Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-06-30
The Good Old Times.


flannel earlappers on his plug hat when
he went TO meeting in winter. He was
always ready to argue that these mod
ern times were awlully bad. and that
the good old times of q hundred years
ago were just right. He would decry
invention and Improvement and say
that the world would be better without
them. He took a newspaper on pur-
pose to count the murders recorded in
1t and tell how bad the world had
grown He would stand for hours on
corner in the village and retail his
deductions on the present and his re-
grets for the past.
One day ne had whipped the minis
ter in argument, and as he 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 red silk handkerchief over his
head to keep off the fl es and went to
sleep. He had not slept over five min
ates before his son John came in and
sand:
Come, father, we must get at that
piece of wheat and cut it.
Blew tt 30: up and yawned and fol-
lowed his son to the barnyard, where
his two sons sat on log filing couple
Of sickles
What in the nation are YOU doing
with those old sickles?" said Blewtt
One of tile boys looked astonished
and said: Don? VIII. we are get
ting ready TO cut the wheat
Blewilt stared moment and then
said: why in thunder don't You hitch
on to the reaper and stop fooIin' with
them siekles?"
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
boys had got over the fence and were
on their knees reaping the wheat and
carrying It in gavels.
Boys" said Blewitt, "what do you
mean by this fool shness? Where is
shat reaperP"
Charley, the second boy, looked at
his father pityingly and then tapped
his forehead and looked over to John,
VIM hOOdNt huh AOOhtu saul
why, darn it,, said Blewitt, you
can never run those bundles through a
threshin machine.
''Threshin' machine. said Charley;
''why, you know as well'as / do that /
will have to fail this wheat out morn.
ings and nights while going to school
this winter What ails you, father2'
Blewitt, as we said, got mad easily,
and now he just hoped up and down
and said:
Flail it out! 1t must be threshed
ready to ship on the cars next month. +"
Cars. cars!" said John. Don't
know what ais you, father, or what
you mean. l know 1 shall have 10
team this wheat down to Albany and
sell it for what it will bring Here you
come out talk n about reapers and
cars and threshin' machines, and
Harmed if don't believe you are crazy,
so now.
Blewitt pinched himself to see if he
was asleep and strobe angrly to the
house. As he approached it he heard
roaring and rumbling like the wind.
and he looked into the kitchen and
there was his wife spinning. Who-o-c
went the big wheel. and Blewitt sank
into a chair and yelled:
Now. Maria, what under the
canopy are you doin'p"
"Doin'P' said his wife, 'whv,
spinnln', of course | must get out
FORTY yards of fulI-cloth fer you and
the boys and twenty yards of pressed
nannel for me and the gals.
Blewitt looked down at his legs ant
saw them inr;lsed 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 wide al
two-bushels sacks.
well. I'll be darned!' was all be
said
DreamilY he sauntered out again e
The wheat field, and John halted him
Father. if YOU amt going to hell
cut the wheat suppose you yoke thu
oxen and 60 up to the woods and draw
draft or two of logs for wood?'
Blewitt was composed, but he said
ii had intended to burn coal in the sit
sing-roOm and parlor, and not cut nue.
wood
= Coal. coalr' said John. angrily
snow see here, father, | don't wan
any more of this foolish talk. / am 90
ing to git doctor"
BlewiLt began to think he needed on
himself. Here his BOYS never heard o
reaper or a threshing machine o
cars. He felt of his full.cloth pant
and groaned. On the lounge at til
house he laid himself down and trie,
TO calmly think things over. Whe
the doctor came he called for ia
aud barred Blewitts arm. He took on
his lance. and then Blewitt groane
again.
II must take n gallon of blood.
said the doctor. land then he will cali
down and be all right.
Don't you know beedin' wa
played out fifty years agoP" said Blew
1T.
How he wandersT' said the doctor
aud PLUNGED in his lancet. Blew I
ainted. When lie came to himself h