Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1896-07-08
THE GOOD OLD TIMES.

lTaSclDlp IDHu, anu nc uotb W "NN% -
red comforter around his neck and RED
flannel ear-lappers on his plug hat
when he went to meeting In winter.
He was always ready to argue that
these modern times were awfully bad,
and that the good old times of hun
dred wears ago were Just right. lie
would decry invention and improve
ment and say that the world would be
better off without them. He took
newspaper on purpose to count the
murders recorded In 1t and to tell how
bad the world had grown. He would
stand for hours In corner In the VII
lage and retail his deductions on the
present and his regrets for the past.
One day he had whipped the minister
In argument, and as he had had his
dinner and the minister had gone away
mad and the women were at work In
the kitchen, he tipped back In his chair
drew a red silk handkerchief over his
head to keep off the flies and went to
sleep. He had not slept over five min
utes before his son John came in and
said:
ZONE, IHtUeT, VIC IuuSt get Ut thai
piece of wheat and cut It."
Blewitt got up and yawned and fol-
lowed his son to the barnyard, where
his two sons sat on q log filing couple
Of sickles.
"What In the nation are you doing
with those old sickles?" said Blewitt.
One of the boys looked astonished
III,
ting ready to cut the wheat"
Blewitt stared moment and then
said: "Why In thunder don't you hitch
on to the reaper and stop foolin' with
them sicklesr'
The boys looked at each other In sur
prise, but said nothing. Blewitt ran to
the shed, but there was no reaper there.
He came back. The boys had got over
the fence and were ON their knees
reaping the wheat and carrying in
gavels.
Boys" said Blewitt, what do you
mean by this foolishness? Where is
the 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
threshin' machine"
"Threshin' machlne?" said Charl
"why you know as well as l do that
shall have to fail this wheat out morn
ings and nights while going to school
this winter. What ails you, father"
Blewltt, as we said, got mad easily,
and now he Just hoped up and down
and said:
'Flail it out! 1t must be thrashed
ready to ship on the cars next month";"
Cars, cars" said John. Don't know
what ails you, father, or what you
mean. 1 know l shall have to team
this wheat down to Albany and sell It
for what 1t will bring. Here you come
out talking about reapers and cars and
thrashin machines, and darned If l
don't believe you are crazy, SO now"
Blewltt pinched himself to see If he
was asleep and strobe angrily to the
house. AS he approached it he heard
a roaring and rumbling like the wind.
and he looked into the kitchen and
there was his wife spinning Who-o-o
went the big machine, and Blewitt sank
into chair and yelled:
Nov, Maria, what under the canopy
are you doin?'
"Doin'?" said his wife, "why spinnin',
Of course. l must get out forty yards
Of full cloth for you and the boys and
twenty yards Of pressed flannel for me
and the gals"
Blewltt looked down at his legs and
saw them encased in full cloth of coarse
texture, and the seat of his trousers he
felt reached clear up to his shoulder
blades, and the legs were as wide as
two-bushel sacks.
well, I'll be darned,' was all he said.
Dreamily he sauntered out again
to the wheat field and John halted him.
Father, If you amt going to help
cut the wheat suppose you yoke the
oxen and go up to the woods and draw
raft or two Of logs for woodr
Blewitt was composed, but he said:
81 had intended to burn coal in the
sitting-room and parlor and not cut
much wood"
.'Coal, coal!' said John, angrily.
"Now see here. father; l don't want
any more of this foolish talk. I'm GO
ing to git DOCTOR"
Blewitt began to think he needed one
himself. Here his boys had never heard
Of a reaper or a thrashing machine or
cars. On the lounge at the house he
lay himself down and tried to calmly
think things over. When the doctor
came he called for a pail and barred
Blewitt's arm. He took out his lance,
and then Blewitt groaned again.
II must take a gallon of blood" said
the Doctor, "and then he will calm down
and be all right"
"Don't you know bleedin' was played
out fifty years ago." said Blewtt.
'How he wanders," said the Doctor,