The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-10-15
Burdette's Latest.

Burdette's Latest.
A CARD FROM MR.. THISTLEPoD.
Noticin' in your columns quite
recently a paragraph to the fol-
lowin':
"Miss Ella Witchazel, a charm
ing young school teacher at Willis
ca, Iowa, finding the close confine-
ment and arduous duties of the
school room injuring her health,
tried the outdoor cure. Instead of
spending her winters salary and
summer vacation in n crowded no
tel at the7seashore, she went on a
farm, cut 20 acres of prairie hay,
harvested 40 acres of wheat, gained
90 pounds in weight, a coat of tan
for her face and hands and a rug
ged 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; l am
well acquainted with this young
school marin. Fact is it was my
farm she spent the summer on.
Nice girl, Ella is, as ever run wild
in the sun. 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 papers bout these
young women who taught school in
the winter an farmed in the sum-
mer. but I never had any expert.
ence of 'em before.
Well, sir, she farmed. First day
nothin' do but she must drive the
boss rake. Well, every man an
woman that comes from town
wants to drive the boss rake, and
they call that gittin' in the hay.
My little Janey, III years old next,
usually drives that for US, but she
hasn't been overly peart this sum
mer, an l kinder kept her out OF
the sun. So Miss Ella gifts herself
boosted on the boss rake-my boy
Joe, he boosted her-a' then she
screamed an fell of. Then she got
on agin, hit the boss a crack lan'
away she went on a dead jump out
O. the field into the road, boss a
goin', dust a flynn an Miss Ella
screening. Some of the men
headed her off and stopped the
boss. Then she tried it ag1n.
This time it struck through the
standing grass where it was tallest
and thickest and tangliest; boss a
balkin' and tuggin' away by turns,
grass holding or comm up by the
roots, rake teeth e. snappin'. We
got her out of that, and lost a
whole day on the rake, gettin' it
mended.
Then she tried to drive load
into the big barn. Had to send to
the house for ladder, AN then all
the men had to go clear out of the
field while she climbed up on the
load. Drivin' in she got the wagon
caught in hedge gap as wide as
the Mississippi river, ran over two
stands of bees, upset the load and
buried herself under 300 pounds of
hay. 1t was the safest place for
her under the excitin' circum-
stances; so we just left her Their
ontil the bees got CANNED down an
we got some work done. Next load
she went in on, and then turned all
the men out of the barn while she
climbed up in the NOW, ant. then
she wandered around until she
stepped Into a chute and shot down
about twenty eight feet into the
COW barn an lit right on the back
of a Jersey calf that was worth
$3.50 of any mans money an hour
before. Miss Ella want killed, but
she was that jammed up that she
lay up in bed two days, an but for
that providence we'd hev ben work
ing at that hay yet. An anybody
that wants a broken back calf can
have one at his own fggers.
Well, come wheat harvest, she
must drive the self binder. That
was leetle too risky, but she had
her own way. But she couldn't be
trusted up above the knives, and
so somebody had to set up and hold
her on. My boy Joe, he held her
OIL told Joe she was making a
fool of him-an' if she didn't make
him drive around every pop
Ply and' every blossomin' weed she
see in that field to save it. Never
mind the wheat, but save the blam-
ed weeds. There was only one
stump on that 230 acres of prairie
land, just one stump, an l hope /
may 60 to seed before thanksgivin'
if that girl didn't run into it and
break the reaper. Lost all the rest
of that day mending of it.
Next day, she was that proud an
confident she could drive alone.
Well, we tied her into the seat so's't
she couldn't fell off an she started.
Two rods,fromIthe start big, black
snake stuck up his head-an' you
know how slick them knives ampu-
tate a snake? Miss Ella she gives |
a little faint squeak, an faints dead |
away. My Toy Joe-he always |
hanging around-he jumped for the
horses, took Miss Ella down and
carried her to the house. Money,
nor healthy tan, nor rugged appe-
lite, nor nothing couldn't coax Miss
into that field agin, an
we got through all right. Land,
how the men laughed. And yet,
we all liked the GIRL. Rut the idea /