The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-09-15
THE OLD RAIL FENCE.


The Iplacing of barbed wire fences
around farms, usuIping the place OF the
old rail fence, destroys more than.one-
half ofethe pleasure of farming. There
is something about the old rail fence
that is real comforting, and the barbed
wire fence is forbidding, cold, repulsive.
Uutil you come to think of it. there does
not seem as though there was a great
deal of solid comfort in a rail fence, but
there is. Did you ever see two farmers
leaning against rail fence, whiting or
talking politics or a horse trade for two
hours together They are more com
Portable, and rest more than they would
If they were occupying the softest sofa
or the best stuffed arm chair in the coun-
try. There are so many shapes a man
can get into to rest on 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 gets tired. then he
Will step his one foot up on the second
rail from the bottom, and stand and
whlttle for half an hour until the top of
OF the rail is as smooth as a piece of ma
hogany. Then he will change feet and
lean one elbow on the second rail from
the top, and sharpen his knife on his
boot, and talk for halt an hour about
how he is going to pay the mortgage on
the farm next year. After that posI-
tiOn becomes irksome he will turn his
back to the fence, stand on his heel 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
he is trying to trade off cleaned out all
the teams on the road coming back from
the celebration at town, after the fire.
works Oh the Fourth, and how if he was
not fixed as he is, and wanted the twenty
dollars boot money to send Nathan off
to the select school, there is no man on
earth TO buy that mare. Then he will
get tired and stand around sideways.
put his left arm up on the fence. and be-
gin TO whlttle again and swear that the
man who is running the cheese factory
down on the corner is skinning us men
out Ot our eye teeth. Without going in
TO details as to ninty-nine other combin-
atoms by which the farmer NAV rest on
about or on a rail fence. it NAV not he
out of place to speak of sitting on ton of
a fence. The farmer, after irving sew
eral positions, will instinctively climb
the fence and rest on the top rail. their
feet resting on the third rail from the
top, which Is always laid with projection
enough to make good footing. and an
uOul VIII pass SiS the fellows VIII talk of
the times when they settled in the coun-
try, and of the hardships they have en-
dured, and OF the children who have
grown up and gone away. and the con
VerSatlon will drift into a sleepy chan
mel, and the sun will begin to sink in
the west, and the horny handed sons of
toll will suddenly remember that the
chores are to be done, and with good
night, Lige, " and drop around again
tomorrow, Ike'' they separate, and one
Will take milk pal. and a one-Iegged
stool and go toward the lot where the
cows have come home, while the other
Will go across the road to the barn and
throw down some hay for the horses,
and they will both go to bed at eight o.
clock as tired as though they had been
moving, but they had pleasant, easy
visit on the old rail fence.