Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-05
Obstreperous
Jim
Story of a Farmer
Boy.
BY r. a. Mitchell

interest me. One is gardening, the
other a~utomobiling. In these | have
found occupation and amusement after
retiring from business, though | am
free to confess that since gardening
Is confined to a portion of the year
and one can go motoring at any time
l have done more of the latter than
the former.
1t is in the spring that l have found
comfort in my garden. I prepare my
ground early, and then when the first
warm days come on l start out ON q
brief tour in my car, for experience has
taught me that lone swallow does not
make a summer" and l have obtained
better results by r~efraining from plant
Ing till later when mor reliance Is to
be placed ON the continued warmth of
the sun terminating my seed than by
putting It In when cold is liable to fol
low heat.
But there is work In gardening, and
motoring Is all pleasure. Therefore /
confess I prefer the latter.
One morning l stopped at a farm
house for water for my radiator. The
farmer came out, took a bucket, pump
ed the water and insisted on pouring 1t
into my tank. Before leaving him l In
dulged him in conversation, for l have
noticed that If there is one thing q
farmer likes 1t is to talk.
This Is natural. A countryman does
not mingle in the hurry burly of city
life. The city man N home in the
evening having had more talk han he
has needed and prefers to sit down and
be quiet. But the farmer is In a great
measure cut off from all interchange of
thought with his fellow men. If he can
get a city man to swap ideas with him
he will talk or listen, as his makeup
inpels, till the cows come home.
you seem to have a great variety of
produce on your farm" I said to the
farmer.
Yes he said, 1--WE have. We're near
enough to the city for a market. and
we put In a lot of different things, so
that If some fail we don't make a dead
loss"
At that moment a sturdy boy of five
came out of the house and stood look
ing admiringly at my machine.
"Your boyf' | asked the farmer.
I'm his eranddad."
What would the world be without
the children?' | observed.
You're right there, stranger" said
the old man. THE only trouble about
children is to understand 'em. We
don't consider that they're children
and not men and women Consequence
is we rub 'em the wrong way. And
I've noticed that sometimes the most
obstreperous turn out the best. We
send 'em to school, and If they learn
easy we think they're fine. If they
don't we think they're no good.
81 was readin' about the big inven-
tor t'other day-the man they call the
wizard, and it said when he was a lit.
tie feller his teacher took him to his
mother and told her the boy was a
Ounce. The mother took the job o
teachin' him herself, but I reckon that
boy was born to teach other people, for
that's what he's peer dom ever since.
st nev~r had any trouble with any o.
my children, except my boy Jim, the
father O. this little shaver here. The
fault with Jim was that when he got
to be thirteen or fourteen years old he
knew morn l and his mother and the
whole family. He was ready to tell
me how not to run the farm, but he
couldn't tell Me h5D 10 run 1T. He
thought he could, anu sometimes he did.
/ told him he'd better keep his opinions
to himself.
Sometimes he'd do things without
my knowing it or against my orders.
| remember one day l told him to trim
an apple tree and be particular to cut
off the lower limbs that was hangin'
neal the ground. What did he do but
him a lickin' for his disObedience, but
| scolded him a lot. Do you know the
little cuss' way O. dom II turned out
fine. After that the tree he trimmed
give us the biggest and the best apples
of any in the orchard. And the best
part of it was we didn't have to go up
on a long ladder to pick 'em and lose
a lot by not helm able to get at EN-.
"Well, Jim was always dom som'pin
the wrong way. When a man is run
MIN anything he don't want his as
~sistants to tell him how to do it, espe-
cially a boy that he has brought up
from a baby. Jim was always monkey
in with the farm machinery, THROWN
it out o gear mostly. though once in
awhile he'd make II run even. 1 told
him to let it alone and to let every
thing alone, but 1t didn't do any good.
Zone time | found a quarter acre o.
ground that had always produced well
ruined. Nothing came up there that
season. Come to find out jim had been
putin some kind O chemicals into 1t.
Jim was about sixteen when he did
this, and | concluded to get rid of him.
| told him he'd better go out for a
hired hand. only | warned him that
he'd better not tell the men he worked