Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-12
SpOR TING.

drinking water fer those same hens.
A cold winter morning brings out all
the bad points IN the hen business.
The people who are bordering over
magazine articles on hens. and read
ing about the profits to be made in
this light business which can be run
by women" and one is tempted To
continue aby children" as washing
machine and separator advertisements
always read ought TO he given n free
demonstration of this light business
on such u morning as one IA degrees
below They would hurry home 10
warm UP and cling 10 their jobs in Of
flee. factory or shop, no matter if
they We're monotouous The hen job
is the most mouotonous seven days
I in-the- week job that ever d man tack
LEI.
+ Down in the kitchen and up at the
hen-pant. everything is filled with hot
water TO be carried around to thaW
cut the frozen things. The ideal hem
farmer would have known that the
temperature was TO drop SO low. and
have emptied all the water out of the
dishes. or would have done 1t anyhow,
because he did it every night. That is
the safest plan. but a human hem
! farmer takes some chances on the
weather. as he does on the duties con-
nected with hens, for. if he did ev-
erything every day he would not get
any time to even sleep. Taking
chances. he naturally gets caught
Sometimes.
The morning milking goes on by
lantern light and the work in the
house by lamp light. This working by
artificial light in the morning is Il
gruesome thing. You have to pinch
yourself to find out whether you are
working before you went to bed or
latter you got mp. In such a sleepy
state as the first hour in the morning
it may be a dream. one youth said
he liked. yes. actually liked. to get up
at O'Clock on a winter morning and
fiId the lamps lighted and poke about
the barn with the glifnmering light Of
a lantern He thought it was interest
ing Popular expression on the sub
ject of early winter rising in the coun-
try would undoubtedly leave him quite
alone in his pleasure and welcome to
1t. II would seem a very good rule
to get up by daylight all the year. 1t
always seems twice as cold to look at
the windows thick with frost, before
the sun is up. There is no need of cur
tains in such weather
The mailbag must be got down in
time for the mailman at 30 sharp
About this time the sun comes up on
this farm. a point. which one sell
dom thinks OF in buying a farm, is to
find out what time the sun rises for
It on winter mornings. The farm
next above gets the sun before this,
one below not until quite a little later.
and at the Notch. 1t is nearly as bad
as living iii the mountains, where an
hour or two of sunlight a day is all
one gets in many places. A farm house
50 placed that the winter sun comes
into all the rooms is a delight to those
who live in it.
| On this particular morning it is a
dazzling country that the upcoming
sun displays. Everywhere is country
snow, 50 different from city snow, that
| 1t is quite another article, SO white
that eyes blink and tears come; so
white that shadows are blue Down
the road the light snow of the early
part of the night has not yet been dis
turbed by single track 1t is with a
feeling of being many miles away in d
deep solitude, that one looks up the
road and down the road, trod as yet
| by no one. 1t might be road prime
val Everyone is more or less a poet,
according to that New England phil
osopher, Emerson, and the feeling that
comes over one, alone in the snowy
untrodden road with the morning
light over everything, is poetical; al
though hanging the mailbag on the
post so 1t will not blow off may not
be. There are miles of snow and still
ness. 1t is hard to realize that one is
only twelve miles from Hartford 20 a
bird flies. In the south and west the
purple morning light is spreading over
hill after hill. Illuminating them with
that strange beautiful light that comes
just berore the sun is really up for the
dag.
However. the poet in the mind must
hasten back to the house for the milk
| will be coming down and everybody
will want to eat. In the country APP
lpetltes are good Come what may.
three good meals must be got every
dat.
II is odd how sudden cold spell
exposes every crack in Your house
Wind comes ia nysteriously. Even
though YOU are wearing arctica and
running five fires. your feet lind cold
spots everyWhere. The uapcr OH one
of the outside walls gets very wet aud
following Gown the trace. what is
found but frost, good and deep. on the
mop board. and a little heap Of snow
which has come III through crack,
Dreadful! No wonder your feet were
like ice when you were washing dishes.
1t reminds you of the time when yQ4
rented a little cottage in the coun-
try one winter. and the carpenter, in
putting in the pipe from the sink out
doors, made q mistake in the position
Of the hole and calmly bored another
ineh-wide one. leaving the first one for
a nice peek hole, for, as he said, "one
more hole. more or less. would not
matter in house where there were
SO many"
The only way to deal with cracks is