Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-03-30

s.
The "sociables" had met every week,
the crowd had been too big for the
house, and Riley had built a dancing
floor under the trees. The people
would go nowhere else. The good
young farmer and his wife shook their
heads. 1t would all come to the bad.
The farmer went contentedly to his
work, singing John Anderson Ny
10" IN the minor key which he loved
80 we'll
Now came watermelon time. There
was not melon on the young farmers
barren acres. But in Riley Roses new
"forty" notice had been given that mel
ons were free to all-melons that were
past the Juggling of a small boy. So
the farmer and the boy made a trip
and brought home half a wagOn-boxful,
that the great Riley demanded to pile
IN. There he was This was the demi-
gOd-a large, brOad-faesd, Scotch
looking farmer, every inch an Optimist.
How happy he must be- The small
boy did not dare to address him for
fear of telling of the secret love that
had grown up. And when the melon
bearers returned home there was q
feast, for they had lived on salt pork
and bad spring-water until they were
all furnishing for some of the juice o.
the earth. But the farmer ate Of the
great musk-melons, things the boy had
no tooth for. The farmer did not care
for watermelOns. He ate melons as he
sang John Anderson" in the minor
key.
And now came the rout Of autumn
The boy could almost hear the sounds
of reveIry at Riley Roses. How
blessed it was, that though the days
should be long and hateful on this
wOrked-cut-farm, still, up there, not
mile away, was a place where men and
women laughed and made merry! How
ruefully the farmers all about declared
that Riley Rose could get more done
at one husking bee than any other man
could in tenl
It was destined, in the providence Of
God, that the boy should vanish from
these scenes. He went with but sim
gle regret-that fate had kept him
away from one spot on earth that had
been worth living in.
Nothing seemed stranger or more
joyful than the news, a few years after
ward, that another and beloved fam
lily of the boys relatives had bought
Riley Roses place, and would also try
farming. Time had wrought some
changes for the better in the fortunes
of the small boy. He had guitar, and
he was we'll liked. Therefore, to visit
his affectiOnate aunt and her daughter,
the people who had never been unkind
to him, and to visit them in Riley Roses
paradise, became q privilege that could
hardly have been dreamed of. And in
the days of delightful midsummer
while the men were off on the creek
haying, the women would cook a dinner
of spring chicken fried in fresh butter,
the table would be spread under the
trees, the boy, who gloried in house
work, would take a delighted hand at
the various industries of that little
home, and though the people round
about might say that tie light had de-
parted from Riley Roses, yet what
cared the boy? The fact was, he. the
small boy, had become sole heir Of this
principally Of nature. No wonder the
disinherited should complain. To
swing, toplay the guitar, to pick fruit,
to go wintergreening, to shoot the
black squirrels and shoot at the red
squirrels, to bring in a wild turkey or
goose, to drive home the COWS, and
hear the tinzling of their bells along
with the call of some sweet-VOiced bird
/ born in those surrOundings-suc was
the round of pleasures that a success
sion of visits, In all times of the year,
brought to the small boy. And be it
said to his credit that he never lifted
his head from the dOwny pillows of
! that hospitable house, to catch the
! thread of the dawn's discussion out
side-the gObble-gobble and the chan
/ ticleer-without thoughts of gratitude
/ to the man who had coined this lovely
spot out of the primeval Wilderness
who had fenced it away from the mean,
ugly, workaday world.
! Twenty years afterward the small
! boy finds his health undermined by
the hard summers work and vigil
! growing out of the assassination, sui
/ ferings, and death of President Gar
| field. In his desire to rest the small
boys thoughts turn backward to the
! grove Of singing birds and scOlding
turkeys and chipping squirrels. The
| ever-present dew of that far away
heaven of a sterile childhood seems to
fall upon his soul Yes, he viii travel
thither. He wilI walk once more in
those scenes. He will do again for q
day as he did once for happy weeks.
And then he will go in search of Riley
Rose. The small boy is old enough
now to speak his gratitude.
Years ago the small boy has heard
that his people had left the saplinga
and the oaks. Why. he knows not, but
railroad journey carries him to their
farm, not far from the by-places of his
youth. They tell him the old place is
gone, but he can hardly believe them.
A walk of half an hour brings him to
the knoll where the orchard once
bloomed. In dazed sort Of way he
looks for the picket-fence, the gracious
oaks; his eye travels a mile for a grove
of saplings. But this, he is told, is the
sacred spOt-a corntield, like the mean
est cultivated acre In the township.
Not far from the road, over q