Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-06-05
MISS HANDEE ON A FARM.

typographical. errors and startlin'
grammar, I am pained to sec, contin-
ual reappearin'. the following para
graft-to-wit, namely. viz:
sMiss Ethel Handce. beautiful
young school teacher Of Villisca. Iowa,
finding that her health was giving
away under the close confinement of
the school-room, bravely rcsortcd 10
the most heroic out-of-door treatment.
She went on the farm of Bartholomew
vester and a horsc-rake, cut eighty
acres of wheat aud raked seventy-five
acres of prairie hay, helped load it on
the wagon, and drove the team that
hauled it to the stack-yard. Here is
the girl you are looking for, young
man. Such a m as Miss Handee
is a scathing rebuke to the butterflies
of fashion who tlutter away q meaning
less, lifeless existence in fashionable
dissipation and %listless dawdling."
Now. what l want to say: l am
Bartholomew Lomacks, on whose farm
the beautiful young school-teacher rec
reated her fallen health, and destroyed
nigh about everything else in which
she came in contact. just allow a
plain, practical tiller of the soil to run
y furrow through this attractive para
graft.
Miss Handee came to my farm, three
| miles out of Villisca, about hay harvest,
in a state of falliu' health an unim-
paired appetite. Nice, rosy faced,
lively sort of u girl an we enjoyed
havin' her around the place. Wanted
to 20 everywhere and do everything.
Second day of hayin' she coaxed my
boy Joe-made a perfect fool of Joe
before wheat "a ready to QUITO let
her drive the horse-rakc. My little
Alice, niue year old last Christmas,
usually drives horse-rake for US when
we'rc busy. and we never thought of
putin it in the paper, but she want
very we'll this summer. So Miss Han
dee got on the horse-rake, screamed
and fell off. Joe helped her on the
scat again an she screamed and fell
off. Lost about three-quarters of an
hour gettin' her to sit on and stay on.
Then she started off drivin' like mad,
right down through the standin' grass,
t%earin'. snappin', slashin' along, beatin'
with a sheep-shears. Finally the boss
run into a fence and stopped. Got her
headed right and away she went again.
Couldn't lift the rake, you know, got
it clogged up with nigh a ton of hay,
run one wheel over the only stump on
$50 acres of land, an for the first and
only time in my life l saw 4 horse-rake
upset. I'd bet the whole farm it
couldn't have been done, but that girl
done it. Rake broke to overlastin'
smash, too. Lost q whole day right in
the middle of Aayin' with a rain scttin'
in the west, gcttin' it mended.
Next day she wanted to drive the
rick to the barn. Had to send a man
clear to tho house for a ladder so's't
she could get up on the load, an then
every blame man in the field had to
come in an get on the other side of the
load afore she'd climb up. Bout an
hours time wasted. Then she drove
right straight through the orchard. be-
cause it was so shady, she said, and
scraped herself and about nino hum
dred pounds of hay right off under the
first tree, of course. Had to take two
men out of the barn to load up. Then
she tried to drive into the barn and
tore off one Of the big doors. Then all
tho men had to go out of the barn till
she climbed up into the NOW. Sho got
wandering round and walked into the
will and Shot down twcnty-cight feei
into the constable, and lit right on
tho back of u Jersey calf that was
worth 5000 of any mans money.
Knocked the girl senseless for a while
and she was i'll bed two days. An YOU
can't sell q broken-back calf for more'r
its hide will bring, l don't care what
the breed is.
Well, come whcat-harvest, she hac
to DO tied aud strapped OF tho scat o.
tho reaper. Good thing she was Tied,
|, for the first round of the knives cut of
a black-snake's head, and Miss Ethe
tainted dead away. Two men had tc
carry her to the house. She didn't &C
near the wheat field again all sum
mer.
One day she carried her arms full O
roastin' cars to a Morgan colt 1 wa:
t%rainin' for the fair. and foundcrec
him SO bad that I'll trot any COW or
the farm against him. Went out ON
day along in August. and fetched in :
Ooo"eAA"A oPA1S. oHc CailcN IL, "
trailing crimson" 1t was poison-oak,
, an she didn't see out of one eye fol
!, ten days. When she got we'll she
went out and poked down Il hornets
nest. .for her Kindergarten cabinet
This time both eyes went on q strike,
! and her Kindergarten will have to ge'
/. along with u description of q hornets
nest this winter.
. One day in haydn she took one o
the work horses that l just couldn',
get along without and went to town
She was gone all day, and came bacl
, with about twenty yards of blue ant
white ribbon. An | hope to die un
der a mortgage if that girl didn't wan
the men to tic punches OF ribbon OF
their rakes and hats, and wear whit,
shirts and low-neck shoes, and marcel
out to tho bayfield, in procession, with
her at tho head, all singing a chorus
from "The Haymakers." She saw i
done that way once ut 4 theatre, an
, said she thought it was always don,
: that way OH a farm. Why. she riggeG
me up in that way Wouldn't of beer
seen in tho dark like it, and my wifi,
laughed an laughed till the tears ru,
down her wrinklcd old checks. "Oh
Bart, Bart" she said, II wish yo,
could see YOURSELF" Why. I wouldn'
of gone out of the house in that rig
not for a yoke of steers. Miss Ethe
was SO mad an put III because W,
wouldn't do that lIaymaker business
she cried an stayed in her room al
day: Poor girl. Still we done a biz
Q days work that day. Then she got t,