Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-18
HIS LAST HOLIDAY

IT was casting up the other day" sad the
portly man with the silyer-streaked hair
and the clear gray eyes. the number of
years that I've been scrambling around for
a living. and those years sure do foot up
astonishingly, considering that l was born
only about fifteen years before the breaking
out of the war. It's been long pull, and
at times a hard pull but / can't say that
the game of fighting for place for myself.
and later for my family, has ever hurt or
bothered me very much or got upon my
nerves enough to need mentioning.
Going over all this. got to thinking of
the last day of liberty that ever enjoyed
the last day, that is to say, Of free and
unrestrained boyhood.
Il was eleven years old at the time One
forenoon, long about the beginning of the
school vacation, in the month Of June, l
drove our cow-it was in a western town,
where good many families kept cow
TO the commons about two miles outside the
town, on the edge of what was called the
.nrst woods was the oldest boy of a big
brood OF boys and girls, and, Of course it
was my stunt to drive the COW in and out
OF the pasture. as well as to milk her and
TO deliver the milk to the few customers
we had-for the family was pretty poor and
the milk money came in handy.
wen, was pretty sprightly in driving
the old cow out to the commons on this
morning In june for the reason that had
great scheme in hand. l was going to
attempt to trap some bobolinks in the first
M He Ihere was some sort Of legend. or
nction, or myth in circulation among the
tads or my age that bobolinks found a
ready sale at the market for so cents q
prace-whether for food or for their music.
OF tneir hide and tallow, none Of the young
steIs ever seemed to know. It was simply
understood among them that the boy lucky
enough 10 succeed in trapping bobolinks
OUT IN the first woods would be able to cor
raj -FOUR bits brace for them.
AND on this morning I was hotfoot
AFTER a brace Of bobolinks-the first woods
were full of them. I had spent several
Gays In constructing bobolink trap after
m my own IDEA OF what bobolink trap ought
~ De. II was Just little barred box with
a spring drop door. to which was attached
a; piece OF string about thirty feet long.
MY CRAFTY scheme was to fill the bottom OF
the box with bread crumbs then lie in the
tall grass, clutching the string. waiting for
me poDoilnks to walk into the box after
the bread crumbs and thus trap them
s ss1ses: W tn l would pull the string
closlng the spring drop door-and there the
Dobol1nks-at four bits the brace according
to the fiction-would be-
SO I hustled the old cow out to the
pasture pretty lively that morninglt was
a beautiful day, with sapphire skies, and
my authorizations were as high as the skies,
/! placed the trap, tossed myself in the
ions' waving grass with a good grip on
the string and waited for action. But
something seemed to be wrong with nv
scheme The bobolinks fitted all around
me, singing merrily, but they didn't ap-
pear to want any kind of truck whatever
with my box trap. A lot Of them fiuttered
exasperatlngly right over the trap, pre-
tending that they were going to light and
walk right into 1t, but they all changed their
minds, suddenly shooting high into the air.
mighty derisive notes But I stayed with my
determination to get couple of bobolinks or
bust, and forgot all about eating and
everything else in my desire to snag four
bits worth of birds.
Il had been lying in that tall grass for
perhaps three hours, waiting for some
credulous and fool bobolink to walk into
that little trap of mine. when I heard a
great hullabaloo out on the common. !
looked up and 1 saw five young ones COM
ing toward me at gaits ranging from tod
dies to gallops-my brothers and sisters,
boys and girls. They bore down upon mo
with shouts that our mother wanted mo
right away. They were so young that
couldn't pick any talk out of them as to
what our mother wanted of me in such
hurry, but I knew that 1t must be some
thing important or they wouldn't all have
been sent out to dig me up.
80, with a soul heavy with disappoint-
ment over the contrariness of the bobolinks,
I tucked the trap under my arm, and with
my barefoot brothers and sisters trooping
after me, went into town.
MY mother met me at the kitchen door.
She was In great state or excitement and
delight.
Get some water and wash your face and
hands. son. she said to me. Mr.. Blank
naming the leading lawyer and the leading
citizen in the town, wants an Office boy.
and he dropped by here this morning after
you left and told me to send you down to
his Office right away and then she gave
me, mother-like. lot OF Instructions as to
how should answer the questions that the
big man would put to me. -....
ut
liberty. With my face shining like copper
kettle I presented myself at the office of
the towns big lawyer and he put me to
work Immediately, busting off furniture and
law books, running errands and SO onion
the same day that I'd been trying to trap
bobOlinks in the June sunshinel I was in
his Office until the war was a couple of
years old. when shouldered musket and
went to the front-and I've been pegging
away. in harness. ever since. with nary a
let-up. Seems long time. too. reviewing
the whole business step by step. and yet,
at that. right now can half-close my eyes
and remember the fresh Juney smell of
those woods just as If my last day of lib
erty had been only yesterday"