Evening star., 1898-09-03
SLEEPING AND SWIMMING
Two Ways to Make Hot Weather Endur-
able.
After Work Comes Peaceful Slum-
ber Farm
Idyl.

gave his tightly trousered knee soft, col
pat with his fat hand.
Still awful, isn't 2" replied his friend
and they both wiped the moisture from
their faces.
There are just two things that throw
redemptive atmosphere around hot weather
for me-" Hawkins went on--"sleeping and
swimming. Simpson, did you ever play
'Pomp, Pomp, Pull Away in the water
in some old mill pond? Thirty or forty
boys get together, and first they begin
race to see who will be stripped first and in
the water, then the last fellow in has to be
it, and the game begins. That was one of
our best sports out in Ohio, back forty
years ago. How We did make the welkin
ring. The fun would begin upstream where
the water wasn't over our heads, and in
the rush and excitement We would work
down further and further until some
youngster, who couldn't swim, would find
himself going down in the lily pads. and his
heart would grow white, and he would
think of mother and wonder If his time had
come to be drowned. Then he would kick
and throw out his arms and try his best to
swim and find that he really could, and in
a moment his head would be out in the air
once more and life would begin over again.
And that lad would quietly pull out of the
game and for the rest of the evening he
would think pretty seriously of the prob
lens of life and his responsibilities in it.
And now and then picture would come
before his mind of what might have been
going on at his home If he had not kept
cool head and made those few first lucky
strokes in the art of swimming. His dear
old patient mother somehow looked sweet
er than ever to him and his rugged, unfor-
giving but iovable old father would seem
to be the best man he ever saw. I've been
all through that, Simpson, and l can feel
the lily stems tickling my legs this min
ute.
And there's always some one swim a
will p1ar all ifa
to go Ii, every night when l was boy
through harvest time. That was in the
days when the rearsr had just come INTO
use. Did you ever work n the harvest
field in the old times, Simpson. Sou never
did? Well, you have lost one of the Sest
experiences of life. l am profoundly sorry
for any man who never toiled under hot
sun in a big wheat or rye field out west
binding or shocking grain. The self-binder
was unknown then, and 1t took big boy
to drive the four horses, and man rode in
a little rack on the rear of the machine to
rake off the grain. The field was divided
up into what we called stations, and there
were five stations for four men, 1t took
four to keep up with the reaper, you
know. And the men bound the heavy
sheaves, going around and around those
large fields, and the reaper always went in
the opposite direction from that of the men.
That is, We were always meeting the ma
chine. If We got our stations bound out be-
fore she came along We would stick up
little shock of three or four golden yellow
bundles and sit down in the shade to rest.
l began to bind when l was twelve years
old, and wasn't / proud of keeping up my
station? And didn't pitch in and bind like
a house afire to get out and have the boys
on the machine see me sitting there pre-
tending to be asleep when they came
around?
when night came and the blsterng sun
went down under the swollen horizon line,
while the men were unhftching the sweaty
horses, some boy would stand up on the
drivers seat the reaper and shout to
the men on the next farm. Coin swimmin
tCnightT And then you would see a slip
of a boy jump up on the reaper on that
farm and call on to the hands on the next
place. We're goin' swimmin', and in a few
minutes the word would be passed on for a
mile or two, the shouts growing fainter
and fainter, and it would be agreed all
over the prairie that all hands were to go
swimming that night as soon as the chores
We're done.
"Yip, How the cows would be milked
when we were going to the river! The
streams Of milk would thump and sing and
nearly pound holes through the bottom of
the pail. AS the men and boys came along
from the furthest farm, others would fall
into the shutting, barefooted procession
and in the dusty twilight we would hurry
on to the swimming hole. Imagine thirty
or forty little piles of duds in a long row
on the grassy river bank and then the rush
and glee Of aa many men and boys in The
rebound from hard patient labor day after
day in the blisterinG, relentless heat of
August AS we undreSSed, every ear lis
tened for the first splash, for there was al
ways a race to see who would get in first
The 1.-the, white figures in the dim light
the bedlam of shouts and jests and roaring
laughter, and the joyous revel in the cool
Ing waters are things never to be forgot
ten. Some six-foot father would take his
little three-foot boy on his back and swim
out in deep water. A dozen of us boys
would line UP abreast and swim down.
stream in a race. All hands, whether they
could swim or not, dared to dive across the
deep hole where the current was SO strong
il would carry us along to a safe, sandy
bottom When we came out, some thought
full father would carefully count US to gee
if we were all safe. Then would begin the
slow. cool, delightful walk homeward in
the starlight or moonlight, we boys skip
ping and jumping around like kittens, and
the old folks telling stories and comparing
crops. our numbers gradually growing less
and less as we passed farm after farm.
Simpson, did you ever work hard all
day, go swimming at night and be sound
asleep in two minutes after you touched
your pillow"
THE nearest 1 ever come to that is to go
from my bath tub to my bed and read the
paper until sleepy" said Simpson.
.'Oh. well. you ought to go right out to
my old home and hunt up some of my
folks. and get them to let you work a few
days in their harvest, and then go down
10 that old swimming hole In our river.
ard then walk home in the starlight, and
feel yourseI going to sleep almost as socp
as you touch your pillow. That Is delight;
and 1 don't care whether you are a tramp
or millionaire, you can't get sweeter or
more wholesome luxury on earth. Sleep!
Just think, Simpson, what a mystery what
a gift. what resource 1t Is. 1t is as in
scrutable as life itself. 1t is no respecter
of persons for the lout who never works.
as well the savant who knows every
thing. enjoys it's blessing. OF all human
needs, sleep is as imperative as any. I
would rather lose my appetite than my
sleep. We can endure hunger better than
insomnia. You know, sleep is substitute
with some animals for food, and in the
arctics Nai sen slept. he said. twenty-three
hours ont of the twenty-four In order to
keep warm. With plenty of good solid
sleep you can get along with less food and
endure either extreme Of temperature more
comfortably. If had an army to manage
1 should command the boys to sleep from
sundown to sunup-good, old-fashione.I,
substantial sleep, of the sort that can be
sliced and stood up on edge.
Il wish tonight 1 was going to sleep up
In the old home attic, Simpson, where We
used to see the stars through the chestnut
shingles that curled up on our roof like
lichens There was the old-fashioned bed
stead. with its turned bedposts solid and
heavy. In summer the mattress was of
husks, all so carefully picked and split
ard forever redoient Of the cornfieids In
winter we had the feather bed that our