Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1882-10-25
The Old Pail Fence

The placing of bsrbed wire fence,
around farms, usurping the place of the
old rail fence, destroys half of the pleas
ure of farming. There is something about
the old rail fence that is real comfortable
and the barbed wire fence is forbidding
cold, repulsiye. Until you come TO thirE
OF IT, there does not seem as though there
was great deal of solid comfort in a raj
fence, but there is. Did you ever see two
old farmers leaning against a rail- fence,
whiting, and talking politics or horse
trade for hours togetberl They are more
comfortable, and rest more than they
would If they were occupying the softesl
sofa, or the best stuffed armchair in the
world. There are SO many shapes man
can get into, to rest, about a rail fence.
First, the farmer will fold his arms and
rest them on the top rail, and lean his
breast on the fence, and talk for half an
hour, until his legs are tired. then he will
step one foot up on the second rail from
the bottom, and stand and whittle for half
an hour, until the top of the rall is as pol
lshed as a piece of mahogany. Then he
will change feet and lean one elbow on
the second rall from the top, and sharpen
his knife on his boot, and talk for half an
hour about how he is gong TO pay the
mortgage on his farm next year. After
that position becomes irksone he will turn
his back TO the fence, stand on his heels,
and place his two elbows on the top raIl,
and lean against the fence, and for half an
hour he will tell about how the Old mare
a tn FRO. fn oil 4 ny
all the teams on tbs road coming back
from the celebration at town, sitter the
networks on the Fourth, and how, il he
wssn't fixed just rs he Is, and wanted the
twenty dollars boot money to send Nathan
of to the select school, there is no man on
earth could buy that mare. Then he will
get ured and stand around sideways, put
his left arm up en- the fence, and begin to
white again, and swear the man that runs
the cheese factory down at the corners is
skInning US farmers out of our eye-teeth-
Without going into details as TO ninety
nine other combinations by which farmer
can rest on, about or against a rail fence,
it may no. be out of place to speak of sit
ting on top OF fence The farmers, after
trying several positions. win lnstihctIvely
climb up the fence and rest on the top
rail, their feet resting on the third rail from
the top, which is always laid with pro-
lection enough to make good footing,
and an hour will pass as the fellows
talk of the times when they settled in
the country, and OF the hardshIps they
have endured, and how the children
have grown up AID gone away, and the
conversation will drift iuto q sleepy
channel, ami the sun will begin TO sinh
In the West, and the horny y-handed sons
If toll will suddenly remember that the
chores are TO he done, and with good
night, Llge," aud a, ''Drop around agin
tomorrow, Ike" tney viii separate, and
one viii take a miIk-pall and a one
legged stool and go towards the lot where
the cows have come home, while the other
Will 90 across the road TO his barn and
throw down some hay for the horses, and
they will both go 10 bed at eight O'Clock
as ti-ed as though they had been moving.
But they had splendid, easy visit on the
Did rail fence.