The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-01-22
GrandmOther's Bed.

Someone in some newspaper or
other spoke recently Of the feather
bed as thing unknown to this gen
Grafton. 1t isn't quite so bad-or
gOod--as that for now and then the
guest room of some rather old fash
Toned family developeS a feather bed
like grandmother used to make, but
the feather bed is on its way to OBJ
liviOn with the buffalo robe and the
rest Of us who were young and gay
and fashionable long, long time
ago.
Just the same it is worth remem-
boring 4 big goose feather bed,
one of those which swelled up like
a summer cloud beneath the hand
woven coverlet, like grandmother S,
that met your body like a warm wave
and into which you sunk half way
and rested as on air was a thing to
bless and remember on cold winter
night in those days when neither
register nor radiator strOve with the
frost upon the window pane. 1t was
mattress and cover in one How it
surged up along your sides, crept
along every curve and fitted every
angle of your body and folded you
in warmth and lulled all the senses
except that Luxurious rcstful feeling
which it accentuated. 1t was the
fitting preliminary to buckWheat
cakes and maple syrup and home
made sausage stuffed in cloth sacks
which the morning was to bring. If
any there be who have not had this
experience then some of us older
persons have an advantage over mod
ern luxuries.
Grandmother made the bed from
the beginning barring such assistance
as was afforded by the geese that
grew the feathers. She kept geese. "
At odd and unexpected places about
the farm youthful investigators ran
| upon gray goose laying or sitting
guarded by sentinel gander, her
mate. The youthful Investigator
quickly learned to pursue investiga-
ton moderately. Interference
brought swift attack and the spec
tacle OF a small boy with gander
hanging to the seat of his trousers
and applying punishment with swift
wing stroke; for the blow of a gan
der left black and blue spots where
they landed and sometimes caused a
fractured leg. 1t was we'll enough to
watch the gray goose while she cov-
cred her eggs carefully as she left
Deserted as is might look the guard
ian gander came down like the AS
syrian in the poem whence he had
been artfully hidden and began OPP
erations at the first indications of
immediate investigation.
There arrived a yard full of gos-
lings, hairy. fluffy. yellow idiots that
needed care and watchfulness. The
gander still stayed on the job, how
ever, and relieved grandmother of
much worry when the children were
around. Then in the fall came
picking day.
Ever help pick geese? Well it was
great fun and had a spice Of danger
! in it, not real danger but of minor
injury for an enraged goose pinches
| alarmingly when she sets her bill
and the points OF ganders wing
lands like a bony fist. You grabbed
a victim out of the huddled flock and
bore it to grandmother or one of the
aunts stocking was slipped over
| it's head and down its long neck and
the plucking went on under protest
from the pluckee. When an old goose
had been denuded of her feathers
she went flying outside past her
| feathered compeerds with much the
same general expression as woman
comes through town after she has
been caught in the rain at a picnic.
: She knew she was fright.
The rest of the bed was easy. a
tick and the washed and dried feath-
ers and the thing was done. Over it
was spread those thick white linen
sheets or those plaid blankets made
from the wool that had grown on
grandfather's sheep. Quilts guam
tum sufficit. Over all the woven bed
spread grandmother's mother made
in the days when a bedspread de-
seconded from mother to daughter 10,
even many generations. And there
was grandmother's bed that We slept
in when We went to see gramma. y
When it begins to snow and the
wind rises from the northwest or
when WEAKNESS bears on every
muscle and aches in every Joint
sometimes we wonder whether
grandmother bed would have the
same "feer' and restful luxurious
ness that it had when grandmother
made it and we slept in it.