Show 7 OMER HOMER A CROY lit a IV F S SERVICE THE STORY THUS FAR amos croy settled fettled on a farm arm in missouri where he married and a son homer was wa born sunday meant church company for or dinner and steer weight guessing dehorn ing of 0 the calves curing of 0 hams weaning of 0 calves sausage making and helping newt break in the mules males were au all part of 0 his work he won a prize for or writing his most unusual dream it teemed seemed that everything was going wrong and the entire croy family were in the dumps mr airs croy suggested a visit to the poor farm arm when they saw aw the misery there they decided their troubles were not so serious or important after all that was her way jo to make the men realize their lot was not too bad CHAPTER XII was swinging his trunk and in qa 1 ag ament would be on top of me I 1 jumped up but a man next to me put his hand on my shoulder and said aid sit down you wont be hurt I 1 saw other people were risking their necks so I 1 did sit down none too comfortably the circus procession turned a corner comer and missed me seemingly by inches As I 1 looked more carefully I 1 saw the whole thing was a fake it a circus procession at all but only a picture I 1 had heard vaguely of moving pictures but they had always seemed off at the other side of the world and had nothing to do with me personally but here they were and I 1 was seeing in two or three minutes the parade was over and I 1 was out on the street again As I 1 was standing in front of the building trying to decide which way to go there was a commotion among the people and a great sightseeing sight seeing carriage drew up A few people got out and immediately that they did others scrambled into their seats A man sitting at the front called out come on and take a ride in a horseless carriage I 1 studied the situation and saw it was free by this time there was no place left except in the front row beside a man wearing a pair of gauntlet gloves and sitting beside a wheel as big as one on a corn sheller except this wheel was parallel with the ground and was fastened on an up and down rod I 1 squeezed in and ina in a moment the man shoved some trac down and pulled other things u ud the great open topped carriage began to move A man also sitting on the front row stood up and put his bis hands to his mouth and shouted gh clear the path clear the cathl people turned terrified to see our giant conveyance bearing down on them and darted out of the way as we chugged and jolted past but I 1 had bad to pay for every chug and jolt because I 1 was wedged in so close to the driver that every time he hauled at t the wheel he dug an elbow into my iny ribs but that was all right everything ery thing in the world was all right at last we came to a kind of starting station where we all had to get out and where new people got in I 1 felt tremendously triumphant tor for I 1 k amai very well we I 1 had da had nac a horse inn ariage ride and that it would indrea be something to talk about but moving pictures well no one had bad ever eve r heard of them or cared about them thus by an unusual combination of circumstances I 1 saw sa W my first motion picture and had my first automobile ride within an hour while we were there my mother said she wished she could see a kindergarten der garten so mrs day found where there was one and took my mother the next morning at breakfast my mother was still talking about it at last our stay was over and mrs day came to the depot with us and we got on the train when we got off the neighbor was there to meet us and when we got home phebe had supper ready she sat with her gold rimmed glasses arrid and little turned up nose listening while we recounted the wonderful things wed seen and done ma said the most interesting thing she had seen was the kindergarten I 1 was glad after I 1 had gone 99 miles id seen something more exciting than a kindergarten der garten pa said the most interesting thing he had seen was the stockyards stock yards I 1 felt borsy for him we had an aristocracy founded on land our people did not judge each other by clothes or education or family even by money A person may have been known to have money in the bank or stocks or bonds but we felt these would probably slip away from him and hed end up living in an L with a relative it if he has stocks and bonds why he turn them into land we asked and it was a question hard to answer the only sate safe and enduring possession was land A man who had a quarter section did not stand as high as the man who had a half section after all people had to be weighed on some sort of scales and land scales were as good as any we had a love of the soil as have the peasants in france but I 1 dont believe ours was as deep or as touching for in france they lived generation after generation on the same farm while ours was at a changing country our people bought a farm tilled it a while then discovered what seemed to be a better 10 location and moved on to that A farmer might try corn hog and cat tle farming in our section then feel he could do better in iowa and move there or he might want to try the hardpan in kansas and so give that ahat a whirl or he might want to try oklahoma red and move down there where he would have to raise kaffir corn to us in our section we considered kaffir corn farming about as low as one could sink or he might want to try wheat in nebraska or south dakota so trade his land and take his chance on wheat or he might want upland farming and move to eastern colorado now and then one of our people would pick up and go to texas where it was not farming but ranching which was something we understand at all one of the sewells moved to texas and bought an onion farm no hogs corn or cattle we felt it was a family disgrace one who sooner or later came up against aristocracy of land was the hired man our hand ate with us and nothing was thought of it it if a family poked its hired man off into the kitchen everybody in the neighborhood would have been outspoken evenings he sat by the same stove and took part in the family conversation it if the stove going to suit him he threw some cobs in it if it was going too briskly he turned the damper and took care of that there was a difference when company was heard outside he might get up to go to his room but usually wed say you dont have to leave dell stay and visit with them usually he stayed but on sunday there was a decided difference he would not dream of going to church with the family and it would never occur to the family to ask him in the first place sunday was his day off and he left early he ha rode away on horseback it was a kind of trust with a hired man to be back monday morning i by choring time sometimes by noon he was pretty and when evening came he popped into bed as soon as the milk was strained but he was there you could depend on that one spring pa began to hunt around for a hand he went to town and on the street he stopped the people he knew and told them he was looking for or a good reliable man he went to the hardware store and left word there then to the bank and asked joe jackson it if he knew of any changes in help then to the livery