The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-06-09
Training.


Windsor with the rest of the boys, eager
to Join the procession. Instead, he was
out in the back lot, away up in the
northwest corner, hoeing potatoes with
all his might. A nice little patch of
potatoes; none better looking in all the
town of Windsor. doubtif there were
any that received such care. Every hill
of them belonged to John, and it was
about all that he did own in the world,
unless / except an old arithmetic with
one of the covers gone entirely, and the
other hanging by half its back; but
every problem in that arithmetic John
could do And there were some hard
ones.
He hoed away. The band was play
ing, and he tried to make his hoe keep
time to the music, while he whistled it
loud and clear
10 Parsons leaned over the rail fence
and looked at him
"You don't say you amt a-going"
said he.
"Well," said John, 81 didn't say it,
so far as | know, but can, if you want
me to- . .I.
"Well, now, if you amt one of emf
Why not?''
"Why not whatP''
"Why not amt you going to general
training, when every man and boy in this
town is on hand?' ..u
"Got other business Every man and
boy can do all the work that there is to
to do at general training without me,
and my potatoes are spelling to be hoed,
and this is the only day I've got"
Why can't you hoe 'em tomorrow
just as well?"
Because tomorrow I've got to go
and help Governor Wolcott hoe his
there acres of them, and it will take
me all the rest of the season; before | ID
have another chance at mine they d
spoil, sure; no, sir, I've looked at the
sum on all sides, and worked it up
every way could think of. and the only
answer | got was that / must stay at
home and hoe I'm training. though
Don't you hear my hoe keep time to the
music?"
How many potatoes do you expect
to get out of that patchql'
10 said the word patch in a very
contemptuous way. The fact was, he
might as well have told his friend John
Just what he thought, that that potato
patch was a very small affair.
Dunno" said John, cheerily. "Just
as many as l can coax into growing for
me.
" And what are you going to do with
them when you get them?n
p" Sell every blessed one; father has
promised me seed enough to plant again,
next season, 50 l sha MT have to lay by
any
Wen, what do you want to sell
them for What are you after, any
how?n
John stopped his busy hoe and
leaned on it for about one minute, while
he said in slow and very impressive
voice:
"There's u good many things / would
like to get, and there are two or three
things that | mean to get if | can with
these potatoes; but there's one thing
! that I'm after with all the strength there
is in my hoe, and that I'm bound 10 hare;
and that's one of the new Biographies
with pictures of the rivers, and towns,
and everything"
Ho!" said 10; and the way he took
his arms of the fence, and stood up to
put force into the word, gave you to UNI
derstand that he had Il very small opin-
ion of Biographies, and thought that
John Fitch was II simpleton.
He went to general training, and had
good time, presume; but wheth er
| he did or not, no one will ever know;
for so far as | can learn, nobody ever
heard of him again, though | suppose
his mother and few friends knew all
! about him.
And John kept at his hoeing; and
! then when that was finished he went
home and did the "chores."
Hard work, was it? OF course it was
hard; but then wait bit. To-day
there is not well-informed boy in the
country who doesn't know more or less
about John Fitch. Among other things
they know, that a few years later, when
he had earned his geography, and
studied II, and studied several other
things, one day he went gliding up the
! Delaware River on steamboat OF his
own planning, the first one that was
ever used in the world I'm inclined
10 think that he hoed his patch of po-
tatoes to some purpose.
The truth was, he had q "general
raining every day in the year, and
trained his mind to think and to plan
B PI1su