The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-25
HIS LAST HUSKIN' BEE.
Ride on q Rail Instead of Kisses for
Hotel Clerk.

Hotel Clerk.
Hartford Comm Letter in New York Trib-
une.
The hotel clerk, usually so urbane and
debonair. SO spick and span in appearance,
gave brief and irritable replies to questions,
and when asked In what manner he had
received the bulking black eye that dis
figured his countenance and the cold that
kept him snuffling, kept his mouth shut and
looked murder at the seeker after informa-
ton. He broke the call bell, he banged Ii
viciously, and discharged three bell boys.
Observers noted that he drank no ice wa
ter and the "bun' theory was discarded.
1t was noticed that one guest of the hotel
who had been welcomed on the preceding
day by the clerk as long-lost brother
skunk in and out, avoiding the desk, and
| that the clerk always had his eyes glued
| to his books when this individual came
within range of vision. 1t was not until
evening that the explanation came. Then
the clerk, somewhat rye-melowed, strolled
| to the armchair group in the and
seating himself remarked refiectively: "No
more huskin' bees or busy bees or any kind
of bees In mine
| Wherefore this declsion?" he was asked.
4
| ton. THAT chap you have noticed keeping
out of my way to-day (and it's a good
thing for his health that he has) is an old
boarding school chum of mine, and he
| struck town yesterday. with the idea of
IN looking over the scenes OF his childhood
days in Glastonbury He ran across an
acquaintance who told him there was to be
a huskin' bee at the Workemard place last
night, and invited him TO join in the at
| tendant festivities My friend asked me
to go with him, describing 'huskin bee
as something man would regret missing
| as he lay on his deathbed.
! Nothing like 1t on earth, he tells me.
| You go into this old barn smelling sweet
with the scent of new mown hay, and there
YOU see a pevy or buxom country lasses.
red checked and with sparkling eyes, bit
bashful, but all the more enticing for 1t,
The corn is piled in heap the floor
and everybody turns into to husk 1t. The
fellow that finds red ear, or the girl. is en-
|, titled to a kiss. Twill take you back 10
| your childhood days when you were inno-
| cent, peachy checked and care free. The
| farmer and his wife will be there with rosy,
| beaming faces, handing round apples, cider,
nuts and homemade dainties your hotel
| chef knows nothing about. 1t will end up
! with an old-fashfoned Virginia reel
| Such an aluring picture won me and
| consented TO accompany him. The wagon
he said would be there waiting for us was
| not in sight when we left the electric car,
and we had a four-mile walk over one of
| those Glastonbury roads, so muddy that ii
would make the Slough of Despond look
| like an asphalt pavement My patent
| feathers looked as If L were a sewer laborer
when we reached the farmhouse. We saw
| light and heard voices I'm the barn. and on
| entering found lot OF scrawny-looking
| girls and women huddled in one corner,
| while lot of big, hulking farm laborers
| and gawks stood in another, hands in
/ pockets, looking at each other like "A lot of
cattle waiting for feed time. Ny olfactory
| senses are pretty keen, but | failed to dis
| cover any scent of new mown hay. There
| was, however, pronounced stencil made
up of horse and COW smell, harness and
! and me as il we were Punch and Judy
show and the pumpkins eyed US with hos
tility.
| faced-lOoking farmer came in and tried
| to smile so hard we heard his face crack.
Everybody said, Hello, Hi.
| That's right boys, n gels, too, he
| said; go right ahead an hev good time
l guess mebbe yewll find the corn outen
| the fust field tew the right. Ez soon's yew
| bring it in yew kin git tew huskin'.'
well, we wallowed our way to that field
| ankle deep in soft earth, and filled our arms
with wet, Undiscovered ears of corn. Suit
| of clothes ruined. When it was all piled
on the barn. floor the farmer dumped some
wet straw down. L think it was the pre-
viouT nights b bedding ssd for his sstse
kumfertable fer. yew to sit on. Guess yew
kin git tew huskin' meow, can't yew?
We'll, we began huskin', and as We
| feel chills and fever sending skirmishers
/ up my spine. II was cold my teeth
chartered and my fingers were numb. The
| farmers wife came in, and IL / ever get
| hold of sour apple pie as sour as her face
| I'll stop smoking.
"'Haint huskin' very fast, be they Hi
ram?' she said to her husband, with a look
that would have turned milk.
:" No. they hain't. he replied. Guess
mebbe Their hain't enuff red ears
There wasn't an ear there that wasn't
| red with cold
IF you fellers want suthin' to drink, tn
wells right handy, Hiram told u.s. and
| then he dumped basketful of half-rotten
worm-eaten apples on the floor.
| There was just one girl in the lot with
! some pretentions TO prettineSs l found the
! first red earn of corn, and. going over to
| this petticoat. tried to kiss her. 1 got n
| blow on the nose from an ear of corn that
| made me see stars and retired while the
| pumpkins laughed like a lot of horses
neighing for oats. There were one or two
| more ears found and the farm hands, seiz-
| ing the hands of girl in of their own
| and taking her by the hair with the other