Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-02-12

fence. rose great mass of lilac
bushes:
when lllaes first in the dooryara
their branches purple with heavy clus:
tiers of odorous bloom. Next to the
garden plot. stood the orchard. the
apple trees still white with myriad
blossoms, and heavy with the perfume
of bee-rifled depths.
The yard covered space Of perhaps
a half acre or more, and had been
carefully kept. the thick bluegrass
springing up strongly, and waving into
tousled tufts in the fence corners.
From lone little cedar at the side
gate bluejay darted. his nest show.
ing in the top of the tree. Robins fit
ted about the naples, and in the
orchard the woodpeckers, the red-head.
ed, the downy, the hairy, the golden.
winged-held high carnival.
The garden itself was a melancholy
waste. Squash vines twisted up like
writhing arms of shrunken witches.
The weeds had gained almost every
vantage point visible, and my dream
of garden looked like a task for Her
cules. Rose bushes stood thickly along
the garden fence and the other fences,
and many a clump Of straight green.
cry and stiff and shining green blades
limited Of peony and lily and divers
hidden colors yet to be.
In front Of the house, and just
across the country road. was a mag.
nificent specimen of an oak, sturdy,
straight as an arrow, and with splen-
did spread of close-clustering limbs.
Under this tree was a hitching rack"
where visitors could tie their teams
or single horses.
The farm was 100 acres in extent,
and II it could have been rolled out
fiat would probably have exceeded GAO
acres. For it was bumped in many
places like bison, and there were
comparatively few areas of absolutely
fiat soil on it. Deep ravines intersect-
ed 1t in parts, and even in the pastures
and more level fields there would be
gullles carved in the earth by rain and
snow, and the general character of the
entire land was rolling to most bill.
lo"y degree. think in many respects
1t was the most beautiful farm l ever
saw Not from a strictly agricultural
standpoint, but from a purely pictur-
esque outlook. Every foot of the land
could be and was used for tillage or
pasture, and the land was, like all of
the land thereabout, reliably fertile
soil.
Our lease did not include the farm.
but We were at liberty to all tho
scenery lying around loose, and l had
the added right to hunt, which was one
OF my most valued perquisites. The
garden Elot was ours, all the fruit we
could use from the orchard, except
peaches, long strip of ground next to
a blackberry patch in the orchard for
potatoes, and the blackberry Patch. On
the question of all the blackberries my
landlord and l once clashed, but set.
tied 1t by an equal division, he taking
one-third Of the patch and two-thirds.
AS this was his own proposition,
cheerfully accuiesced.
All this, gentle reader, or ungentle,
to give an idea of where we were
making our home. It may be trite.
but to us it was vitality interesting
The house inside wa; a more than
usually comfortably built farm house,
with an inrr3poca 1.;tcbor q o;,%or,
pump in the kitchen, a bricked and
differentiated cellar, two side porches
rooted over, small front porch.
roomy closets, plenty of windows, a
good pantry, and an attic There
were three rooms downstairs and two
bedrooms above. Just about the right
sized doTicile for
kitty, the baby and l."
Outside was the smokehouse, a shed
for wood and one for coal. There was
In an outside enclosure substantial
chicken house, destined to remain
"chicken-less" during our stay. We
made several mistakes in our two
years stay, and one of these was in
not raising chickens. Only at the
last we had pair of pet bantams that
raised brood of pet bantams for US.
These lively little fowls made quite a
picturesque figure about the yard and
did not need any more feeding than
table scraps and what they picked up
elsewhere. They were no trouble, and
added a certain sort of tone to the
yard, as being strictly appertaining to
the establishment. They were also
very delicious, fried. AS inicky and
particular as my sense of taste is sup.
posed to be, l could not distinguish be.
tween the taste of fried pet bantam
and any other chicken.
This, then, was where we pitched
camp. The yard was an ideal place
for the baby to tumble around in: the
country round about was delightfully."-
picturesque. and We were situated on
a high plateau mile from the iii.
no1s river bottom, and away from any
danger of fever and ague. At the east
side porch was a fine well, when the
water was not roily, covered by a
wooden curb, and furnished out with
the old oaken bucket, the moss-covered
bucket, the iron-bound bucket that
hung in the well.
1t took us perhaps a week to accus.
tom ourselves to the newness OF
things. The baby, Lenore, was like q
wheat-straw when we got there, q
mere slip of a child, wan from fiat
life, with little appetite and hardly any
strength or animation. Life in the