stable to see if the proprietor knew of anybody looking for a place but he go to the pool hall anybody who hung around a pool hall be any good when he came home he said h hed ed heard ot of a man who seemed prom promis is IJ exciting sounds rang ran through the room ing his name was renzo davis he said a man from the east side 0 of j the county A day or so later a spring wagon with two men in it turned into our drive lot but we did not connect this with our new hand for usually a new hired man came on horseback with a couple of suitcases tied to the saddle if he came walking across the field carrying just one suitcase we regarded him with suspicion A man with one suitcase going to stay long especially if he wanted to see his room first or if he asked how many cows it did not take long to see why renzo had come in a spring wagon for he had a trunk and to our surprise a violin case he had got a friend frien d to drive him over soon I 1 the he friend departed and renzo our new hand was left with us it was exciting to have this break in our routine in fact it was exciting to have anyone come and here was a man with a trunk and violin easel casel I 1 could hardly keep my eyes off him renzo was thirty rather on the small side with a thin face and an indentation in his skin under one jaw where something had been cut out on a finger on his left hand was a ring made out of a horseshoe nail and he had a silver watch which later I 1 discovered he wound with a key he had a round braided human hair watch chain every night he looped it over the bedpost and let the watch dangle from it we showed him to his room and gathis trunk put away then pa took him out to let him learn how to chore and I 1 followed for the excitement cit ement of it tremendously pleased someone was going to help us work when milking time came renzo pitched in with a hearty win will but pa was wag watching hed seen new brooms after supper we sat around talking going through the process of getting acquainted renzo told about crops on the other side of the county and prices things were bringing he told about a big farmer who had put in a hay tedder it was the first time I 1 ever heard the word 1 I see you brought your fiddle pa said finally would you mind playing us something i ill try it said renzo obligingly and began to tune up P plucking uck one string after another wi with his thick work hardened thumb thumbnail nai he got some rosin out of a paper box put his violin under his chin and drew his bow across the strings in a moment his toot foot was going up and down and our living room was filled with the first fiddle music of its whole existence renzo rested his violin on his lap and talked a while then back went his fiddle and again the thrilling exciting sounds rang through the room when renzo went oft off to his new bed our room seemed lonesome it was the best evening wed had in months well wait and see how he pans out pat pa said I 1 hoped to god he would pan out I 1 am glad to say he did he was a good worker and rest his horses too long at the ends of the rows and mind pulling milk weeds it was understood on rainy days a hand could do light work in the barn such as greasing the harness or cleaning out the cobs from the mangers renzo would do more than that it it stopped raining he would dart out to the woodpile and begin to split railroad ties if it started to rain again he would go back to the barn and climb into the manger with his cob basket we saw we had a treasure but pa still was skeptical now and then we would get a treasure but some night he would come home as drunk as hell sometimes wed have to go to town and bring him out but if one ever got drunk enough to land in jail pa was through 7 with him no matter how perfect he was in other respects one day renzo told pa that if pa would get him some traps he would see what he could do about the gophers never before had a hand volunteered to trap gophers for it meant additional work on top of this pa think he could trap them gophers being what they are so he gave him a steel trap and told him to see what he could do in a day or two renzo came in with a gopher tall tail soon he had another so pa went to town ond got half a dozen traps renzo would dig a hole about a foot square until it crossed the run then get on his knees and go through a careful process of covering the trap and weighting the tongue with just the right thickness of dirt then he would fasten the trap to the board and put the board over the top of the hole and cover it with dirt so as to shut out the light in a day or two he would have a gopher renzo became a most welborn addition to our family he wa cheerful and had a sense of gumc and could tell the simplest thing tha had happened to him during his days work and make it absorbing I 1 began to realize after a time that he exaggerated but that was all right the element of essential truth was there and by making allowances low ances we could come pretty close to the kernel the neighbors came to esteem him and when we were invited to a party renzo went along as a matter of course sometimes I 1 had the uncomfortable feeling that he was the most welcome one of us he developed a quality that few hands had of making money in addition to his wages A horse belonging to a neighbor had been shocked by lightning and was considered worthless renzo traded for him put him by himself in a pasture on soft ground and brought him out of his shakes he traded him for a better horse and pretty soon bought a set of harness at a public sale little by little he began to pick up things gradually as his circle of acquaintances quain widened there came a social problem he wanted to go with the girls and there the heart wrench began for renzo however deserving owned no land personally he was pleasing and he was capable pa ble i but he own land saturdays he would stand on oil the edge of the sidewalk on the west side of the te square where the crowd was thickest and when one of our farm girls came along he would take oft off his hat which some of our young men do and speak to the girl and make an excuse to walk down the street with her sometimes he would come to the back of the grocery where he knew the girl and her family were having dinner trying to pretend this was accidental and make friendly advances this was all right but he ask them to go anywhere with him the girls who had spoken to him so friendly at the debates and spelling and ciphering matches now on the streets could hardly see him he bought a black derby which was the kind of hat the city men were wearing and kept it carefully in the hatbox side of his trunk but this did not change his social status he got a new suit but even this made no difference A fashion of white hands was going around so he bought heavy pigskin gloves and wore them so they would sweat his brown paws white he wore a red bandanna handkerchief drawn tight up against his neck with the ends poked through a brass ring so his neck would be white too he never spoke to me about it except once it was at the end ot of a corn row while we were resting our teams 1 I guess they look down on me but someday they wont see TO BE CONTINUED A 4 N |