Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08

lines to drive him with. Mebbe you'll know
better than to go out buggy riding In break
up time again. So long!''
1t took the youngster almost as many
hours as there were miles in 1t to make his
homeward journey. and when he got there
| he was so utterly dispirited. and he made
such woebegone showing, sopping wet
and mud covered as he was, in the light of
the lantern his father came out to the barn
WITH that the old man said never a word
| of reproach. He even refrained from rub
bling 1t in on the boy next day. when 1t was
found that the exertfons of the trip had
strained the young horse so badly that his
future usefulness was altogether doubtful.
When the Drifts Are Gone.
Bad as are these melting drifts the mud
| that succeeds them Is worse. In some of
the spring breakup regions It is almost as
| black as asphalt and at least two-thirds as
sticky. In others 1t is highly colored, al
most brilliant enough to paint red barn
with; In others 1t has a blue tinge.
But everywhere. when the frost gets clear
out of the ground what with the water of
the melting snow and the heavy rains that
should fall at that season, the mud, what
ever color, Is from two to four feet in
depth. quite profound enough to merit the
adjective bottomless. Not only do the
wheels sink to the hubs at each revolution
but the horses feet sink at each step till
the mud reaches to the knees.
Picture to yourself IL you can Just what
your sensations would be were you bent on
making train with five or six miles to
drive over a broken-up road In an hour
More than one man. I have been assured,
has become an expert in the use of obtur-
cation and explosives in such circumstances
as you might yourself become, no matter
how mild a spoken man you may natural
ly be.
"Plock! Flock! Plocki Plockr you hear
your horses feet go splashing into the mud
while your wagon wheels revolve at the
nerve-destroy1ng rate of less than mile
an hour, with train time only half an hour
away and three miles yet to go
Often in some spring breakup region a
stretch of bottomless mud territory will
alternate with a stretch of gravelly coun-
try, where, from the very nature OF the
SOIL, the bottom doesn't drop out of the
roads when the breakup comes.
1t would be hard to describe the feelings
| Of superiority shown by the gravel dwellers
over the mud gudgeons." as they hilarious
ly dub those who dwell on the stoneless
soil in the breakup season. All along the
which is high and dry above the muddy
black north" the ridge folk josh the black
north folk numerically and tell exaSperat-
ing stories somewhat like this:
Il was looking down north from the store
stoop yesterday" says the Ridge road man
"and seen something wiggling in the mud
a half a mile down. Bimeby mans hat
all mud, showed up Then, as it slowly got
closer, pair of bosses ears came in sight
and bimeby! VIVA d'you think? A boss
N wagon riz right out of the mud and
drove up to the store stoopr
Then all the other Ridge road men laugh
nj to split, while the down north men look
sheeplsh. It's different at harvest time,
though, for the deep, stoneless soil of
down north" is a great crop producer. and
the value of the farmers product north of
the ridge is sometimes envied by the far
mers who live to the south.