The Baraboo news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1884-1911, 1905-11-15
IAN OLD TIME
WINTER ON
THE BARABOO.

! the long winter evenings many a
merry party both from town and
country gathered around the big
fireplace and enjoyed a good social
visit, relating incidents of their
pioneer experiences and our hair
often stood quite straight as we
listened to the thrilling stories of
the hunting exploits and hair
breadth escapes of those early
settlers.
In those early days no visit was
deemed complete without supper
which was usually announced at
about 10 P. NJ, at which time not
only the praise of our pumpkin
butter, but the article itself was in
every ones mouth. But, this old
time custom passed away with that
generation.
A very popular source of amuse-
ment with the young people at that
time was the spelling school. On
one occasion a school that. was loca-
ted on the other side cf Pine Bluff
sent a challenge to the young peo-
pie of Greenfield, to the effect that
if they wished to learn to spell hard
words, to meet them at the Eiky
school house on a certain evening.
The reply was short and decisive,
well be there" The very idee,"
said one young miss, 'of those
youngsters coming up out of the
wilderness to teach US to SPELL"
A young man who owned a fine
yoke of oxen and was an expert
teamster, volunteered to carry a
cargo to the scene of action. The
sleighing was fine, and a merrier
crew of boys and girls never left
| the shores of Greenfield. The voy-
age proceeded quite successfully
until going down hill toward the
Tucker bridge, at rapid pace, we
came to the place where two roads
met, ran aground and promptly up
set, discharging the cargo rather
"permiskusly," into a big snow
drift. But in those early days no
one ever got hurt. Some blamed
the oxen and some the expert,
who with his hair filed with snow
was doing his best to straighten up
matters and as no understanding
could be reached as to the cause of
the disaster, it was decided to try
the case over. And this time all
arrived safely at the school-house
where the prairie boys and girls at
once proceeded to spell down those
youngsters from the regions beyond
which they did so completely that
nothing further was heard from
them during the winter.
The winter glided rapidly and
pleasantly away, as it usually did
when we were young folks, and in
the beginning of April great fiocks
of pigeons began to arrive. The
early morning resounded with the
soft notes of the prairie chickens,
the wild geese were daily sailing
northward and all nature proclaim
ed the advent of spring.
Bidding good bye to the kind
friends who had given US pleasant
home the past three months, we
turned our steps south and contin-
ued our journey until we reached
GAINESVILLE, where we rested for a
few days at the "Old Stage House, 3"
and witnessed the grading of the
first railway into that city. Shortly
after We engaged to a farmer
named Arnold to work for the
season.
1t has often been remarked that
| in the time of old age we live over
again our youthful days and we
have found this true in our own ex-
perience, tor while some of the
more important events of middle
life seem dim and indistinct, the
simpler incidents and occurrences of
our boYhood and girlhood days are
so photographed upon the pages of
memory that they are often quite
easily recalled.
We cannot close this sketch with
out mentioning the satisfaction
| that we felt in reading Mr.. Jack