Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1898-06-17

1nCn-anQ-d-QdlI pine DOdruS neatly
joined; the seat was the leg of one of
Mr.. Dobbin's wedding boots laced over
a frame and furnished with a spring
borrowed from the old haircloth sofa
in the parlor. At first it was without
sproclSet wheel or pedals, and could be
used only for coasting down hills.
There are plenty of hills about Zoans-
Vile, and Carroty said it would be bet
ter to ride part of the way than not to
ride at all.
The trial trip was free from the
bitches that so often mar trial trips.
The wheel could be mounted, and it
would run. Carroty's great namesake
battling the lightning, Robert Fulton
when that first steamboat stirred the
waters of the Hudson, Edison and Tesla
at moments when success has crowned
long and arduous labor, may have ex-
perienced such ecstasy, such triumph,
such exultation as thrilled the boy with
his bare feet braced on the clothes
pin coasters, his hands grasping the I'M
planed handle bars, wobbling downhill
on bicycle of his own construction.
The Dobbins lived at the top of hill
three-quarters of mile long. About
half way down stood the big yellow
house and bigger yellow barn of Squire
Yorke, parsonage of Importance,
whom Carroty regarded with great awe.
The squire was leaning over his gate
as Carroty walked back up the hill after
his first ride; he demanded an explana-
ton of the gueer-loolling affair the boy
was pushing.
"a bicycle! You made it YOURSELF"
he snorted, CONTEMPORARY.
The squire did not approve of BIZ
cycles. He considered them a dam
gerous invention of a foolish and pre-
sulnptuous generation too lazy to use
its legs as nature meant they should
be used. His son-in-law had been run
down by one in the city and laid up for
three weeks. The squire did not APP
prove of Carroty, either. He said it
made him sick to see boy of 10 years
old pottering at housework and whit
Ting out toys, and when he was offered
a job killing potato bugs at ten cents
a hundred making the silly excuse that
he "didn't like to hurt 'em!"
Carroty stood first on one foot then
OH the other during the squire's lee
ture. When the bad ten minutes were
over he went on his way without a
word to say for himself. He could not
understand what the squire meant by
oil 10 cold o,I bo 1;1 ,, ~ f,711,, I>o1;ovo
that riding the Through by Daylight
would do anything to his spine or give
him queer face. 1t troubled him that
the squire seemed to be mad about the
potato bugs and did not think it right
for boy to bake bread and cook break
fast and supper for his father when
there was no one else to do it. Disap-
proval from such a source took away a
large part of the Joy he felt in the
Through by Daylight.
II was worse after Jakey took his
turn at the bicycle. The wooden
wheel proved too much for an inexperi-
enced rider like Jakey to manage. 1t
made sad gap in the young Usage
orange hedge that was the squire's
pride and care and landed Jakey in the
middle of Mrs. Yorke's asparagus bed.
The squire in his wrath violently
shook Jakey. kicked the wooden wheel
cut into the road-lucky it was stoutly
built-and sternly forbade any further
riding of the homemade bicycle past
his premises.
Carpenter Dobbin, when he heard of
it, said the road down the hill was a
public road, and the squire could not
keep the boys from riding there if they
wanted to. Carroty said they would
not want to; there were other hills. 1t
would be inconvenient sometimes to go
three miles around to 60 to town; but
better that than to make the squire
mad. You see it was part of Carroty's
queerness that he did not like to make
anyone mad any more than he liked to
slaughter potato bugs.
Not even Bert Shepherds wheel
created as great sensation as Car
roty's Through by Daylight. No one
who saw it failed to turn for the sec
ond look. All the boys were wild to
try it; and until the novelty wore off
the builder found profitable business
in hiring it out-two rides down Forks
hill for one cent.
Carroty kept on working at his bicy-
Gle, improving it and adding extra at
tachments. Jakey's disastrous acct
dent of the hedge showed him the neces-
sity of 4 brake, and he put one on at
once. l would like to. describe that
brake, but it is beyond me. have been
told by those who understand such
things that it was very ingenious. l
know that two springs from the hair
cloth sofa went into its construction,
and I know that it worked.
A decoration of red and blue paint
was next added, the frame and rims of
the wheels red, imitation spokes laid in.
in stripes of blue, and the name printed
on the front wheel in red and blue let
tiers. Before nc stopped, Carroty
whitfield out a sprocket wheel and
made 4 leather "chain." So from be-
ing simply a coaster, the Through by
Daylight became what Carroty called
"a regular roadster"
Not once during all this time did
Carroty ride down Squire Yorke's hill,
and when he hired the wheel ont it
was with proviso against that route.
One morning Mrs. Ginter, the Dob
bins nearest neighbor, rushed over,
white and breathless. Her husband
had fallen from the roof of the shed
and was badly hurt. She wanted Car
roty to hurry down to the village after
the doctor.
Hell die if you don't hurry" the
distraught woman cried. Carroty
jumped on Through by Daylight and
GaShef dn1un tho fnrl,idIo,, I'LL Ac