Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-08-22
BILLY's WAY.

( BlLLY's WAY. s
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Yes. Billy's Just like men folks"
Aunt Harriet used to say. He'll
mind goods any horse you ever see,
II he's managed right; but you've got
to understand Billy's way"
AT that Billy would give decided
nod of his gray old head as if to add,
That's true, Aunt Hattie And true,
indeed, it was. Billy's reputation for
wilfulness was SO well established that
he was considered quite as much a
character rs Aunt Harriet herself,
and she will be remembered in Cen.
teryille as long as anyone who knew
her lives to be her Boswell
You should have seen her as she
walked up the Westinghouse aisle on
sultry Sunday morning. waving her
palm leaf fan and settling into her
: pew-it was next to the front one
with long-drawn and very audible
sigh. She WAS an old woman then,
but she still loved brave attire, and
the summer breezes fiuttered the ends
OF the blue ribbons that encompassel
her ample waist, and, lifting the red
roses on her Sunday bonnet, waved
them above the coquettish ripples and
curls Of an abundant brown front. BY
her own account Aunt Harriet had
Z been great belle and beauty in her
day and much given to worldly pleas
ures. She used often to tell in the
Thursday night prayer meetings of the
balls" she had attended when she
was young and how she had often
danced till the red CLEANS In the
East made the pickering tallow dips
burn dim and warned the merryn az.
ers that morning was close at hand.
AS she had added hundred pounds
avoirdupois to her weight since those
giddy reyels Of her girlhood, it took
no small stretch of fancy to picture
her thus pirouetting, and this doubt
ful feeling was deepened by the way
she sat down. Steadying herself by
the back Of the pew in front, she
would gradually sink to within six
aches OF her seat and then drop with
thud that shook the pulpit itself.
Out, as II she had not already taxed
Your imagination to the limit during
lsspause that was sure to follow, she
would strike up the last stanza of her
fayorite hymn. beginning with:
l1Rt
!, height,
view my home and take my flight,
This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise
TO seize the everlasting prize;
And repeating with long-drawn-out
refrain:
Ill shout while floating through the
air,
Farewell, farewell. sweet hour of
prayer.
With such very material Aunt
Harriet sitting there before US, 1t was
not easy to picture even her disem-
bodied spirit as floating through the
air" But it is the unexpected that
happens, and one July morning,
thanks to Billy, without dropping her
robe Of flesh" or, in fact, without
losing so much as button from her
new calico polonaise, she really did
take her fight in SO thrilling a
fashion that it became one Of Cen
treville's fayorite traditions.
It happened during the summer of
,,1s7s, an epoch always referred to as
1.-THE year the railroad went through"
for the building of this railroad was a
great event to the little community.
There were six trains a day, three in
each direction, and when these trains
had been running only two or three
weeks Aunt Harriet decided early one
morning to take her knitting and spend
the day with friends at Brooks Cor
ners, little hamlet three miles away.
Accordingly, she MIXED her COW,
hurriedly ate her frugal breakfast,
throwing dish towel over the un-
washed saucer and teaspoon, and
started for the barn to hitch up"
Billy. Hut ehitching up Billy" was
not single act. as one might think;
1t was the elimination of q series, for
when Billy went, like the gentleman
IN the plantation song, The went berry
sudden" So she began by running
the clumsy old phaeton out of the
barn into the side yard, with its back
turned squarely on Brooks's Corners.
Then she put the whip in its socket,
the carefully folded laprobe on the
seat, pail of buttermilk for the
friends and her knitting work under
III, and, at last. having thoughtfully
surveyed the whole to make sure that
nothing was forgotten, took down the
harness and entered Billy's STALL
There he stood, munching hay and
fighting flies with his futile stump OF
tail, as obstinate white morsel OF
horse-fesh as ever took bit in his
teeth, and, though so far from his
colthood, still as full Of fire as he had
been in his best days. He greeted
his mistress by laying back his ears
and nipping at her sleeve, but she
understood him perfectly and only
said; None Of your tricks, Billy"
AS she backed him between the thills
she added, apologetically: There,
hoy; never mind! 1t amt far. an
you'll have grass for dinner. an oats.
too. like enough"
Aunt Harriet had been quoted AZ
saying that Billy only needed to be
( managed" to be as good as any
horse" but his management was both
y science and an art. As science
its fundamental principle was go by
contraries." When Aunt Harriet
planned to visit Franklin, which is
south of Centerville, she headed Billy
north, toward Brooks's Corners; but
II she really intended to go to
Drook's Corners she faced him as II
for Franklin. In the same way, II
she wanted him to stand still she