The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-11-10
Miss Ella on the Farm.

Burdette, the humorist, has the fol
lowing in the Brooklyn Eagle:
A CARD FROM Mr.. THIsTLEPoD.
Editor of the Eagle:
Noticin' in your columns quite re-
cent a paragraph to the following:
"Miss Ella Witchazel, a charming
young school-teacher of Villisca, Iowa,
finding the close confinement and ar
duous duties of the school-room injur-
ing he health, tried the outdoor cure.
Instead of spending her winters sala-
ry and summers vacation in a crowd
ed hotel at the seashore, she went on
a farm, cut Is acres of prairie hay,
harvested 40 acres of wheat, gained
20 pounds in weight, a oat of tan on
her hands and face, and a rugged
health that cannot be equaled any
where off a farm. There's the girl
you are looking for, young man."
Now, what l want to say: I am
well acquainted with this young school
marin. Fact is, it was my farm she
spent the summer on. Nice girl, Ella
is, az ever run wild in the sur. We
was glad, wife and me, to have her
come an she did bout as she pleased
on the farm. I'd often read in the
papers bout these young women that
taught school ia the winter an farrned
in the summer, but I never had any
experiences of 'em before.
Well, sir, she farmed. First day.
nothin'd do but she must drive the
boss rake. Well, every man an wom-
an that from town wants to
drive the boss rake, an they call that
gettin' in the hay. My little Janey,
eleven years old next May, usually
drives the rake for us, but she amt
feelin' overly peart this summer an I
kinder kept her out of the sun. So
Miss Ella gifts herself boosted up on the
boss rake, an then she screamed an
fell off. Then she got on again, hit
the boss a crack an away she went on
the dead jump out O. the field into the
road, boss a-goin', dust fyin' an Miss
Ella screechin'. Some of the men
headed her off an stopped the boss.
Then she tried it ag'in. This time she
struck right straight through the stand
in grass, where 1t was ~tallest, thickest
and tangledest; boss a-balkin' and tug
gin away by turns and grass holdin'
on or comm up by the roots, rake
teeth a-snappin'. We got her out of
that, and we lost a whole day on the
rake, gettin' it mended.
Then she tried drivin' a load into
the big barn. Had to send to the
house for a ladder, an then she climb
ed up on the load. Drivin' in she got
the wagon caught in a hedge gap as
wide as the Missouri river, run over
two stands Of bees, upset the load, and
buried herself under 800 pounds of
hay. 1t was the safest place for her
uoder the exciting circumstances; So
) we jest left her Their ontil the bees got
CANNED down an We got some work
done. Next load she went in on, and
climbed up into the nov, an then
she wandered around ontil she stepped
into q chute aad shot down about %
feet into the cow barn an lit right on
the back of q Jersey calf that was
worth $3.50 Of any mans money az
hour before. Miss Ella want killed,
but she was that jammed up that she
Lay in bed two days. an but for tina,
providence we'd hev been workin' a,
that nay yet. An anybody that want.
q broken back calf can have one at hi.
own fggers.
Well, come when q harvest, she
must drive the sell. binder. That was
little too risky. but she had her own way
But she couldn't he trusted up abov,
the knives, SO somebody had to set OF
there and hold her on. My boy Joe
he held her. on-I told Joe she wa
maxim q fool OF him--an,if she didn'
make him drive atound every popp,
an every blossomin' weed che shc ii
nat field 10 ssys ~. Never mind th
NNft