The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1891-02-20
TIE GOOD OLD TIMES.

Farmer Blewitt was Il little, dried-uA>
irascibe man, and he used to wear
4 red comforter around his neck and
red flannel ear!appcrs on his plug hat
when he went tn meeting in winter.
He was always ready to argue that
these modern times were ;lwfuiiy bad,
and that the good old times of Il hum
lred years ago We're just right. He
would decry invention and improve
n,ent and say that the world would
be better without them. lie took a
newspaper on purpose TO count the
murders in it and tell how bad the
world had grown. He would stand
for hours on Il corner in the village
and retail his deductions on the pres
ent and his regrets for the past.
One day he had whipped the minis
Ter in argument, and rs he had his dim
ncr and the minister had gone away
mad and the women were at work in
the kitchen, he tipped back in his
chair, drew red silk handkerchief
over his head to keep oil the flies and
went to sleep. lie had not Sept over
five minutes before his son john came
in and said:
"Come. father, we must get 1T that
piece of wheat ard cut ii.
Bewitt got up and yawned and fol-
bowed his son 10 the barnyaial, where
his two sons SIT Oh Il !og fling ;t"oupie
Of sickles.
s.Wh:lt in the nation are You doing
with those old sickIr>?7 said B!cwitt.
Onc of the boys Looked ast"nisiled
and said: ''Du;n2 WAy, we are get
ting ready to III the wheat
BlewitL stared II moment and then
said: ..Wiy in thunder don't you hitch
on t" the r'@iper and stop f"olin with
them sick
The bays looked at each other in
surprise. hut said n"thing. Blewitt ran
to thn she'd. but there was no reaper
thcrc4 III. came back. The boys had
got over she fence and were OH their
knees rc:,ping the wheat and carrying
It in gavciS.
..Boss,'; SAID Blewi,t. "what do you
mean by this foolishnessP Where is
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
threshin' machines
''Threshin' machine" said Charley;
..why you know as well as l do that [
will have to fail this wheat out morn
ing and night while going to school
this winter. What ails you, father?"
Blewitt, asw said, got mad easily,
and now he just hoped up and down
and said: 49,,
'Flail 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 l 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 dam
ed if don't believe you are crazy, so
nowr'
.Blewitt pinched himself to see if he
was asleep, and strobe angrily to the
house. AS he approached it he heard
a. a.roaring and rum bling like the wind,
and he looked into the kitchen and
there was his wife spinning. Who-o-o
went the big wheel, and Blewitt sank
into chair and yelled:
Now, Maria, what under the cano-
py are you doin'?''
...Doin'?" said his wife, "why, spin
MIN, of course. must get out forty
yards of full-cloth for you an the boys
and twenty yards of pressed flannel
for me and the gals"
Blewitt looked down at bis legs and
saw them incased in full-cloth of coarse
texture, and the seat of his trowsers he
felt reached clear up to his shoulder
blades, and the legs were as wide as
.tWo-bushel sacks.