The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-07-23
ARP,S TRIBULATIONs.
Company Coming and tho Cook Gone.
atlanta Constitution.


I am very busy now. Literature is at
discount in these parts. The cook quit
us last week and company coming to-.
morrow-company. I have had chunk
of darkey boy hired all the year and he
was right handy. He got up the stove
wood and brought the water and MIXED
the COWS and so forth but all of sud-
den his daddy "sont after him" to hoe
cotton and he left on ten minutes notice.
These darkies are right clever and good.
natured, but they have no more idea of
a contract than hog. They will break
it whenever it suits them. They will
quit you without warning and not feel
mean about it bit. The grass got ahead
of Mr.. Jordan Franklin, and he just
sends word to our chunk, Edward Frank.
lin, to come home. When I demonstrate,
and remind him of his contract, he says
he is just obleeged to have him, and will
send him back '.jes as soon as he is done
with him" That's all, and so Ned cuts
out without ceremony. We are doing
our own lingering now, and it keeps me
busy. Our big boy has got baseball
nose, and it was getting we'll. It was
sorter swaiging down until yesterday,
when bee stung him on it, in the
peach orchard, and now it is bigger than
ever. The orchard is full Of bees, for the
peaches are ripe, and the storm blew lots
of them on the ground, and Carl got
stung on the foot, and so the more work
falls upon me. We cut down dying
redoak in the grove and sawed it up with
the cross. cut for stove. wood, and my folks
say 1T wont burn good, and we had to
work up dead sycamore and the sun
was powerful hot and come down with
power on my unsuspecting back. | for
got that had on a locust back shirt, for
[ never wear one if I can find any other
in the drawer, and now there is blister.
ed streak running down my spine, and I
am sorter used up generally. But there
is no chance to stop now, for company is
coming. This jelly business has got to
proceed. I have to gather apples, and
plums, and blackberries to make jelly,
and get wood to keep up the fire to make
Jelly and Jam, and gather peaches to put
up in the fruit jars, and bring water to
wash UP the piazza floors, and ever and
anon it is more peaches and more apples,
or more water or moro wood, and they
want three spring chickens caught, and
the old Peahen, with her fine young ones,
has strayed of, and I must hunt them up.
They all worked hard yesterday-mighty
hard, and knew they would oversleep
themselves and go got breakfast this
morning, and right good one. have
long enjoyed reputation in my family
for making biscuit, and they do praise my
biscuit capturously. Mrs. Arp frequent.
" says when she sits down to the table,
1 wish had some of your pas biscuit
this morning. 1t is dangerous thing
for man to know how to cook. I learned
how to cook in the army and Mrs. Arp
says that is the only good thing that ever
came out of the old war. I wish I had
ent have learned or had kept a secret, one
or the other. She says that | can make
up the best bed in the world. The only
trouble I have about the beds is in get
ting her and tn children out of them,
for they do IA 20 sleep in the morning.
If 1 had baaYa darkey in old slavery
times, my wife says she would have given
more money for me than any ten she ever
saw, for she could have controlled me
then. But don't see any difference SO
far as the controlling is concerned, and
she got me for nothing.
More water they say. wonder what
upon earth they do with so much water.
The boys gone to town after supplies,
fruit jars, and jelly tumblers, and sigar,
and Horsford's powders, and a new broom,
and I don't know what all, and now they
keep me trotting. I wish there wasn't
any town nor any supplies. Man that is
born of one woman and tied to another
is of few days and full Of trouble. But
it might have been worse heap worse,
for he might have been born woman
and been tied to man. That Is the
most perilous condition in all nature.
Nevertheless it has to be done, trouble or
no trouble, and I am content. And now
they want some potatoes dug and some
beans picked, and there are more cucum'
bers on the vines ready for picking.
These old bodies of ours are sight of
trouble. I wonder if they have no gar.
dens nor orchards in the next world? /
am not sure about that, for there is 8
heap of scripture that tells about trees
and cities and streets and horses, and so
forth. I reckon we will have all the
good and none of the bad-no rotten
peaches no bee stings-no stove wood to
get-no water to tote up hill, no chick
9 ems to catch. Well, I don't mind catch
ing the chickens for the dog does that
and never hurts them, but do despise
to ''fx en-" If there is anything better
than old fashioned fried chicken l don't
know it, but I want somebody else to "h5
en-" Everything that is good has bad
side about it. If I was to find rich
gold mine on my branch l know it would
bring some trouble, but still !! would
risk it. Getting rich is like getting mar
ried. Everybody is willing to risk it: