Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-01-02
A BARN THAT GREW.
&c Was Still Growing When the Man Who
SearLsd the Bout DISAPPEARED.

| &c Was Still Growing When the Man VINO
Started tho Bout Disappeared
"Say, stranger, how high mought
that building be ?'' asked 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
be 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 the towers" replied the smart
man.
.'Shu, you don't say so!' calculated
tine farmer.
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 pncu-
matte tubes in them. You get into a
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 out in my part of the coun-
try we go in for more land than high
buildings. My brother started in to
build n barn 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
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"
ut took a-growing, did it." remarked
the puzzled person, who had been hav-
ing the fun. Say, mister, what are you
a barn growing?'
''Well. there's not many people, III
admit, stranger proceeded the farm
err. ct was the first time that 1 ever
heard of one; but, as / said before, my
brothers barn wasn't no ordinary barn.
You see he built it of a green hemlock
and as he was in 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 monotonous, sir.
but he stood it all right until the barn be-
gan to run off his farm and go over Bill
Johnson's wheat field. You see Bill set
great store on that wheat field. He had
a 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.