The San Francisco call., 1910-04-02
ny JESSIE NILES BURNEss

"Oh yes, yes, real one, Aunt
Bessie" chorused the four little nieces
and nephews. 1t was Bonnie Boys
turn to choose the story We sat to-
gether on the hearth rug munching
popcorn, which Bonnie Boy and | had
scorched our checks preparing over
the Goals in the open fireplace. Sister
Nan calls that snappy, cracking, jolly
open wood fire her chief extravaganza,
bat we all love it Bonnie Boy and
seem always the ones to pop the
corn, or make the taffy. He is IL, and
Bess, my namesake, is g. and Rolph is
g. and Baby May is 2, and I'm the sum
of all their ages, as Bonnie discovered
one day. His real name is William.
Hes the eldest and so is named for
his father. They used to call him
Junior, but the boys at school short
ened that to June which he said
sounded too grille, SO he came to me
about It, In his class were three other
tuniors,~ and want name for my
very own he said; so we concluded to
try Bonnie Boy. That was what I'd
called him ever since he came to us,
and everybody liked the idea.
His mates had shortened it to Bon,
but that does very well, too.
well, then" said /, since you prefer
real story, suppose I tell you about
Johns potato patch?
Was it real John, and a really
truly patch% asked Rolph.
Yes Rolph. I've forgotten Johns
last name but 1 went 18 miles on the
boat down the river to see the patch.
It's on an island called Sauvies,' in
the Willamette river, In Oregon. You
keep real quiet, and I'll begin at the
beginning; but first, If you want to-
May, you may climb over into my
lap
II had called at the seed store for
lot of things for the ranch---SeedS for
the garden, and supplies for my dear
bee families and one sack each of sew
eral new sorts of potatoes, for we were
not satisfied with the variety we had
l explained to the salesman what ]
wanted, and something of the soil and
general conditions at the ranch, and he
said There now, ] know the very
thing for you / bought them just
yesterday. Come back in the ware
house and see them There Aren't
those fine? Eighty seven sacks In the
lot, and If you'll notice they're all
about the same size and the same
shape Never did see finer lot And
who do you think raised them? A boy,
not IL years old yeti Owns his own
farm. and does all the work himself,
even makes the trade with me. Came
in to see me about them last fall but
his father told me at the time he
should advise John to hold them over,
as Lsices were likely to be better
That doesn't always happen, but this
year potatoes are way up, and was
glad for the little fellow. This lot
though, would bring fancy prices any
time
II asked the man a good many ques-
tons The idea of so young farmer
interested me- Finally he said, why
don't you go down and see him? There
are all sorts of boats going that way
all the time. You could make the trip
easily any day. and you'd enjoy It,
They'd like TO have YOU know
"Well, kiddies, l went For one
thing, any excuse for trip on that
wonderful river is a good one to me;
and then everything that salesman
told me increased my interest In John,
and besides that | really wanted to
know all it was possible to learn about
potato farming, and l was sure from
what l had seen of Johns crop that IL
there were any magic about 1t he had
discovered the secret
John was at school when I got
there, but his father seemed glad to
see me and told me about his part in
Eyes ma'am, 1t is Johns own farm.
an acre. / decided it to him. He's
minor, l know. but 1 explained to
lawyer what I wanted and he fixed it
up. The way II happened, you see,
John was little and pale, and it wor-
red me- and then ii was always books.
books, books and nothing else with
him. / suppose IL he had been strong
and always up to some mischief that
would have worried me, too. He gets
his love for books from his mother.
She is dead and some way I hated to
deny them to him. but l wanted him
to be farmer, and l wanted him
strong. 1 tried 10 keep him helping me
about all the different kinds of farm
work l have to do, but was always
afraid of being too hard on the littlo
lad, and then one day / thought of
this Thought T. now If he owns his
own farm and manages Just as he's
a mind 10 he will work better and
study better, both. For don't you
think ma am, we all do more and feel
happier about II when we are working
for something-With some plan and
nurnnsa hafnra us All the flnnn2 1 told