The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-06-02
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.

Farmer Blewitt was a little dried
up, irascible man, and he used to
wear a red comfoI ter around his neck
and red flannel ear-lappers on his
plug hat when he went to meeting
in winter. He was always ready to
cue these modern times were
awfully bad, and that the good old
times of a hundred years ago were
just right. He would decry inven-
ton and improvement and say that
the world would be better without
them. He took newspaper on pur-
pose to count the murders recorded
in it and tell how bad the world had
grown. He would stand for hours
on a corner in the village and retail
his deductions on the present and
his regrets for the past.
One day he had whipped the min
lister in argument, and as he had had
his dinner ard the minister had one
away mad and the women were at
work in the kitchen, he tipped backed
in his chair, drew a red silk hand
kerchief 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 an said:
Come, father. we must get at
that piece Of wheat and cut it.
Blewitt got up and yawned and
followed his son to the barnyard.
where his two sons sat on a log filing
a couple Of sickles.
"What in the nation are you doing
with those old sickles?" said Blewitt.
One of the boys looked astonished
"Doin'? Why, we are getting ready
to cut the wheat
Blewitt stared a moment and then
said: "Why in thunder don't you
hitch on to that reaper and STOP
foolin' with them sickles?''
The boys looked at each other in
surprise, but said nothing. Blewit1
ran to the shed, but there was nc
reaper there. He came back. The
boys had got over the fence ano
were on their knees reaping the
wheat and carrying it in gavels.
Boys" said Blewitt, what dc
you mean by this foolishness Where
is that reaper
Charley, the second boy, looked
at his father pityingly, and then tap
ped his forehead and looked over tc
John who nodded and looked sad.
"Why, darn it," said Blewitt
you can never run them bundle:
through threshin' machine. :"
"Threshin' machine" said Char
ley; "why, you know as well as | dc
that | shall have to fail this whea
out mornings and nights while goins
to school this winter. What ails you
father?"
Blewitt, as we said, got mad easily
and now he just hoped up and dow
and said:
"Flail it out 1t must be threshet
ready to ship on the cars mex
month"
/ Gears, cars" said John, "don'
know what ails you, father, or wha
you mean. | know | shall have t.
team this wheat down to Albany ant
sell it tor what it will bring. Her
you came Out talkin' about reaper
and cars and threshin' machines, ant
darned if l don't believe you ar
crazy, so now."
Blewitt pinched himself to see
he was awake and strobe angrily t.
the house. AS he approached it h
heard a rumbling and roaring lik
wind, and he looked into the kitche
and there was his wife spinning
Who-o-o went the big wheel ant
Blewitt sank into a chair and yelled
''Now, Maria, what under the can
opy are you doin' %
"Doin'?" said his wife, "why
spinin', of course. l must get ou
forty yards OF full-cloth for you ant
theboys, and twenty yards of presse
flannel for me and the gals"
Blewitt looked down at his leg
and saw them encased in full-clot
of coarse texture, and the seat of hi
trousers he felt reached clear up t
his shoulder blades, and the leg
were as wide as two-bushel sacks.
We'll I'll be darned," was all h
said.
Dreamily he sauntered out agai
to the wheat field and John halle
him:
"Father, if you amt goin' to hel
cut the wheat suppose you yoke tn
oxen and go up to the woods an
draw a draft or two of logs fo
wood?"
Blewitt was composed, but he said
81 had intended to burn coal in tn
sitting-room and parlor, and not Gu
much wood"
Goal, coalp' said John angrily
"now see here father; | don't wan
any more of this foolish talk. | al
goin' to get a DOCTOR
Blewitt began to think he needle
one himself. Here his boys ha
! never heard of reaper or thresf