The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1885-01-30
THE AMATEUR HARVESTERS.

Maine Press.
1 was late in September. At Hill
Farm all the harvesting was done, ex-
cept ~thefamily vegetable garden, and
if Mr.. Elisha Patten had not fallen
down the corn chamber stairs and brok-
en- his arm, the products of this garden
would probably have been gathered in
orthodox fashion, and this story wolld
never have been written.
But here was the catastrophe, a set
tied fact; no help to he had for miles
around, and Mr.. Elisha Patten, inclined
by nature and habit to take Time by
the forelock," and to have everything
done "a little in advance of others, in a
condition verglng on complete despair.
In the face of this emergency the
girls undertook to harvest the garden.
"The girls" in this instance were two
lively maidens of eighteen and twenty
years, nieces of good Mrs. Patten, and
adopted daughters of the household,
which was completed by a small
boy of nine, u more recently adopted
charge.
The sun shoue brightly forth, with
the fervor of summer IN his beams, on
the morning when this amateur band
of reapers went forth to reap" Helen
and Christina led the procession, little
Carl followed with implements, while
Victor and Rupert, two young and
i've dogs, gaily brought up the rear.
The sweet corn stifiy waved its dry
and yellow pennons, the string beans
displayed their ripe and bursting pods,
and golden pumpkins crowned the
withered vines, which trailed over de.
serted hills where early potatoes had
once reposed. With their beauty We'd
that of the more aristocratic, but no
more valued, squash; the delicate melon
nestled among its scalloped leaves, and
the modest cabbage lifted its head
with hesitation among the prouder veg
etables.
1t is not my purpose TO follow the
details of their harvesting. 1t pro-
crossed from day, to day slowly indeed,
but no less surely. Much freely offered,
but less freely accepted, advice was re-
ceived from the masculine member of
the party, who, though young in years,
considered himself old in wisdom, and
having already much of a certain spirit
which children of an older growth"
sometimes manifest, looked with aneen-
scealed contempt upon the femme efforts
onI ooothnJo If hio
Ii may be that these efforts were es-
sentially feminine. Does that change
their value? If obstinate stalks of corn
which refused to be quietly cut, were
pulled up by the roots; if potato hills
were excavated to such a depth, in the
fear of not finding all the potatoes,
that the ~excavators felt obliged to
fill them up again, lest as Christina sol
EMMY remarked, Some n should fall
in and break a limb, and / be RESPONSE
ble;" if, as before said, the methods
followed we're not the strictly scientific
ones accepted by generations of mascu-
line workers, it has been said by a dis
tinguished writer that the truly great
work not by rules and in this work, at
least, ought not the end to be acknowl-
edged as Qualifying the means ~
On a golden October day the labors
OF my heroines were drawing to a close.
They had been arduous. 1t must be
confessed that blistered fingers and
aching limbs had often been their ac-
compartments; yet who shall say that
the work had been without its pleasures,
too? For these were maidens who knew
the charm of sun and air, who loved the
I face of Nature at all times, but best ef
all when she donned her autumn robes,
and under skies so blue they flash. 2
held through field and wood high festi-
val.
The apple trees in the orchard were
: dropping under their weight Of fruit,
the meadow slope was bright with as
ter flowers and frost-tinted ferns, while
further still lay woodlands in all their
autumn colors. and a line of purple
: hills circled the horizon. On the edge
of the garden, against this fair back
! ground, a pretty tableau was displayed.
Helen's hat had fallen back upon her
2 shoulders, and her golden hair half es-
caped its ~fastenings. She Rad raised
; two portly pumpkins, while Christina,
with an armful Of c~ornstalks, stood like
the goddess Of Autumn. If that deity
ar be imagined posing in print gown,
; gloves and sun that. Little Carl was
. busily Engaged III transferring Il heap
Of patotocs from the grass ton djminu-
. tive wheel barrow.
J ~ was 4 pretty tableau, rs I said but
! its tranquility was suddenly disturbed