Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-12-15
lust What Allied Farmer Hopkins
Has Allied Many of
His Class.
JUST HAD TO HAVE AN AUTO
Wife Unnecessarily Worried Over the
Somewhat Peculiar Actions of Her
Husband, Who Was Only Fig
uring Over Max
ing a Change.

Farmer Hopkins had been ailing for
some time. He did his chores in the
customary manner one expected of
Hopkins. He paid as much attention
to the drove of hogs over in the pas
ture lot, the Indianapolis News states.
He followed the pillow just as he had
followed it for % years. He swore
softly at times, mayhap, at the con-
trariness of old Ben as he went down
between the rows of corn. After the
days work was over he MIXED the
three Jerseys and bedded down the
horses in his old painstaking man
ner But with all of his thoroughness
there was an air of preoccupation. The
clean white boards of the barn
door on the inside were covered with
rows and rows of figures. His wife,
going down there on her daily egg
hunting expeditions had noticed the
figures and wondered what they meant.
Could it be that after all their years
Of married life her husband was en-
gagged in some transaction which he
wished to hide from her, that he
should do his figuring on the barn
door instead of the Old-fashioned secre-
tary in the living room?
She ran back over his actions of
the last few weeks. She remembered
how he had grumbled at Nellie as they
rode to town behind her Surely he
could not think of selling her He
had always boosted of the trim little
mares speed; now he compared her
to a snail.
The children had all married and
moved away, and it seemed to the
wife that he should be taking his life
easy, instead of raking up trouble for
himself as he seemed to be doing.
One evening when he had come back
home from a drive to the town alone
he seemed to be of a more cheerful
mood He told his wife the children
were away all year and only got
back in the summer To go to see
them meant a long ride to the town
and a longer ride on the train. Then
he adrOitly shifted the conversation
around to horses. Feed was high.
Horses needed shoes; they were liable
to sicken and die. They must be fed
whether they worked or not. They
could not be driven hard in the hot
sun. 1t always took horse two hours
at the least to make the IA miles to
town. At last the faithful wife was
getting at the cause of her husbands
pTeOccupation. Soon she would know
what the real trouble was. Probably
he wished to sell Nellie and get that
2:O3 trOtter he had been looking over
at the county fair.
So-sO-would she mind if he bought
an automobilel They were so much
cheaper now. They could get around
so much more quickly to visit their
friends and take their friends riding,
etc, ad infinitum. In half hour Mrs.
Hopkins was so excited that she in
sisted on getting catalogue the next
day, and even began to look at road
map to see how they could go to see
Jessie and the baby.
In two weeks one OF the stalls had
been torn out to make room for the
car and a galvanized tank had been
sunk in the ground just outside the
barn door. And il his first driving
lesson Farmer Hopkins learned that
whereas when a pillow is to be guided
to the right pressure it must be guild
ed on the left handle, when an automo-
bile is to be guided to the right the
steering wheel must be turned to the
right.
And gasoline isn't so high, after ALL