The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1909-10-28
n BOYS THAT 3 r

"-@ vi
with None or Modern Comforts.
-Rubbers for a boy, back In my dayT
said a. ,self-made nan as. Ire watched
his little son start of to school on q
ra.ny morning, all cozy and comfortable
In waterproof ulster and shiny rubbers.
well, well, Nman alive, I'D like to We
seen the expressions on the faces OF
the old folks If any such crazy sugges-
tion had ever been made to them-rub-
bers for the feet Of a boy going to
school !"
"We wore topboots. Sometimes they
were boots approximately Of the size
of our feet, but not often. I don't re-
member ever having a pair Of boots
that were originally devised, designed
and intended solel. for my own person.
nj wearing as a boz.
CAS- a rule the boots that I wors
going to school were about four sizes
too large for me, 81 that ] sure had to
be mighty wary, In walking In muddy
and sticky paths, lest ] pulled my feet
right smack out Of my boots and landed
In the mire in my yarn stocking feet.
a had tsat dismal thing happen to me
several time. before I achieved the
necessary skill that finally enabled me
to take chances even on wading In a
duck pond without being in any danger
Of losing my boots.
"overlarge as all Of the boots were
that came my way when I was a school
kid, they were pretty hard to get into
when they were frozen stiff during the
cold weather. 1 used to try to utilize
this fact as an excuse for remaining
away from school on extremely cold
d ys. ..
81 never managed to get away with
that. There'd been a lot Of boys In the
family before / got along, you see. and
my mother had all of those boy lodges
so perfectly pat that I had no chance
' on earth to spring any new gags on
her and win out with them.
"It's foolish, by the way, for a boy
to permit himself to be born into a
family In which a number of other boys
have preceded him. He hasn't much Of
q chance In such a situation. The
other fellows ahead of him have given
his mother too much experience.
Nope, L never managed to stay
home from school on account OF my
/ boots being frozen. When I'd try to
put that one over my mother'd say to
me calmly AMI placidly:
al know your boots are frozen, son,
bit there's plenty T mutton tallow on
the back of the h .tchen stove
II knew what that meant, of course.
Meant that I'd have to grease my boots
before going to bed that night.
my mother'd put a lump OF mutton
tallow on the back Of the kitchen stove.
The receptacle for the tallow was usu-
ally the lid Of an old tin shoe backing
box. Then she'd see to it that all OF
us boys placed u boots near the stove
SOS to thaw them out.
After that we'd take turns dipping
into the tallow receptacle with our
fingers, and then it'd be a case Of each
boy using his elbow grease to get the
kinks and dents and contrariness out
Of those boots. We'd have to rub and
rub and rub-rub the tallow into the
leather, our mother standing with her
hands on her hips and a kindly, inter
ested expression on her face, watching
to see that we did the work well.
Then we'd range the boots alongside
the stove in a neat row SOS to keep
,'em sort of warm during the night and
not permit the tallow to cake on them,
and thus perforce we'd settle our
chance of being able to crawl out of
going to school on the following morn
ing on account of frozen boots.
"And umbrellas! There was only one
In our family and us youngsters would
as soon have thought Of taking 1t out
to school or anywhere else as taking
the dauguerreotype of u grandmother
out into the rain.
eve just plugged along. sort o, and
got wet and then dry again, and caught
colds and then got over 'em again, best
we could, and certainly as well as the
grown up folks could afford.
Here l am, at that, sound enough,
; and glad enough, too, to see my own
ycdngster a-sailing along to school In
his own size waterproof ulster and
rubbers bought specially for him and
any umbrella that he durn pleases to.
take ont Of the rack, and all like that.
"Only 7 can't help wishing that the
self-satisfed little snoozer wouldn't
take l.: all as such a dead open and
shut matter Of course"