The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-03-24

turning to the woman beside his wife
on the back seat, he said:
"This is the place where / mighty
nigh got tipped over trying to drive
two horses to a sleigh with lines be.
tween my knees. Mother and me have
remembered it, some way, ever SINCE"
And the old man stroked his grizzled
beard, and tried to smile on the wrong
side of his face, that the women might
see his joke. They exchanged mean
ing chances when the colonel turned
away, and Mrs. Hucks was proudly
happy. Even the dullness of the color
of the grass, which she had remembered
as luscious green, did not sadden her
for half an hour.
When the two Kansas people were
alone that night, the colonel asked:
"Doh't it seem kind of dwarfed here
to what you expected it would be?
Seems to me like it's all shrivelled, and
worn out, and old. Everything's got
dust on it. The grass by the road is
dusty. The trees that used to seem 80
tall and black with shade are just moth
ing like what they used to be. The
hill I've thought of as a young noun
tain don't seem to be as big as our bluff
Blackjack home"
Kansas was home to them now. For
thirty years the struggling couple on
the prairie had kept the phrase 'back
home" sacred to Ohio. Each felt a
thrill at the household blasphemy, and
both were glad that the colonel had
said ''back home" and that it meant
Kansas.
care you sorry you come, father?"
said Mrs. Hucks, as the colonel was
about to fall into a doze.
81 don't know; are you?" he asked.
"Well yes; l guess l am; l haven't
no heart for this, the way it is, and I've
some way lost the picture l had fixed
in my mind of the way it was. l don't
care for this, and yet it seems like l do,
too. Oh, l wish l hadn't come, to find
everything 80 washed out like it is"
And so they looked at pictures of
youth through the eyes of age. How
the colors were faded! What a tragic
difference there is between the light
that springs from the dawn and the
glow which falls from the sunset
After the first day Colonel Hucks did
not restrain his Dragging about Kansas.
Anu NILS, I1uCho gave lClh W bCl piluO
when she heard him. Before that day
she had reserved a secret contempt for
the Kansas boaster, and had ever wished
that he might see what Ohio could do
in the particular line which he was
plaisiDg. But now Mrs. Hucks caught
herself saying to her hostess, What
small ears of corn you raise herel'
The day after the concession Mrs.
Hucks began to grow homesick. At
first she worried about the stock; the
colonel's chief care was his dog. The
fifth DAVIS visit was their last. AS they
we're driving to the town to take the
train for Kansas, Mrs. Hucks heard her
husband %discoursing something after
this fashion:
"I tell you, jim, before I'd slave my
life out on an eighty the way you're
dom I'd 90 out takin' in white washin'.
1t is just like this-a mar in Kansas
has lower taxes, better schools, and
more advantages in every way, than
you've got here. And as for grasshop-
persl Why, Jim West, sech talk makes
me tired. My boy Bill's been always
born and raised in Kansas, and now
he's in the legislature, and in all his
life, since he can remember, he never
seen a hopper. Wouldn't know one
from a sacred ibex, if he met it in the
road"
When they were comfortably seated
ON the homeward-bound train, Mrs.
Hucks said to her husband:
"How do you suppose they live here
in this country, anyway, father? Don't
any one here seem to own any of the
land ~joinin' them, and they'd no more
think of putin in water-tanks and
wind-mills around their farms than
they'd think of flynn. 1 just wish Mary
could come out and see my new kitchen
sink with the hot and cold water In it,
Why, she almost tainted when l told
her how to fix a dreen for her dish.
water and things" Then, after a sigh,
she added, "But they are 30 unpro-
gressive here, nowadays"
That was the music which the colonel
loved, and he took up the strain, and
carried the tune for a few miles. Then
it became a duet, and the two old souls
were very happy.
They were overjoyed at being bound
for Kansas. They hungered for kin
uIcu bplIltos M COilu3 III thO CoiiJ
morning, they awakened from their
chair-car maps to hear a strident female
voice saying:
Well, sir, when the rain did finally
come, Mr. Morris he just didn't think
there was a thing left worth cutting on
the place, but, 10 and behold, we goi
owe forty bushel to the acre off of thai
field as it was"
The colonel was thoroughly awake
in an instant, and he nudged his wife
as the voice went
"Mr. Morris he was so afraid the
wheat was winter killed; all the papers
said it was; and then came the late
frost, which every one said had ruined
it-but law me-"
Mrs. Hucks could stand it no longer,
With her husbands cane she reached
The owner of the voice, ard said:
Excuse me, ma'am, but what par
of Kansas are you fromP"
1t seemed like meeting a dear rela.
tive. The rest of the journey to Kan
sas City was q h~allelujah chorus
wherein the colonel sang a powerful
and telling bass.
When he crossed the Kansas state
line. Colonel Hucks began. indeed. Il