Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-12-31
A BARN THAT GREW.
II Was still Growing When the Man whs
Started the Bout Disappeared.

It Was still Growing When the Man wh0
Started the Bout Disappeared.
"Say, stranger, how high mought
that building be?" asked a countryfied-
looking individual as he stood at Broad
way and Ann street, gazing up at the
towering structure being erected there.
The man of whom he asked the ques-
ton evidently thought he would have
some fun with the farmer. He looked
at the latter moment, and then said:
"Oh, that little house there? Oh, that's
about 500 feet high. But that's nothing
to several buildings that are going to
he put up further up the street"
"Shu, you don't say SOL" exclaimed
the farmer. "How high mought some
Of them buildings going to be?"
"Six to eight hundred feet high, not
counting TIE towers" replied the smart
man.
"shu, you don't say sol" CALCULATED
the farmer. 49,
But, say, stranger, how's the peo-
pie to get up to the top of them?"
"Oh, that's easy enough" said the
smart man, thinking of the fun he was
having; they're going to have pneu-
matte tubes in them. You get into q
box and they shoot you up to the roof
In two seconds"
"Shu, you don't say sol" once more
remarked the farmer. "Your houses
don't cover much ground, stranger, do
they? Now oit in my part of the coun-
try we go in for more land than high
buildings. My brother started in to
build bayn once, and that barn COW
cred about as much land as all the
buildings In your town put together"
"Oh, say, old fellow" replied the fun
ny person, you're talking through
your hat. No man could build as big
a barn as that"
"That's all right" said the farmer;
"but my brothers barn wasn't no or
binary barn, b'gosh. 1t wasn't so big
at the start, but you see it took a-grow-
in, and before it stopped it covered his
whole farm-a whole section, sir, about
one square mile"
1T took a-growing, did it," remarked
the puzzled person, who had been hav-
ing the fun. Say, mister, what are you
driving at, anyhow? Whoever heard Of
a barn growing?"
"Well, there's not many people, I'll
admit, stranger" proceeded the farm
err. "It was the first time that ever
heard of one; but, as l said before, my
brothers barn wasn't no ordinary barn.
You see he built it of green hemlock,
and as he was In a hurry to get it built
before harvest, he couldn't wait for the
wood to dry out. Now that wood was
full of sap when my brother slapped
that barn up, and when the weather
began to get warm, the sap began to
run, and that set the wood to growing.
Well, sir, you never saw anything
grow like it before in your life. Talk
about your big houses in this town,
why, they can't compare with the way
my brothers barn growed. He would
go to bed at night thinking that he had
located the door of his barn all right;
but when he got up in the mornin' he
would have to walk quarter of mile
further to get into the barn to feed the
horses. 1t got to be monotorous, sir,
but he stood it all right until the barn be-
gan to run off his farm and 60 over Bill
Johnson's wheat field. You see Bill set
great store on that wheat field. He had
big mortgage on his farm and he in
tended to sell the wheat and pay off,
But the farmer stopped, and found
that he had been talking to himself.
The man to whom he had been talking
was block away, and he was walking
as if he had letter to post for his wife,
or an extremely important engagement
to keep.-N. Y. Tribune.