Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1888-05-31
the GOOD OLD TIMES.

red flannel ear-lappers on his plug
hat when he went to meeting in win.
ter. He was always ready to argue
that these modern times were awfully
bad, and that the good oil times of a
hundred years ago were just right.
lie would decry invention and i'm.
proyement and say that the world
would be better without them. Hs
took a newspaper on purpose to count
the murders recorded in it and tell
how bad the world had gFcwn. Ea
would stand for hours on a corner in
the village and retail his deductions
on the present and his regrets on the
past.
One lay he had whipped the min
lister ia argument, and as he had had
his dinner and the minister had gone
away mad and the women were at
work IN the kitchen. he tipped back
his chair, drew a red silk handker.
chief over his head to keep off the
flies and went to sleep. He had not
slept over FIVE minutes before his son
John came in and said:
Come, father, We must get at that
piece Of wheat and cut it,
Blewitt got up and yawned and fol.
lowed his son to the barnyard, where
his two sons sat on a log filing con.
pie of sickles.
"What in the nation are you doing
with those old sickles p said Blewitt.
One Of the boys looked astonished
and said "DOin'? Why, we are get
ting ready to cut the wheat"
Blewitt stared a moment and then
said, "Why in the thunder don't you
hitch Oh to that reaper and stop fool.
in with those sicklss ?"
The boys looked at each other in
surprise, but said nothing. Blewitt
ran to the shed, but there was no
reaper there. He came back. The
boy had got over the fence and were
on their knees reaping the wheat and
c trrylng it in gavels.
Boys, said Blewitt, what do you
moan by this fnnliohnaas , wl.o-a "a
that reaper ?"
Charley, the second boy, looked at
his father pityingly, and then tapped
his forehead and looked over to John,
who nodded and looked sad.
"Why, darn it," said Blewitt, "you
can never run those bundles through
A threshln' machine"
"Threshin machine" said Charley;
why, you know as we'll as l do that
shall have to fail this wheat out
mornings and nights while going to
school his winter. What ails you,'
father ?.
Blewitt, as We said, got mad easily,
and now he jrst hoped up and down
and said
"Flall it out 1t must be threshed
ready to ship on the cars next month"
Cars, cars. said John, "don t know
what ails you, father, or what you
mean. ! know | shall have to team
this wheat down to Albany and sell
it for what it will bring. Here you
come out talkin' about reapers and
cars and threshin' machines, and
darned If | don't believe you are era
~, so now.
Blewitt pinched himself to see if he
was awake and strobe angrily to the
house. As he approached it he heard
a rumblng and roaring like wind, and
he looked into the kitchen and there
was his wife spinning. Who-o-o went
the wheel and Blewitt sank into o
chair and yelled
Now, Maria, what under the cano.
~ are YOU doin' ?
'Doin ? said his wife, why, spin
min, OF course. must get out forty
yards Of full-cloth for you and the
boys, and twenty yards of pressed
flannel Tor me and the:gals.,
Blewltt looked down at his legs and
saw them encased in full-cloth of
coarse texture, and the seat of his
trousers he felt reached clear up to
his shoulder blades, and the legs were
as two-bushel sacks.
Well, I'll be darned, was all he
said.
Dreanily he sauntered out again to
the wheat field and John hailed him !:
Father, if you amt goin' to help
cut the wheat suppose you yoke the
oxen and so up to the woods and
draw a draft or two Of logs for wood 2
Blewitt was composed, but he said !:
I had intended to burn coal in the
sitting room and psrlor, and not cut
much wood
Coal, coal I said John, angrily;
now sec here. father, ] don't want
any more Of this foolish talk. am
goin to git doctor