Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-29
THE OLD Time FARM BOY
BEGAN TO DO CHORES AT AGE
OF SEVEN.
When Ten Years Old Got Up Before
Day and Worked in
the Field.
From the Rural New Yorker.

From the Rural New Yorker.
What would the boys of today think Of
the way the country boys lived sixty and
seventy years ago, or even forty years
ago, when the writer was a boy? At the
age of six we boys Il speak more es-
pecially about boys. as there were no
girls in our family began to have on.
regular chores to do At seven we began
TO milk. and at the age of ten we were
expected TO be out at in the morning
and do our share of the milking, feed the
pigs and calves, eat our breakfast and
away to the field mo compulsory educa-
tional laws in those days. driving oxen to
plow or narrowing with an old forty
tooth drag; hoeing corn. for 1t must be
hoed at least three times We boys at
ten were expected to hoe a hill and skip
hill to keep up with the men; fetch the
water for the men to drink and ride the
old mare TO cultivate. for the man who
| held the cultivator must have a boy to
ride the horse but he must not let her
step on hill of corn, for II he did the
| whole held was thought TO have gone to
ruin. | wonder what the farmers OF those
days would have thought to see the farm
ers OF today gliding through the corn
held with two-horse. doublerow cuti-
Vator doing the work of six men.
Husking Corn and PAIRING Apples.
| The boys of those days had to work.
| The majority of farmers seemed to think
that all boy was created for was what
work they could get out of him. that a
boy ever became tired was something
| against the laws of nature; IL he Jagged
| he was lazy. The school days of the
| farmer boys of those times were from
about December ! to April 1. but mind
| you, we were expected to go to the barn
| evenings and husk corn until the husk-
! ing was all done. After that was DONE
| then 10. the apples, or about 10 to 100
| bushels must be pared. quartered and
| cored, and strung on strings with the RIB
| OF an old umbrella for a needle, and hung
| up behind the kitchen stove to dry This
work was all done evenings. About two
| or three bushels were considered to be q
lar evenings work. oh, yes, we used to
| nave corn huskings and apple pa:ings 1t
| broke the monotony. and we youngsters
mad lots of fun, but ] guess the boys of
TO-DAY would think it was rather tame
sport, for now the hotels and saloons have
more attractions. The average farmers
boy of the twentieth century has more
money to spend on him in one year than
the boy OF nifty years ago had in his en-
tire boyhood days. There was not even
$1,000 boy in those days
AT the ages of nine and ten, respective
ly.. my brother and l rode our old bob
tailed mare. Slippery Jane" to school. a
distance of two miles. What would the
boys of this age think to see two such
youngsters aStride of one horse? But as
we became a little older we drove her
hitched to fathers old pung. In connec-
| ton with this l never shall forget an in.
| cident. although 1t was very common
occurrence for boys of those days to be
left alone and with the care of the prem
ises. My brother was ten and eleven
years old We came from school one very
cold, stormy night in February. We stop
ped on our way to leave a girl who lived
at a neighbours. and who rode to and
from school with us. The neighbor was
a relative of the family and he told us
that our people had all gone away early
| in the day. as a near relative of the fam
lily had died, and that We. must hurry
home and do UP the chores. which con-
sisted of about forty head Of cattle to care
for. also horses. hogs. hens and various
other things. Our neighbor relative told
| us to hurry home. do up the chores eat
our supper, be careful of fire, and get to
! bed early, and get up early next morning,
do up the chores. give our cowhide boots
a fresh coat of grease and make ready
| to go to the funeral of the relative where
our people had gone the day before. Well.
we trudged home fast as we could
hurry the old mare. the snow was falling
fast and a. stiff wind was coming up in
! the west. Our home was a mile from
the main highway, and over mile from
| the nearest neighbor. and in the very
shadow of the heavy timber. We arrived
home to find 1t deserted except for our
old shepherd dog Jim. and the house as
cold as an iceberg. You can bet we were
rot very long in doing up those chores
and getting ourselves tucked awav In bed
| 1t seems that 7 can hear now the wind
howl around that old-fashioned Dutch
house up there on the hill that cold and
stormy night. The next morning we were
I'D bright and early to make ready for
our journey some five six miles away.
Our neighhOr relative came and helped
us some about chores. we could get
started as early as possible for the fu-
neral was to be quite early. for the body
was to be shipped bv railroad. Al last
we were off with old "Slipperv Jane
hitched to the pung. but the high wind
Of the night before had pilod the snow
mountains high. and our passage was nee
essarly verv slow. We tinped over M
lass than sixteen times and had the old
mare so deeply in the snow that we were
obliged TO shovel her ont nc manv times.
hut ar last reached nir destination.
! This is practically the life the farmer
bows of our section lived away back in the
sixties.