The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-07-12

W ANS "'ENS6.I
BUCK SHOALS, N. c., June.
A night in the country is one of the
most restful things 1 know of for the
tired mind. l came here with that
Idea. l needed rest. 1 had been
troubled with insomnia.
In the early spring 1 overthought
myself. 1 had one great big, robust
thought, but l could not seem to clothe
it. Clothing a thought properly so
that it will please the public is a gift.
Quite a number of the most remark
able children of my brain are still
weeping in the great bathroom of the
past because they were not suitably
clothed.
Some of them 1 sent to the Brown
ing club, at Boston, where they are
being fitted up. I had intended at
first to try New York, but Anthony
COmstock never took his clothes off
for ten nights, but sat up at the
Pennsylvania depot watching every
bare thought I dared to send in for
suitable drapery.
So [ was nervous and especially
wakeful. 1 came here into the pinery
forest where a metropolitan sound
would be a wonder. l retired early,
for l was tired of travel and gorged
with mans ad~ulteration.
Oh, rock me to sleep, mother,
Rock me to sleep
1 exclaimed.
Pretty soon a whipporwill started up
right close to the house. If I had not
been nervous | would not have noticed
it, but as it was I got sort of irritated,
for he went into it so much harder
than anybody wanted him to. If he
had gone on steadily all night l could
have slept, but he did not. He had an
impeachment in his remarks, and some
times he would quit right in the middle
of the word and l could almost grow
mad waiting for him to finish it.
Then the clock in the library struck.
1t does not strike right, and 1 wondered
how far off it was, so I got up like a
tall, white, rectifed spirit and began to
reach for a match. 1 have two match
holders in my room, SO that when one
is empty I a always fall back on the
other.
l fell back on the other almost the
first thing l did. 1 stepped in a fax
seed poultice and tracked it around
over the room while feeling for the
match safe with outstretched hands,
between which I generally had the
edge of door. The first safe l found
after a good deal Of delay and annoy
ance, but it only had the other end Of
two matches-not the bad end.
After had tried both of them in the
usual manner, forgetting that the
trousers on which 1 had generally
ignited my matches were on a chair in
another part Of the room, l began once
more to feel around the room for the
other match safe, ever and non cross
ing my old faxseed poultice trail.
By and by 1 judged that 1 had struck
the locality, for 1 was in the neighbor-
hood of the fireplace. I could smell
the old embers. 1 began to grope, and
succeeded in getting both arms up the
fue a long distance before I knew by
the soft, nice feeling of the SCOT where
I was.
Then l went back and tried it over
again, falling over a chair that had
pillow shams on it. In the morning I
could see where l fell over the pillow
shams and saved myself with my
grimy hands.
Inow>tried the wall, cropping along
with some care and an occasional dab
of SCOT till I knocked down a picture
on a rich and costly Sevres vase which
l kept calamus root in. I will have to
keep my calamus root in something
else hereafter.
By and by l found some more things,
but not the match safe. got sort Of
wild, and everything about the house
seemed so still. Isn't it terrible when
O man has that horrible feeling in his
own house, as though he might be rob
bling it?
How glad 1 am that 1 never perfected
myself as a burglar, as l had intended
to do at one time just after I gave up
my little paper in the west. For what
a life it is; all night work, all among
strangers who have no sympathy for
one, often coarse people, too, who sleep
with their mouths open and their rooms
shut. 1t is just as well, I presume, that