The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-11-06
THE GIRL AND THE
SOLDIER BOY

Sit, down, daughter, | want to
have talk with you. It may seem
like a one-sided talk, for / want to
do most of, the talking and shall
feel honored if you will do most of
the listening.
You are a fine girl, as true as
steel, and all right, only at times
you are puzzle to me. And that
is all right too, for if a girl is of
any account, she will be a puzzle
and a problem to those who know
her best and love her most. It is
one of the mysteries of life, so don't
think I am finding any fault with
you about that.
Last spring you went to the Red
Cross meeting and the club meeting
and the INTERCHANGEABLE, and came
home full of the idea of making war
gardens and helping the allies. You
were going to cut out athletics and
dig in the garden instead. You were
going to omit parties and take sun
baths planting seeds and digging
among the plants. You were going
to get ideas agricultural by reading
what ''The Cub Says" and you were
going to read Home Economics" as
an aid to domestic science, commonly
called cooking. You were going to
have lettuce and radishes and young
onions and tender turnips cream
peas and cream potatoes, beet
pickles and green corn and I don't
know what all, on the table to re-
duce the high cost of living and in
crease the joy of existence.
nofinnd tbat uou hod n xub olo
row of old shoes in the closet, and
old skirts and dresses, and waists,
gloves, sun hats, and I thought I
should have the joy of seeing my
daughter doing some real work,
dressed in clothes that were worn
enough so she would not be afraid
to work in them. / had become so
accustomed to seeing you in clothes
SO good that care had to be used
to keep them from being soiled or
wrinkled, | hailed this garden plan
with new hope because I wanted to
see you striding about and stroking
in perfect freedom of the restraint
of apparel. I wanted to see you just
a little dusty and tired from honest
effort with your muscles. | wanted
to behold you with an old hat tied
on your head with a strip of veil,
sun-burned and wind tanned and
feeling the joy of useful service as
a partner of nature. In short,
daughter, | wanted to look upon you
as the whole thing when your clothes
sunk into insignificance. I had been
SO long accustomed to seeing every
thing subordinated to clothes and
their correctness, that you seemed
hardly real yourself.
I knew, of course, that you would
need to have seeds for the garden
but I didn't know, daughter, that
you would require a new hoe, new
rake. new garden cord and every
thing new to work with. I thought
you would just use the old tools,
since economy was the watchword of
all the meetings you had attended.
so naturally I was disappointed,
daughter, when the bills came in for
all the new stuff. The Red Cross
committee had been around to see
me, and people were saying, "Give
till it hurts" and I acted on that
slogan, for my daughter was going
to reduce the grocery bills and work
IIio ouLluICl, "hClSdo, uCIcLULOTO
she had only been an expense bill.
Well, I gave my money to the Red
Cross, daughter, and was glad to
do it, for I thought of the boys on
the battlefields.
Well, daughter, besides the bills
for the seeds and the tools, there
came in bills for new pair of boots
for garden work, pair of gauntlet
gloves, khaki suit and a garden
hat.
And the garden, daughter, well,
we'll just pass that over. Well just
forget the bottles of sauce and salad
dressing, the prepared mustard and
mapleine, chilli sauce and green pep
pers that you have bought to try
to make strong vegetables go down,
and the faxed fish and deviled meats
you have used up to make lettuce
leaves eatable. The three things that
stand out stenciled concerning the
war garden are the special clothes
you bought for gardening, the
special groceries you bought and
used up trying to make the garden
stuff eatable, and the job I had
burning the weeds where the garden
was to have been.
Yes, / know, daughter, the soil
5sl <ra% hUva h,1% t&ho& 60 yoork ~ |