal into the kitchen range by that time pa would be at the kitchen door no one in our house ever said good morning but pa auld say busar weve got a dead pig mother would say one of the strong ones no old Bl ackies then a feeling of relief wed take our buckets and start for the cow lot pa and ma walking ahead and me bringing up the rear for I 1 hated to work wed get our stools down from the cracks in the fence and it be long before there would be the sound of milk pinging pas would be c cn n ing very fast mas next and coming pretty slow would be mine after a time the milking would be over and pa would take the two heavy buckets and id take the next heaviest and ma the lightest and wed start for the house and breakfast me a bit ahead now sunday morning was bathing time and after breakfast pa would bring in the washtub and put it on the kitchen floor and fill it from the reservoir then pa would retire to grease the hack and I 1 would read and ma would take her bath pat pa would come in and wash his hands in the pan on the back porch empty the tub and fill it again and ma would go into the other room to write to relatives while id still be reading and dreading the bath call wed hear pa splashing around and hed come with his suspenders hanging down and walking on his toes so as not to spot the floor and call homer Ho merl I 1 id give a groan and carry out his water and fill the tub again and be in and out in no time at all pa would get down the big harvester calendar and study the dates with circles around them then hed say well by next sunday we ought to have a new calf it be long till time to start to church and pretty soon pa and I 1 would be standing beside the hack and ma would come out with her bible and her response leaflets ma would sit in front with pa and id sit in the back talk more now flow than any other time once in in a while pa would turn and give me good advice wed look to see if the neighbors had started to church if they were hitching up paid pad wave at them or shake his buggy whip some of the neighbors go to church at all ma always dropped her voice when she spoke to them and pa would say pay for it sometime the men sat on one side and the women on the other the little lit tle boys YS sat with their mothers and the big boys sat in the back whispering and making faces out of the knots in the seats now and then some of the big boys would carve their initials but it was pretty well understood they were going to hell sometimes id feel sorry for them then id think the fools deserved it the preacher would drone along now and then giving the bible a whack now and then a mud daub er would follow him but the eyes 0 of f the men or the women nor of the girls sometimes two mud daubers would get into a fight then the preacher would have to give two whacks suddenly a mule at the hitch rack would set up an excruciating cia ting ear breaking heehaw hee haw ending with the grunts and chokes and groans with which a mule always closes his song make the boys snort no amount of whacks would do any good A little girl would lean over and whisper into her mothers ear and the mother would get up leading the little girl by the hand and the two would tiptoe out As the mother passed the windows outside she would stoop then wed hear the little girl pipe mamma hurry 1 in a few minutes the mother and the little girl would come back from behind the church and softly tiptoe to their seats the week before we would have invited somebody to sunday dinner and now the people would stand on the front porch and ask if we were sure it was convenient ma had been getting ready all week but the question always had to be asked then I 1 would get to ride home with the company it was a lot more fun than riding with pa and mat ma and having to sit in the back seat no lecture now it was always understood that the company was to drive slowly so ma could get the dinner started and pa could have his team out of the way so he could help the company unhitch id help too no hanging back now and wed lead the horses to the tank by the windmill while pa and the company talked crops pa would say what do you figure YO your ur batsu run when the women heard us all come to the door and say about decided we hungry then wed say we thought wed eat a bite to keep on the good side of the cook wed go into the dining room and be the table no red checkered cloth today but a wonderful fine white cloth with faint flowers woven in it lying on a chair which was partly behind and partly part beside ma was our peacock fan the fan was about as long as the table was wide and had a leather loop to hang it up by when it in use asma As ma waved the fan over the table during dinner the feathers would catch the light and shimmer and shine entrancingly during weekdays we had a fan made out of paper not one millionth part as grand as our peacock fan company and a white tablecloth and our peacock feather fan that was sunday dinner TO BE CONTINUED 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