The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1906-05-12
}ARNYARD TRAGEDY
! see their unborn faces shine
About the never-lighted fire.

/ smoke.
! one spring he told Marinda, who'd
/ been waiting wrinkled years, If pota'
toes would come booming, and he'd
| good luck with his steers, they'd wed
the coming autumn and stop the gibes
and sneers.
John Horns potato field frontiered
pap Hardings orchard fence, The
fragrant snow OF apple blooms walked
in Rims" soul intense, and sprinsborn
nesting longings, born in every girl OF
sense.
She stole forth from her chamber
in the chill light of the star, hope
drawn, and drawing rake and hoe she
crossed the hedge bound bar. TO see
her hoe the tubers, angels set the
gates ajar
When the poor girl grew back
weary, she brayed her nightborn fears
and. listening, all alert with her
shame innaming ears, she slipped into
Johns barnyard and fed the wond ring
steers.
John maryeled at the magic which
made his tubers leap so fast above his
neighbors that theirs appeared to
creep. BY the Great Horn spoon he
quoted they grow while others sleep.
The steers, you should have seen
them, No scandal grew so fast, nor
hogs in old Kentucky when they feed
upon the mast. The great bovine
colossi set the countryside aghast
Their elephantine mightiness made
wonder for the world 1t got into
the papers Barnum's agent. oiled and
cured, made offers vainly till Johns
brain in greedy spirals whirled.
The mystic moonlight maiden smiled
Aprilian through her tears: She was
steering Johns barque closely with a
bunch of bumper steers Soon they'd
be geared together; she had engineered
the gears.
Sheer not, Smart Alexander! If
girls love could have grown like this
for you, that could claim it all in all
your own you'd nourish on prime sir
.oin steak where now you gnaw
bone
But woe walls in the wandering
wind; there's woe upon the sea: woe
Droods upon the hilltop, in valley,
plain or lea It's all but greater lesser
woe, hut difference in degree.
Alas those lovely bovine, they grew
30 tall immense, that by humping Just
/ little they could step across fence.
When they did, they ate the tuDers
With a greediness intense.
On a solemn night in August when
he lanterned fretiies were sparkling
ser the tubers like the comets of the
skies. then the monsters munched the
ubers till they'd swelled to double
iize.
Now. tuber tops are not the herbs
feeders choose 10 nourish fat |
ening cattle; you're prepared, then
or the news? The sight that met the
morning was sight to cause the
,lues
There, prone upon their ample backs |
heir stark legs in the air on the des, /,
ri of the tuber field, Stonehenge past |
)ruid's prayer John Horns big BIO.
ines dead and gone, and past all
,roit. were.
They'd grasshoppercd the 'tater tops,
lean down to solid ground, Not one
vas left to show what grew in all the
egions round The comments of the
'wner are unfit for sight or sound.
The telephones got busy; from
very countryside the farmers came
as fast as they could
ide, The preacher and the squire,
90. came ambling side by side
The throng gazed long in speeches.
we upon the scene Of death. The
squire said il was enough to take o
odys breath The preacher, habit
10. looked pure, and said: We must
ave faith
1t makes one want to hide his face,
aid one hoarse aside or hide mis-
ead from all his race, brindle man
eplied. 'Tis said staring Irish.
nan, yes all think av the hide"
It was a tragic scene, high-set upon
barnyard hill. the broad, bald field So
lank aud black, the steers so sim and
iill. and an hundred men who stared
nd spat with furtiye rival skill
but farmer. squire preacher, all /
hat make the hilltop throng. there's
lot an one will Erioyo 30 deep. nl
Who viii erieve - gong. as the pallid
maiden hiding yon green
ledge along
Men see score or more of steers 81
ize beyond degree; she sees the ruin
4 a home that now shall never be
md there's not a word to comfort
Ter, for an alone is she.
She sees Colorless to-morrows wan
ng 70 a waiting grave: she hears
he Never. Never. in the winds that
ound her fave Don't always pirate
{ general when you're seeking for the
rave Kansas City Star.