Show w s t marii nt I 1 I 1 Z anro H OM E R M n av CROY CI 0 ylko et 1 l tile THE STORY THUS FAR amos croy cros settled on a farm in Alis missouri where he h married and a son homer was wa 3 born sunday meant church company or 0 r din rier ner and steer weight guessing dehorn ing of 0 the calves curing ol of hams wean ing of calves and sausage making wert were lobs jobs that homer helped with he always looked forward to helping newt a neigh bor in breaking the mules quilting day was a day tor for the ladles ladies it lasted all day and they would take turns at eating homer began to try his literary talents talent he entered and won a contest by submitting a letter about his most unusual dream he won a 1 prize his father did not think as much of this as he did the item about the calf CHAPTER X aa think much oi of anybody to y would drive a fresh broke mule 10 a spring wagon w with ith 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 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 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 iwo 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 had to inch because their mother Hub hubbardd hubbards bards would fill with air air and go straight over their heads it if they watch out if 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 the women coming through the orchard it was all right to walk down to the pond with the women but it sant Sd dalt nt do to see the women until aff g had changed into dry clothes after the women were in the house pa would say 1 I guess gues swed wed better go down and see it 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 eve body would begin to talk at Y paid say homel Ho merl and id iown own into the cave and begin bringing up the melons ma ala and phebe would light the lamps and set get them on the porch and pa w would hang bang our lantern in the cherry tree I 1 could hardly wait he would rest the point of his hi knife on the melon and say gay Is it going goin g to be ripe or not it wat was always ripe because pa knew melons As the slices were finished go into the wash boiler more work tor 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 he had pa there because nobody knew as much about mules as newt their voices would grow faint and the lantern on the spring g wagon would grow smaller and our house would seem lonesome but it had been a wonderful evening nothing was more fun than a swimming party no farmer could work without spades and shovels but it was tar far more complicated than that for there was a social scale among these spades and shovels 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 flie fhe 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 any respect for itself when a farmer had a sale he even put it up be tossed 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 matter it was just the shovel and that was the way it was always referred to as if thern them had to be one on a farm and we haj had 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 indeed this was used to scoop the fresh shucked chucked corn into the crib when all the corn was in and the seasons crop was 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 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 sale came along the auctioneer would hold it up so that everybody could see how bright and shining and sharp it was but there was a sad and realistic touch it if it was kept long enough and used enough it would tall fall to pieces and end up as a manure shovel it made a fellow stop and think next was the spade which was used tor for digging post postholes pos tholet holes and the general farm work it was sharp and shining and aad was wa a farmers farmer pride and joy it was kept oiled and was put in one place so 0 o he would know exactly where to find it it was never under any circumstance kept in the smokehouse some of our farmers kept it behind the door in the kitchen sometimes a wife would take it out to dig around the hollyhocks and leavo leave raud mud on it someday sooner or later the hus huband would discover what had happened to his spade there were some things a self respecting farmer stand when one farmer lent his spade to another that farmer was war duty and conscience cons c len ce bound to return the spade in good condition it if he really had character he be would grease it in fact you could just about tell what kind of farmer a man was by the condition of his spade it if hi he had an old rusty dull and loose handled affair then watch out for him it if he had a bright well taken care ot of spade then he probably was a good allaround all around farmer 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 seen before it was I 1 found later seventeen inches long and five inches 11 1 1 mr shannon was the newsman of the neighborhood wide it was dished like the palm of my hand band there were three spades all ominously oiled I 1 asked him what they were and when he said they were tiling 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 tor 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 use but pa was that way especially when it had to do with me working and always with a twinkle in those wonderfully der fully blue eyes of his hi monday morning mr shannon came walking down the road in his floppy old hat with matches matche stand ing 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 cell mr shannon he was the neighborhood general utility man he farmed only forty acres so had to work out he never stayed overnight over so 0 o after a days day work tie he would go down the road he had come along that morning walking slower now sometimes pa would urge him 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 he was the only one who worked tor 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 of the neighborhood for he worked first arst 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 these hills were what we called the sloughs pronounced slews alews low flat land as rich as you could wish to put your foot on the sloughs were covered with slough grass which was long and tough and which would cut your fingers like a sickle blade we used it for topping our stacks the cattle like it if they ran out of timothy eat it but they fancy it when the spring rain came the water would spread out 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 tall fail asleep on the floor it seemed to me ma my eyes would hardly close till pa would be caning 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 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 hi his is humorous way of pretending that he even trust pa tor 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 i Is there anything in the world like uch such a pleasant stimulating odor as a 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 col lar on the walls were the most fascinating pictures in the world it seemed to me the famous 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 good 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 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 a suit you want any money down tom not from you amoel 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 ot of his set of harness what about white gutta percha rings amos im gettin lots lota ol of calls tor 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 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 bad given it and pa and tom would stand side by side admiring it do you want a bossel for the amos 1 I dont believe I 1 do tom there aint anything a mule colt likes to eat battern bet tern a bossel 1 I put on a cuple hame strap amos TO BE CONTINUED |