Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1909-02-03
CHAPTER X.
The VOYAGE of the Ark.

| stocking? and the like of that.
Trouble seemed to be that they had
too many clothes. If they'd been linn
tied to one suit for Sunday and pair
OF overalls to cover up the ruins the
rest of the week, like l was, they'd
have got along better.
But they was rugged at last and at
breakfast was clipper as "a pair of
mackerel gulls. They commenced to
talk garden. Consarn 'em, 1 hoped
they'd forgot that.
The loan business is all right, SOL"
says Van. 'Scudder will bring us loan
at three dollars boat load He says
| it'll take about Is boat loads
He does, hey?" says l. AT three
dollars per? That's generous of him.
Anything else?"
Yes. He is to continue to bring us
milk We have decided that perhaps
for the present we had better not keep
a cow"
Small favors thankfully received.
was glad that milking want going to
be added to the general joyfulness.
Il think that's a nice, far-sighted de-
cision,' says l. unless you could
learn your COW to eat seaweed, 1 don't
see"
"Oh, Scudder could bring us hay"
says Van. And we could give the
animal the spare vegetables from the
garden
"Twould be long time between
meals for the poor critter, I'm afraid"
says I. How much is Nate charging
for the milk?''
Nine cents a quart That's only
one cent more than you have to pay
in New York, and, when you consider
how far he has to bring it, l call it
dirt cheap"
Well, twas about as cheap as the
garden dirt, but didn't say nothing.
We're going to raise chickens, too"
says Hartley. "Scudder, so Van says.
will sell US live Plymouth Rocks at 80
cents pound. Skipper you might fix
up the poultry yard in your spare
time"
In my spare" time. There was joke
In that, but it want so intended.
Then Van Brunt began to preach
pig Seems Nate had told him that
the one thing needful to turn Ozone
island into genuine Natural Life was
a pig, and of course he, Nate, had the
only pig in creation that was worth
buying.
He showed it to me the other morn
Ing, says Van. THE prettiest little
black and white fellow you ever saw,
Martin. MICS Talford saw him yes
CHI
she said he was a dear. You might be
repairing sly for him in your odd
moments, Sol"
My odd moments, and my even
ones, too, was pretty we'll filled up for
the next few days. The Heavenlies
loafed and superintendent and smoked
and fshed and ate. All l had to do
was to turn out with the gulls, and
cook breakfast, and clear away, and
wash dishes, and build hen yards, and
fix up leaky pig pen, and get ready
them blessed gardens, and sweep and
dust, and dig clans, and make beds,
and get dinner, and sail boat, and |
chop wood, and bundle up washing for
Nate to take to Hubby Ann, and scour
knives, and-and-well, there was
plenty more. Seven or eight hundred
odd jobs have slipped my memory.
The gardens was ready for planting
on Wednesday. Nate fetched over
the last dory load of loan the night |
afOre and l spread it afore I got sup
per. The chickens and the hog was to
come on Thursday. l was to take the
skif and go after 'em, Nate being en-
gagged to cart carry-all load of board
ers to Ostable. Hubby Ann was to
have the live stock at the shore ready
for me.
"Hows the menagerie coming,
hoof?"
"Oh,. I'll box 'em for you, SOL" he
says. THE hens in one box and the
pig in another. The pigs pretty thin
Il mean young, so he won't be no heft
to you"
Wednesday morning the Heavenly
gardening begun. One patch for Van
Brunt and the other for Hartley They
had seeds by the peck, more or less.
brought over by Scudder's express and
charged for at undertakers prices.
The Twins started in with a ven-
geance. l showed 'em how. For once
I was superintendent and the job
suited me ine-nothing would have
tickled me more, unless twas to turn
in and take nap.
Van takes one hoe and Hartley the
other. Each of 'em was actually
round-shouldered from the weight of
the seeds in their pockets. They had
cucumber seeds, and melon seeds, and
land knows what. Wonder to me was
they didn't try oranges and pineapples.
And in the middle of July,
Now, Martin" says Van. Here
goes! Bet you fifty get the first
cucumber"
CTo BE coNTINUED1