Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-02-19
THE FARMER BOY
10 S. Market ST

THE FARMER BOY
Hunts Rabbits and Makes the Future
Business Man.
The snow now on the ground is just
such a fall as the farmer
boy loves to see in the early
winter. Nothing is quite so
dear to the business man of
middle age as the memory OF his boy
hood Sunday rabbit hunts.
Of course he wouldn't go hunting on
Sunday now, but he was boy then
a round headed chubby faced urchin,
with as many freckles as a guinea
egg. But he was great institution,
this healthy, noisy farmer lad.
1t was a hard job to get him up in
the morning, but when he did get up
he would go and feed and tend to the
horses" then come to breakfast. 1t
was about as much of a job to get
him away from the table as it was to
get him out OF bed, but finally he
would go hitch up and plow from sun
to sum-. He would break ground, or
plow corn, or build fence. or work all
day in the harvest field, but he would
rather have a spell of sickness than
work half hour in the garden. He
would dig up half an acre of ground
looking for "fishworms' but hoeing
in the garden was worse than a Jail
sentence
The bright spots in his life were
rainy days and Sundays. On those oc-
casions he temporarily got away from
the eternal grind and hunted young
crows in the late spring and rabbits in
tree" a mink IN drift OF dig skunk
out of hole. These were periods to
date from and until another
similar unusual event took
place, everything was reckoned
either before or after me and Tom
and Bill and ole Shep and Ring kill,
ed the minks in the big bend in the
creek on the south forty"
But the first good snow in the early
winter. for the time being, wiped all
other thoughts off the slate. 1t was
one OF the strange freaks of nature
that the first good snow always came
on Sunday This was especially the
case if the boys parents objected tc
his hunting on the Sabbath day.
The snow would begin to fall on Sat
urday and all the time he was helping
to feed and milk, that evening, there
was heavy doins" going on under
his cap. BY the time he had got
through he had it all figured out how
tomorrow morning he would go over
to. the neighbours who treated his boys
lots better than his parents did, and
let them go hunting on Sunday. He
was very much abused boy and he
| knew it. The last thing he did before
going to bed that night was to go ou
doors and see if it was still showing
1t was.
Another strange fact developed this
next morning, and that was that he
was up and was dressed almost before
he was called. He also got the feed
ing done and the stock attended to ii
about half the time it took him or
week days. And he ate his breakfast
at an unusual speed.
Then he got up and slowly wander
ed down past the barn, cautiously got
the haystacks between him ant
the house, and then his steps would
lengthen. A few moments carried
him over the hill, out of sight OF the
house, then goodbye,-just as fast as
he could run to the house of the man
who knew how to treat boys.
His dog knew what was going t.
happen, and he was there at every
| stage of the game.
This boy always got to their house
before his comrades had their worl
done-two boys have never been able
yet to do the chores" as quick as
one There is always one who won
work, and the other has to fuss be-
cause pap" wants him ito do it all.
But on this morning, with a hun
in prospect, and with the help of thu
| new arrival, they were soon ready tt
start.
The old single barrel shot gun wal
taken down from the forked sticks OF
the wall, the old powder horn ant
leather shot pouch were taken charg'
of by the older brother, the younge
brother carrying the game sack, ant
| the visiting member shouldering thu
ak. Then with the shepherd, the "a
| terrier and the cur jumping about, thu
whole outfit started for the neares
| brush patch.
BEFORE lney SOI uuuuiSu ydlu
from the house, track was discover
ed 1t was fresh-had evidently beel
made late in the night, since the snov
had stopped falling. 1t was followe'
to the old brush fence and there los
in dozens of others.
| Just as the older brother crosse'
the fence out jumped bunny. AL
hands let out yell, the dogs went il
| hot pursuit and when tn
boys finally caught up al
three dogs were at the bigges
brush pile in the woods. cole Shep
was standing at one side of the pill
and "Ole Ring" on the other, Will
the little dog was barking and tear
/ ing around as if he was going to ca
the whole thing up right then AM
there.
The visitor got up on the pile, jump
ed up and down, punched rail dow
through and
'.There he goes!"
The old musket was here brough
into play, and just as it's owner wa
sure he had him" the cap snappe'
and he was gone. A new cap wa
4 put on, few remarks made and jus