The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1881-12-23
ON THE FARM IN WINTER.

to me one of the best of the right kinds
Of life for healthy lad, provided his
tastes have not been spoiled by wrong
reading, or by some misleading glimpse
of a city by gas-light. 1t certainly
abounds with the blood and muscle
making sports for which the city physi-
ologists so anxiously strive to substitute
Kinks and gymnasiums.
But I rather pity young fellow who
gets his only sleigh rides by paying q
dollar an hour to the livery-stable, and
who must do his skating within limits
on artificial ice. He never gets even
taste of such primitive fun as two boys 1
know had last winter. The sleigh was
at the wagon-maker's shop for repairs
when the first heavy snow fell, and they
harnessed Dobbin to an old boat, and
had an uproarious ride up hill and down
dale, with glorious bumps and jolts.
/ rather pity fellow, too, who eats
grocer's apples, and confectioner's nuts,
and bakers cream cakes, who never
knows the fun of going down cellar to
the apple bins TO fill his pockets for
school, and who owns no right in pile
of butternuts on the garnet floor. am
sorry for a boy that knows nothing Of
the manly freedom of trowsers tucked
in boots, hands and feet both cased in
home-knit mittens and home-knit socks
Il cannot believe his blood is as red, or
can possibly flow so deep and strong in
his sidewalk sort of life, as the young
fellows who chop wood and ply the
snow-shovel, and turn out en- maSSe with
snow-ploughs after long storm-the
sound Of the future strength of the land
is in the sturdy stamp Of their snowy
boots at the door as they come in from
their hearty work.
This singing cold morning the boys
at the school-hOuse door are not dis
cussing the play-bills of the Globe or the
Museum, but how the river frOze last
night, turning the long quiet surface to
blue-black ice, as smooth as looking
glass. Now what skating what grand
mornings, what glorious evenings! No
rink or frog pond, where one no sooner
gets under Roadway than he must turn
about, but miles and miles of curving
reaches leading him forward between
rustling sedges, till he sees the white
caps of the open lake dancing before
him.
Presently the snow comes and puts
an end to the sport for sweeping miles
and miles of ice is out of the question.
After the snow, d thaw and then the
jolly snow-balling. There is not enough
| of a thaw to take the snow off; only
enough to make it just sufficiently sloppy
and soft for the freeze-up that follows to
| give it q crust almost as hard and
smooth as the ice lately covered up.
Then such coasting! Just think of
| dragging your sled of Il moonlight night
up mile of easy tramping to the foot
Of the mountain, whence you come
down again, now fast, now slow, now
..like a streak" down sharp incline,
now running over seven-rail fence
buried in the glittering drifts, and
bringing up at last at neighbours door,
or at the back side of your own barn
yard!
1t is great fun, too, to slide on the
drifts with .slews'' or Jumpers.
These are made sometimes of one,
sometimes of two barrel-staves, and are
sure to give you many jolly bump and
wintersault.
There is fun to be had in the drifts too,
digging caves or under-snOw houses,
wherein you may build fire with the
least danger. Here you can be Esqui-
maux, and your whole tribe sally forth
from the igloe and attack terrible
white bear, if one of the party will
kindly consent to be bear, for awhile.
You can make him white enough by
pe}ting him with snow, and he will bear
enough before he is finally killed.
There is fun, too, and of no mean
order, to be got out of the regular farm
duties. Not much, perhaps out of bring
ing in the wood, or feeding the pigs. or
turning the fanning-mill; but foddering
the sheep and calves, which, very likely,
are pets. takes the boys to the hay-mOw,
where odors of summer linger in the
herds-grass, and the daisy and clover.
tops are almost rs green and white and
yellow and purple as when they fell be-
fore the scythe.
But of all things which the farmer
boy is wanted to do, there is nothing
such clear fun as the breaking of yoke
of calves. First, the little yoke is to be
got on to the pair somehow and a rope
made fast to the nigh ones head,
that is, the calf on the left side. where
the driver goes. Then comes bawling
and hauling and pushing. and often too
much beating, until the little cattle are
made to understand that Gee means
turn to the right, and ..Haw" meaus
turn to the left, and whoa" means ste p,
and Back means, OF them all, Just
what is said
Every command is roared and shouted;
| for Idaa IN rNrauatl that
big and little, are deaf as ladders, and
can never be made to hear except at the
top of the voice. In still winter day,
you may hear a grown-up ox-teamster
roaring at his patient beasts two miles
away and a calf-breaker not half his
size may be heard more than half as far
Then, on some frosty Saturday, when
the little nub by-horned fellows have
learned their lessons, they are hitched to
q sled, and made to haul light loads, n
little wood, or some of the boys-the
driver still holding to the rope, and
furnishing his whip as drum-major.
Once in a while the little oxen of the
future take matters into their own hoOfs,
andmake strike for freedom, up setting
the sled and scattering its load, and drag
ging their driver head long through the
snow.
But they have to submit at last and
three or four years hence, you would
never think from their solemn looks and
sober pace that they ever had thought
of such rebellious freaks. They were
the boys calves, but fathers oxen.
Halter-breaking a colt is almost as
good as breaking steers, only there is
no sled-riding to be had in this.
Till lately the young fellow has had
the freedom of the fields, digging in the
first SHOWS for part of his living, and
with his rough life has grown as shaggy
coated as Shetland pony, with as many
burrs stuck in his short foretop as il
will hold for if there is an overlooked
burdock on all the farm, every one of
the horse kind running at large will find
it, and each get more than his share of
burrs matted and twisted into his fore
top and name.
Now, he is coaxed and driven into
shed or stable, and fooled or forced TO
put his head into long, stout, rope
halter. Then he is got into the clear,
open meadow, and his first lesson be-
gins. The boys all lay hold of the
rope at safe distance from the aston
ished pupil, and pull steadily upon him.
Just now he would rather go any way
than straight and holds back with all
his legs braced forward, his neck
stretched to its utmost, and his head on
a line with it, like a stubborn little
donkey who has lost something in ears,
but nothing in willfulness, and gained