The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1892-03-17

oak ana Spanish needles and cuck!eDurs
and dogfennel and snakes, that's always
in the way on farm and must be looked
after keerfully, especially snakes, which
are my eternal horror, and Ishall always
believe are some kin to the devil himself.
I can't tolerate such long insects, but We
farmers have to take the bad with the
good, and there is more good than bad
with me up to the present time.
T wonder if Harris ever saw packsad.
die. Well it's as putty as rainbow, just
like most of all the DEVILS contrivances,
and when you crowd one Of 'em on fod.
der blade you'd think that forty yaller
jackets had stung you all in bunch and
with malice aforethought, and there's the
DEVILS race horse, which flies around
about this time, and, Uncle Isam says,
chawa terbakker like a gentleman, and if
he spit in you eye, you'd 20 blind in half
a second. And one day he showed me q
DEVILS darning needle which winds up
! the old fellows stockings, and the DEVILS
snuff boz which explodes when you mash
it, and one ounce Of the stuff inside will
kill sound mule before be can lay
down. Then there's some flowers that he
wears in his button hole called the DEVILS
shoestring and the devil in the bush.
I like farmin'. It's an honest, quiet
life, and it does me so much good to work
and get all over in sweat Of perspira-
ton. I enjoy my humble food and my
repose, and get up every morning re-
newed and rejuvenated like an angel in
| its fight, or words to that effect. know
I shall like it more and more, for we
have already passed over the Rubicon
and are beginning to reap the rewards of
industry. Spring chickens have got ripe
and the hens keep bloomin' on. Over
two hundred now respond to my old
'omun's call every morning, as she totes
aroun' the bread tray, a singin' "teheeky,
tehesky, teheeky." l tell you she
watches those birds close, for she knows
| the value of 'em. She vas raised a
Methodist, she was, and many q time has
watched through the crack of the door,
sadly, and seen the preachers helped to
the last gizzard in the dish. There was
fifty four chickens, seven ducks, FIVE gos>
lins, twelve turkeys and seven pigs
hatched out last week, and Daisy had q
| calfand Molly colt besides. This looks
like business, don't il? This is what I
| call successful farmin'-multiplyin' and
| replenishin' according to scripture. Then
| we have plenty of peas and potatoes
and other garden YARDS which help the
| poor man out, and by the 4th of July
will have wheat bread and biscuit and
blackberry pies and pass regular decla.
ration of independence.
I like farmin'. I like latitude and
longitude. When ne were penned up in
| town my children couldn't have asling-
shot, nor bow and arrow, nor chicken
fight, in the back yard, nor sick dog on
another dog, nor let off big Ipjun
whoop without some nabor maxim a fuss
| about it. And then again there was a
| show OF dance or bazar or mission
! ary meeting most every night, and it
looked like the children were jest
| a'bleedged to go or the world would come
to an end. 1t was money, money, money
all the time. But now there isn't a store
| or milliner's shop within Eve miles of
| US, and We do our own work, snd have
learned what it costs to make bushel of
corn aud barrel of -four, and by the
time Mrs. Arp has nursed and raised a
| lot of chickens and turkeys she thinks 30
| much of 'em she don't want US to kill
'em, and they are heap fatter and better
than any we used to buy. We've got a
great big fireplace in the family room,
and can boil the coffee or heat 8 kettle of
water on the hearth if We want to, for we
are not on the lookout for company all
the time like We used to be. W. lon't
cook half as much as We used to, or
waste whole parcel every day on the
darkies, and we eat what is set before US
and are thankful.
It's wonder to me that everybody
don't go to farmin'. Lawyers and doc
tors have to set about town and play
checkers and talk politics and wait for
somebody to quarrel or 6ght or get sick !;
clerks and book.keepers cure and mul.
tiply and count until they get to count
ing the stars, and the flies on the ceiling,
and the peas in the dish, and the flowers
on the papering; the jeweler sits by his
window all the year round, working on a
little wheel, and the mechanic strikes
the same kind of lick every day. These
people do not belong to themselves, they
are all penned up like convicts in a
chsingang, for they are the servants of
their employers. There is no profession
that gives man such freedom, such lat
itude, and such variety of employment
as farming.
While was ruminatin' this morning
8 boy come along and said the dogs bad
treed something down in the bottom. So
nee and my boys shouldered the guns and
an ak, and took Mrs. Arp and the chill
dren along to see the sport. We cut
down a hollow gum tree, and caught q
possum and two aquirrels and killed 8
rabbit on the run, and had good time
generally. with no loss on our side. We
can stop work most any time to give
welcome to q passing friend and have a
little chat, and our neighbors do the
same by us; if you go into one of these
factories or workshops or even printing
Office, the first sign board that meets you
SAYS, "don't talk to the workmen." So
cisble crowd, amt it?
There's no monotouy upon the farm,