The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-06-19
Andersan gHtst1igeHfetrt. y
BILL ARP.

AMARrsp4 gNA&aAaykAkktE.
BILL ARP.
Ruminatious OF the Georgia Philosopher
atlanta Constitution.
The harvest has begun. The harvest
sun is shining by day and the moon by
night. Our Burt oats that were scwed in
March have come in ahead of the wheat,
and are now falling before the cradle
blade. It is,a charming scene. The
good old.fashioned way is not bad way
after all. I've got reaper, and shall use
it in the low grounds on the wheat, but
the everlasting rains this spring made
too many little ruts and furrows on the
upland, and the cradles are better. The
machine jolts and bumps around 80 that
Ralph could hardly keep his seas. But
the oats are good. I have never seen
better upland crop. Carl and Jessie fol-
low along in the wake of the Graders and
tie up their little bundles, and when they
get tired of that they pile them into doz.
ems and set them up into shocks, and are
proud of their work. What pity it is
that We can't all make play Of our work.
How fond the children are of trying to
do. grown folks work. Carl wants q lit.
tie cradle to reap with, aud thinks he
could do itsplendid, but Utmost kills him
to take a,bucket of water to the field.
That sore on his foot where he snagged
it on nail hurts awful bad then, and he
limps all the way to the spring and back,
but he can trot to the dewberry patch or
the mulberry tree, as lively and gay as q
colt in the meadow. Grown folks are.
5 that way too. I've known some mighty
nice girls to get tired and most broke
down cleaning up the house, and cook
ing, and sewing, and the like, but they
1 could wake up to the music that night
3 and dance till the rooster crowed for
morning. We can all do what we want
to do, and Weego at it with aiacrity:S: It
is easie ff1 sgo7to 8 picnic. than it isss to
church Bull labor and toll ghas sweet
reward. Wewill never rear if we do not
Sow The harvest that is now at hand is
one of the great lessons of life, foc our
life is like field and our years like the
acres, and our months and weeks and
days andIminntes aretGe roodsand rods
and yards and feet which ,sabdivide the
whole. Some portions are we'll sown and
tended and some are not, ~buta good man
will make an average crop. We may
& fail here and fail athdre, and have our lit
tie sins and weaknabes, but at. the last
man must be measured by hisEaverage
crop. Character is not made or lost in
day OF week, butt takes life and we
can never write 3 trne. epitaph until the
I life is closed and we write it on the tomb.
But q few days ago the fields were beau
dfnlIy greer, and s.theg grain bent its proud
head gracefully before the gentle breeze
and seemed conscious OF its life and
health and consequence. 1t, reminded me
4 of q man in his prime moving to and fro
upon the earth acquiring wealth or fame
or pleasure, and all unmindful of the
reaper, But soon he ripens and must
fall and make way for another crop. If
the proud head has borne fruit, golden
fruit, it is well, and his mission in life is
!, accomplished, but if clogged and tangled
and corrupted with cheat and cookie and
smut and rust and brambles the crop is
failure and ought to, ,haye'beens cut. down
while itwas green. I.
had worked hard all the morning
helping Mrs. Arp to take up her carpets
for the summer. The hay and dust That
was under had to be swept up ever 80
gently-yes, gently-fhat was the word
sshe usedL gently, now, William; you
are raising the dust, and it will be all
roYer, the house. Don't be in such hur-
ry4geutly:." Il got it all9up after a fash
ion aud put out of the window in the
swheslbarrow, and put this carpets on the 4
fence seady for beating, and then j, took
her long handled broom and swept the
walls, and the ceiling, and the corners;
and behind the pictures. and then our
chunk of darkey brought water and
washed up The aoofs and the! igirls
worked on the bedsteads with kerosine
and tarpentine and corrosive. sublimate
and rat poison and damnarion powder,
and 4 don't know what all, and this
morning when my wife gas making up
j her bed and lifted up the corner of the
mattress discovered lone of the big
gest, latest ones you ever saw, and her
heart sank down within her and she re-
cliaed on: a chair ii dispair. I was sorry
for her, Twas, for the pesky varmints are
her eternal horror, and if / vas rich l.
would build her bran new house and
( fill it with-bran- new furniture, all made
. Of china wood orscamphor-wood / care
. nothing about these silent perambulators
myself, and it has been hinted to me on
more than one occasion tbatit is because
am tough and old and alligatorish,
which ! reckon is so, though. I do know
some women who are no spring chickens
themselves. But 7 do suffer from the
varmints anyhow, and have my sleep
broken, for sometimes i have to get up
in the night and help search for them; 4
and when found I assume theatrical
attitude and exclaim in the beautiful
language of MI. Shakespeare: "How now,
ye secret, dark aud midnight bags! What
is it ye do?" -
Well, took Mrs. Arp down in the low
land wheat this evening, where it is
thick aud green and tall, and 1 explained
to her all about wheat being first in the
boot and then in the milk and then in
thsdougb; and as We walked along in
water fnrroR. I said. that it reminded me
of the old song Of Coming Through the
Rye;p that I would change-it "a littlefand
say:
aIf body Meet body coming through the wheat,
And a b5dy kiss q body, wohldn'tit be sweet?"
And she smiled and said the rye, of the
poet was not field but rocky branch
named Rye, and the t1assieawas ,wading
through twhen her lover met her on.the, !,
rocks and kissed her. So that knocked
all the poetry out of the Situation; and I
said no more one the subject. ihutA 1've;'
!, seen the day when that: t:wheat field would
ness as branch, and if anything better
While we sauntered along old Bob White
was whistliug TO his loving mate, and we
talked over the days}o Of bur childhood,
when we used to follow thereapersin' the
field and get the partridge eggs from the
nests and, have big frolic over them