The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-11-20
IN CAMP.


"Worms, ughl I'll wager five cents
as much vermin as can the Lone Star
State" I remarked, impatiently, as I
dipped another cupful of -four from the
bag into the sieve.
"That's because the bugs and things
have most territory here in Texas, said
Ida, who had been studying her geogra-
ply since we had concluded to clay over"
a few days to recruit our WORKOUT teams
On the abundant green spring grasses
about our camp.
"Territory? Why, what do they want
with territory?" I asked. "They are too
communistic and social to waste a thought
on elbow room, if appearances don't belle
them"
We had bought bread at the village
bakery the preceding evening, and, find
ing it's crust notified with worms, we had
given it to Buffer. We had then bought
"good, clean" -four, after returning the
first lot, and there were a dozen species
and sizes again in the siftings.
We had crossed the wide frontier, with
its seven hundred and odd miles of I'M
settled spread, and we had reached set
Elements at last, with water and grass
in plenty, and many other seeming
promises of cheer, yet we were out of
sorts.
"They are travellers like ourselves"
spoke up Mrs. Baker. "They've come in
barrels all the way from St. Louis, much
as one would suppose that people here
could arise their own wheat"
"Here's a tick on my waist" said Ida,
nhanr1nr tho c11hioaf nonf,,rinr tho Of
fender and preparing to annihilate it with
the whiffletree hammer on the wagon
tongue, a formula she had repeated several
times since morning.
We had passed a sleepless night, and,
though the mood was foreign to us, we
were feeling irritable. The f~og-whistle.
locust in the tree above US had tuned up
at dusk and kept his oilless machine work
until twelve. Then the hooking birds
took the stand until morning, when the
chacalakas began their riotous noises, for
getful of breakfast. Noises that were not
warnings of danger seldom disturbed us,
but VI nerves had been taxed for a day
or two by finding tarantulas in among our
firewood. Some scorpions, too, had ma
terialized, together with known and I'M
known nondescript specimens of creepers.
We had commented on the variety and
multitude of the fauna of Texas at sunset,
and to cap the climax a hugh centipede
had dropped from the innocent-looking
foliage above my head into my lap. And
so our stomachs and our tempers were
out of order. The trees, grass, ETC., were
good enough to look at, but the keen en-
Joyrnent natural to US in camp or on the
move out in the barren wastes was denied
us now that we had reached vegetation in
its freshness and abundance.
"a tick! That's nothing, Ida," I an
swered, shaking the sieve vigorously, and
sending a transparent stream of -four off
to leeward to settle into a kind of wood
land milky way. eco, CO." 1 continued.
Il wish it could all escape the pan. A
dozen ticks or other leggy things are not
to be compared with one wriggling worm
for power to disgust"
"Wooha, Dickl"
Happily somebody was coming. Any
body was welcome, in the hope to find
something more agreeable t o think and
talk about.
Mrs. Baker, her young daughter, and I,
who were not partial to orthodoxy, had
declared the world could move without
NNh IL l " ohO, W pIOFC OUR dSSCGUlOD, we
had harnessed our teams and gone forth
into the wilderness in search of some
thing. What that something was we
couldn't have told il we had wished, as
we didn't know.
We had had a steady jog along Of six
months duration over deserts and over
mountainous country, sparsely settled,
and full of dangers. The Comanchese
were hostile. The roads were in many
places ugly, as are, too, all streams that
must be forded. Then we had elementary
hardships, and u~nlooked-for mishaps of
various kinds. But these had tried us
less severely than did the long stretches
beteen water and water that necessitated
the hard driving that had left our mules
but walking skeletons.
We didn't know when we "hitched
up" the last day of the preceding year,
to leave Colorado, where we were going;
yet Mrs. Baker had huge herds of cattle
! n her fancy. Could we, or couldn't we?
Yes, surely we could, as so many men
might, rush off to Central Texas and drive
out four-tooted greenbacks that would
double and double on their way to the
Colorado and Wyoming markets. If our
courage should fail us, then our secretive-
ness would spare us the taunts of our
friends, and if business prospects tempted
us at any point on our journey we could
postpone o u cattle-driving scheme until
some more convenient time. And so we
mounted our boxes, being our own Jehus,
equipped to meet war, famine, or other
dangers to team travel over a most I'M
promising path. We three had sailed
away south to Fort Lyon on the Arkansas
river, and onward, each with a confidence
that kept our doubts in subjugation and
that would have done credit to a mascu-
limo foorpo%o- Hol-px ko-11J -