Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-05-07

thAOuBh WILL PiAhbAh haJAA ' nai fCbt-
In and thrashin'. no matter how busy.
l have heard ma tell the story about
Henry Peters a good many times.
Henry lived alone In q little house on
Uncle Silas' farm. which jines ours
that is. Henry roomed there. Uncle's
house was pretty small for the CROWN
family. so the hired man slept there.
So did extra help durin' haydn, har-
.yestin' and thrashin'.
1t is a little. two room affair, Aunt
Martha lives there all alone now ex-
cept when she is stayin' with some of
the relatives. helpin' care for the sick,
layin' out the dead or something like
that. And 1t keeps her pretty busy,
because both pa and ma have a grist
OF brothers and sisters Twin in these
parts.
Well, durin' the war ma says pa
was drafted. 1t didn't seem as If he
could be spared. Ma had been sick
all winter and had run up an awful
doctors bill. The crops had been
nmightyl poor the season before, almost
a failure. There wasn't enough sold
from the farm to keep US going and
pay the interest on the mortgage.
There was no money to pay for a
substitute. and things did look blue.
Through the ORCHARD one mornin',
Ascythe on shoulder, come Henry Pc
tiers, who had learned of the trouble.
Pa was out by the pigpen when Hen
ry walked up to him, placed his hand
on pas shoulder and said: "Uncle HI
ram"-he always called pa that, they
say-'11l go In your place. l am a
single man, without any ties. No n
cares for me, and there Is none de-
pendin' on me as there Is on you"
Pa bursts into tears and says, Hen
ry, l have no money to pay you"
"Drat the money" says Henry,
hangin' up his scythe In the apple tree
by the pump.
Henry went to the county seat and
listed and went to war. Ma says
there was a fearful partin' between
Aunt Martha and Henry, she guessed,
because Martha's eyes was most
swelled shut next day. but her smile
was still there
Good news was heard from Henry.
He was brave and got to be second
lieutenant till at some big battle. the
name of which l forget, he was
among the missin'. From that day to
this nothin' more has been heard
from Henry Peters. Aunt Martha was
clean heartbroken, ma says. but she
went about her work, carin' for the
~41I. - Io-t4s o.4k thA dand nc usual
Aunt Martha organized a society. ma
says, to send lint bandages, canned
fruits and jellies to the sick and
wounded in the hospitals and worked
on that all the time she could spare
from family matters.
Henry Peters scythe hangs out In
the apple tree right where he left 1t
when be went to war. Pa said none of
us boys should tech 1t, and we v
have. The blade is terrible rusty
spilled, l guess-but nobody has ever
dared take 1t down.
Aunt Martha never goes to Memo
rial day down at the Forks, and l
often wondered why. All the rest OF
us do, rain or shine. l didn't think l
(Vo40 6O NhAo yCdAf . go S0N
over the humps and 1t was a coolish
day. with a raw wind. Just over the
hill from our house. at Its foot runs
the road to the West Branch cemetery,
and, while 1t is out of sight Of the
house. you can hear the band as 1t
marches by, but you can't see any,
thing. 1t is quite a ways round by the
road. but cross lots It amt far.
Ma left her blanket shawl and my
pea jacket lynn on the sofa in the sit
tin room. intendin' to take them along
to use If we got cold. and in the ex-
element Of gettin' started forgot 'em.
"Georgie," she says to me-ma Away
calls me George when she wants me
to do anything-"can't you run home
and get our wraps that l laid out or
the SOAR / hated to. The procession
4was Just formin' for the cemetery-the