The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-03-27
30 G PHILIP


lie Leslie. ''We're going to keep a prai-
rie,''
Whats a prairie ,"
''Oh, it's a big fiat place, where they
keep about 40 horses, and so cows, and a
hundred pigs, and five hundred dogs, and
a thousands sheep, and a million hens.
AID"
Then Willie paused; his knowledge of
arithmetic did not extend beyond mill
lions, and he had no intention of lowering
his estimates.
1t was quite true; Uncle Philip had
bought a ranch in Kansas several years be-
fore, and had represented life there as SO
delightful that Mr.. Leslie was going to
take the entire family thither for the SUM
mer, and Willie, indeed, was to go back
with his Uncle Philip in February.
"Do you have birthdays on a ranch, Un-
Gle - inquired Willie, when told that he
might go.
Yes, we have birthdays" said Uncle
Philip; 'but I'm not SO sure about our hav-
ing birthday cake
stThen | shall have my birthday before |
go" said Master Willie, empllatically.
And is your front door cut in halves,
like those in Newport, so that Lillian can
put on a long dress and lean out over the
low half and look down the road-so2' said
Fred, illustrating by leaning over the back
of a large arm chair in the attitude of one
Raphael's angels.
Its all right about the door, but I'm
afraid she couldn't look down the road: it's
too far away
sHow far Is it to the gate
There isn't any gate"
Then how do you get out from the
fence -
''There isn't any fence.
'.Then what keeps the animals in
''Oh, the herders. We have no trees to
make lumber of and wood is SO high that
it costs more to build a fence than to hire
a man to look after the herd.
But you have to feed a man. suggest
ed Fred, mindful of what he had been told
about the first cost of a horse being a small
part of the expense.
Certainly: but you have to keep a fence
in repair. And where eggs are ten cents a
dozen, butter fifteen cents a pound, and
chickens a dollar and a half a dozen, it is
cheaper to feed a man on poultry and Gus
tard than to mend a fence. Besides, Fred,
how long do you suppose it would take us
to put a fence around the ranch. if we had
the lumber?"
"Would it take a month p
az month Well, let me see! it is a
little hard to calculate, but as a rough
guess. | should think, with a force Of fifty
men, we might get around it in about five
years, that is, if we didn't stop to paint
it,
80 Uncle Philip.
sometimes we put a wire fence around a
small pasture of a hundred acres or so;
but you will see that it is much simpler on
the whole to keep q man walking around
the focks of sheep than to shut them up
inside a fence; especially as we haven't
any trees to make a fence.
''Then,'' said Lillian, thoughtfully, that
must be what they mean in the Bible by
ssaen as trees nolkaag.' But I can have a
flower garden, Uncle Philip >"
Certainly, if you can make fifty or a
hundred acres do for one; | don't think l
could spare more than that for ornamental
purposes. But you can have plenty of
flowers if you don't have a flower garden,
you know. You can't walk anywhere on
the prairie without stepping on a flower
"Oh Uncle PHILIPPE
"And you can pick up vases for them,
too-great hollow stones that will hold
water and make the p~rettiest vases in the
world for a room with a Kansas breeze
blowing through it would shiver glass to
atoms in a few minutes.
Il know there are some very pretty flow
! ers on the prairies,' said Lillian, condo
scendingly. But, all the same, | should
like a few Of the home ones. If could
take a few sunllower seeds
Here Uncle Philip threw back his head
and indulged in a very hearty laugh.
''My dear young lady, when the sun-
| flower season arrives | will harness up my
carriage and pair and drive you through
twenty acres OF them in one field. 1t will
be hard work to pull through, but the
horses will trample down the stalks ahead
of us, and when they spring up behind us
again, after we have driven over them, no
one will know where we are, for they will
tower three or four feet above our heads as
we sit in the carriage or on horseback
80 Uncle Philip
And now that | think of it, perhaps
we'd better have the sunfower bed fenced
in; for il baby Nora should stray in there,
you would never find her again
"Uncle Philip said Willie, fixing his
eyes sternly on his uncle's face, as he had
seen his mother do sometimes when anxi-
Gus to elicit not only the truth, but the
whole truth, ''how big is the whole thing,
anyway ?"
"Willie, | object to having my ranch al
luded to disrespectfully as the thing. The
pasture in it is about as large as Central
Park; the lawn, where | suppose Lillian
will want TO have her tennis and croquet
and things is about as large as Prospect