Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-05-05
CHAPTER V.
THE HARVEST HOME


All the fat was in the fire. Made
moiselle fatty refused to permit Kate
Grahame to share the festivities
of the harvest home, pronouncing
that harmless rural fete a vulgar orgy,
in which no young lady with proper
sentiments ought to dream Of taking
part. All this in a volubility Of words
only part of which were understood
she propounded to Mrs. Barlow, who
forthwith carried the unpleasant tidings
to the jovial yeoman, who resented the
insinuation with the vigor of his sturdy
race. He had been altogether averse
to having French woman in the house,
and had only yielded out of regard for
Miss Balderstone, firmly believing that
his ponds would be depleted of frogs
and that strange, unholy dishes would
find their way into his larder.
"What!'' he said, striking his table
with his huge fist, so that the glasses
jingled an accompaniment to his wrath.
care we to be taught manners by a
frog-eating French woman? Says Miss
Balderstone wouldn't approve-why.
? Miss Balderstone has danced a reel on
this very floor at harvest-home with
my head WAGNER and didn't think she
demeaned hersen. I tell zee I'll see her
mysen, and if can't knock some sense
into her silly head, my names not John
Barlow. The lass shall come to the
homing if she has mind to, and there's
an end ont"
Whereupon there was a battle royal
fought under French and English col
ors, in which half the shots missed fire,
for Mademoiselle could not understand
moiety of the farmers broad Surrey
| dialect, and the lady's keenest bits of
satire were lost upon him. The end of
it was that compromise was effected.
Miss Grahame was to be allowed to
| participate in the games after supper
| and take part in a round dance or two,
with no other partner than the worthy
yoeman himself or the village school
| master who was expected as guest
If these conditions were observed,
mademoiselle under protest withdrew
her objections. So harmony was re-
| stored, and John Barlow, hopping his
| face with his handkerchief, returned to
the kitchen with flying colors to an
| nouace to his women-folk his partial
victory.
Old customs are dying out, even in
England, but under John Barlow's hos
pitable roof, they maintained their pris-
tine glory, as unabridged as when his
ancestor had burned the Yule log on
his broad hearth for the carousal of a
registering troop of cavaliers in the days
of King Charles.
! Long tables were set in the great
kitchen, preparatory to the coming
feast. But the first ceremony was the
| homing-proper, the bringing of the last
load of sweet-smelling hay from the
field, in the cleaning, just before the
dew began to fall upon the grass.
The last fOrkful was pitched upon the
mighty load, the ropes were tied from
wraithe to wraithe to keep it in place,
and the women and children were
hoisted up to the top of it, the former
exhibiting considerable coyness in the
process, and the heavy horses, with
harness sSeclzed with ribbons, started at
| a stately pace, John Barlow leading
the procession on his fat cob, and the
haymakers bringing up the rear and
merrily trolling a song with the re-
frain:
Harvest home!
Work is done,
jolly companions, everyonei"
How Arthur Dunbar entered into the
spirit of the revel! Just an hour was
given to the farm hands to ''fettle''
| themselves, and the great bell on the
ivy-clad stone gable of the house
rang out the welcome tidings that
supper was ready. Then into the old
kitchen trooped the host of merry
makers, every laborer about the place
with his wife and children or sweet
heart, besides a score of farm-servants
from the neighboriug homesteads. In
good old style the gentle waited upon
the simple, the schoolmaster and the
schoolmaster's wife, the apothecary
and his two handsome daughters, the
village dressmaker and her three
! pretty apprentices. and Dame Barlow
and her Nellie merrily We'd with each
other in loading the plates with good
| thinGs: the only persons Of hiGher