Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-05-05
rutsbaga and cauliaower rows, n.


Peters hired man. Lem Jackson yvas
digging potatoes and threw some clods
INTO the wagon along with the tuberr.
He says that Uncle Peter threw the
clods out again and exhorted Lem TO
be more particular and even to take
time to knock of any dirt that might
stick to "them taturs."
VI paid SIS an acre for that dirt.
Lem" he demonstrated. rNot only
that, but I've spent a matter OF IS.
moro for fertilizers since / took the
place What you throw into that there
wagon don't do nobody no good. II
don't hold it's shape long enough &c
pass fer tatur and get paid for as
SIGH; it jist grinds up inter dust and
shakes out Of the wagon on the road
to town."
Lem retorted: "Uncle Peter, DONE
you reckon you git even on that with
what mud you bring in off the road in
wet weather."
The hoe had been bought at the store
where the pleasant and outrageous
town Of Lombard now is. When it was
new Uncle Peter used to treat 1t like
lowed hired man to use it, and he
used to bring it in with him from the
field at poon and stand it up In thu
kitchen, where he could watch il while
he ate his dinner. When the years
work was done he would give il a coat
of axle grease to protect it from rust
and then would lock it up in the tool
shed.
In course of time, however, the hoe
grew dull, and Uncle Peter had to take
a file to it. After the third filing he
let Lem jackson take it to hill up the
beans, and Lem got tired and leaned
on it too heavily.
Uncle Peter took it very had. He told
Lem he would just as soon have had
him haul off and slap him in the face.
The hired man offered to pay for the
hoe, and Uncle Peter said that was the
least he could do. He held back 81 .65 of
LENS wages, figuring Is cents for
wagon hauling from Lombard. Then
he nailed up the fracture in the handle
and swathed it with wire, and, handing
It to Lem, told him to use it more care
fully in future.
81 dunno but I ought to charge you
fer my time a-fxin' it," remarked Uncle
Peter.
Ehe hired man said he'd like TO know
BOW he made that out, and "accordin
to the way he fggered the hoe be
songed ter him."
Il amt a-goin' TO argyer with you
about it," said Uncle Peter, with dig
nifty: "The hoes mine. 1 bought an
paid fer it. If it was yours I'd still be
entitled to charge you for repairs, but
1 didn't say that would charge you.
1 only said / ought to charge you-and
SO 1 ought. BY gum! b'lieve viii
charge you"
when you get a man that1l do
things like that you've got mighty
mean man." said Uncle Peters brother
in-law.
81 used to pity his women folks" he
continued. "He had n right nice wife.
and as saving as q woman need be-
but she wasn't saving enough for
Peter. He'd go nosing around in the
pantry and figuring with them on the
laundry soap, and he'd pick up scrap
of something or another that he didn't
think ought to be thrown out and pack
it back into the house and say: See
here, Mrier; these blamed spen'thrift
ways of yours had ought to be quit At
the same time he never got mad or
mean before company. When there
was company at the house, his wife told
my wife once, she used to sit and Just
look ut him and wonder If it could be
that she was mistaken about him after
all"
About this time something usually
occurs to break the thread of the mar.
rative. 1t seems to work the same way
with the nephew, so that nobody in the
suburb has ever heard the story of the
hoe in its fullness. Both father and
son start in good faith, but the tempta-
ton to digress is too much for them.
They cannot resist telling about the
time that Uncle Peter insisted on the
utilization of the water in which Aunt
Maria boiled the potatoes-how he in
sisted that potato soup was a palatable
and nutritious article of diet, and
would by no means be convinced that
1T was at least necessary to peel the
potatoes before boiling them, holding
the peeling of potatoes TO be sinful
waste. A hundred instances of their
relations frugality tempt them to
daily in side paths from the straight
and beaten track. The hoe has been
filed down to stub since it was last
delivered to the hired man, and
there is rumor that man in the
subdivision named Wheeler was told
that a neighbor came by night and
borrowed it. but beyond that is moth
ing but the most vague surmise. 1t
Is agreed, however, that Uncle Peter
is a pleasant, chatty old man. In
fact, he seems to be liked outside OF
his familY-Chicaon Daily Record