The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-06-19
wENTwORTH,s CRIME.

~ was Nv III any way q COuN6ublOuul
plowman. Neither in the appearance of
the field, nor Of the pillow, nor of the ami
mails, nor of Billy himself, was there any
thing to recall Holbein's picture of the
peasant and his misery, or that tended
concretely to realize the usual vision
brought up by the words "a man following
the plow." In the first place, Billy was
not exactly following the pillow; to speak
with scrupulous correctness, he was riding
the pillow. I'll animals hat drew both
him and the pillow were neither slow, clumsy
oxen, crowding each other beneath a heavy
yoke, nor yet galled-shouldered, bony
horses, but two strong, broad-breasted
mules, with great ears and neat, slim legs.
We hesitate to mention this fact, but real
ism and truth are the great things, after
all, and sentiment and the traditional
plowman must give way to them.
The plow itself would ave puzzled
any or all of the great farmers, from
Cain TO b author of The Hundred
Points Of Good Husbandry; and many
an honest son of the soil since the days of
Tusser would have considered it good for
nothing but old iron and firewood. 1t was
a complicated affair on wheels, with a
variety. Of c~ontrivances for regulating the
depth to which the ground should be
the shovels entirely out of the ground. In
TACT. it was not eve called a pillow; it was
q c~ultivator, and Billy was not blowing
preparatory, to sowing the seed, but was
c~ulblvatlng Indian corn.
Still the scene was picturesque enough,
Tor any one with an eye for color and an
accommodating sense of the generalf fitness
OF things. The long rows of corn, stretch
ing over the gentle rise of ground and con-
fusedly mixing up their broad, waving
blades at the summit, were a deep green,
ant the broad, rectangular field, separated
from the open prairie surrounding it by no
other boundaries than the sharply marked
lines between the different shades Of this
sylvan color, seemed like a dark, square,
cornered oasis in a desert of coarse grass
and gaudy flowers
When Billy reached the top of the slight
ridge, if he had looked about him over the
thousand hills of waving corn, he would
have seen, beyond an intervening stretch
OF prairie that lay dull and darkened by
the shadow of a cloud, a distant field Of
yellow barley fast ripening forthe harvest,
and one of wheat Just turning, that flashed
brightly in the flooding light Of the evening
sun. The western sky was fringed with
brilliant,colored clouds, decked out in
borrowed hnery to attend the glorious set
ting of their creditor, and Billy might
have let his eyes wander from earth to sky
and from sky to earth, in an uncertainty
of aesthetic enjoyment; but he merely
glanced at the sun behind the clouds. and
calculated how a rounds the mules
could make before q~uitting-time. For he
was impatient to be at the end of his DAYS
labor; not because he found it hard work
to ride over the rough ground so many
hours every day., nor because he was
hungry-though blowing corn Is both a
tiresome n hunger-giving occupation
but Billy was in Lowell
It is quite natural and perfectly possible
for plowmanto be in love. Did not Cuddie
Headrigg love and WOO and win pretty
Jenny Dennison? Was not one of the most
promiscuous, and yet most faithful, lovers
we know of a plowman? And was not.
But it is unnecessary to quote precedences;
for IT Billy had been the first plowman in
the world who had eyer loved INT been inn
patient to fly to the presence of his
charmer, the fact would not have cooled
his ardor nor soothed his impatience; and
when he had decided that he could COM
plete that round n another before taking
out the mules, Billy sent his long whip
whistling about their great ears, and
sun were in the eastern instead of in the
western sky, and they were starting fresh
In the morning Instead of reaching the n
of a long days work.
The faithful mules, however, knew their
drivers mood; the habit of weeks had
taught them to know that the remainder
of their task for the day was now a fixed
amount, and that as soon as it was finished
they would be led to the trough of cool
water and the manger of bright oats and
fragrant hay. So they responded willingly
to Billy,s urging, and soon came out at the
49, aA = OD
their last round-ther rows were half a mile
long-lnished it in twenty minutes by
Billy's heavy silver watch, a very reliable
timepiece for any period of time less than
an hour in duration.
When Billy had led the mules to the
watering-trough, and brought the wind
mill roNnd to the breeze to pump fresh
water from the deep well-"a hundred and
thirteen feet, if it is an inch," Farmer
Fuller would often declare-he was some.
Whnf dfcQnnnfnfnd and errr,nsAl A.
n came to the door to tell him to hurry
in, for supper was waiting; or else play.
fully to accuse him of laziness for sfturn.
ing out" so early; or to ask him how many
acres he had got over; or, under some pre-.
text or other, to greet him and let him
know his comings and goings were matter
of interest to at least one person the world
aI wonder where she is" thought Billy
and imagining that she had perhaps no
heard him talking to the eager brutes a.
they made impatiently for the water
though he had shouted 'swithout any miti
whistling loudly for the dog. Tige CAM
running up readily enough-in fact. he ha6
been almost at Billy's heels for the last ter
minutes-but no n appeared at the opeI
the mules of to the stable, and give then
their oats and hay, without getting a sight
of Eva Fuller's pretty figure in the door
way, or hearing her innocent laugh at his
~dust-begrimed face; without an oppor
tunity of showing how well he coulG
take a harmless jest, when it came from
her.
tIf that young Phillips has been around
here again, with his buggy and fancy har
ness" Billy muttered, as he thrust the
pltchfork viciously into the manger and
packed dow the hay with a vehemence en-
tirely needless-"why, if he has, therepl
be trouble on the ranch, that's alb
When he had washed the streaked Iayer
of soil from his face, and tried in vain fol
sometime to brush the kink out of the ends
cf his black hair-it was always a trial
to Billy hat his hair would curl-he en-,
tered the house and ate his supper Of
baked potatoes and crisp bacon and frest
eggs alone with Farmer Fuller and his
wife. Eva was not there to laugh and
chatter, and Billy took his glass of milk
of Eva's which was not masculine by any
means. When the fresh plate of snowy
biscuit, demanded by the hearty appetites
of Billy n Farmer Fuller, was brought
in from the kitchen, it was that hard-work
ing woman's tall frame and austere visage
that Billy saw, in the door, and not Eva's
neatly aproned figure n laughing eyes
the usual vision that greeted him at this
point in the evening meal.
Billy helped himself to another biscuit
"Where is Eva J" he asked, at last, of tn,
old farmer, his desire to know what hat
become of her mastering his determination
to appear indifferent.
"Young Phillips took her out buggy
ridin', this afternoon answered Fuller
sugaring his second cup of coffee.
HE seems to enjoy trottin' his bays
over the prairie," observed Billy, by way
OF starting a discussion OF Phillips. 81
should think he would want to get ovel
that eighty-acre corn-field again. It's &
mighty wecdy piece, and this hot weather
is liftin' it right out o. the ground Almost
It'll 500 be too high TO plow."
weather-that's a fact" and the homes
Fuller smiled in anticipation Of full cribs
"but Phillips has hired another man, anC
has put him to work on the eighty-acr,
piece"