The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-11-13
BY r. A. Mitchell

TX BY =. A. Mitchell *
MISREPRESENTATION
There are two things that especially
interest me. One is gardening, the
other automobiling. In these have
found occupation and amusement after
retiring from business, though I am
free to confess that since gardening
Is confined to a portion of the year
and one can go motoring at any time
have done more Of the latter than
the former.
1t is In the spring that I have found
comfort In my garden. prepare my
ground early, and then when the first
warm days come on start out on
brief tour In my car, for experience has
taught me that lone swallow does not
make summer" and have obtained
better results by refraining from plant
ing till later when more reliance is to
be placed on the continued warmth of
the sun terminating my seed than by
putting 1t In when cold Is liable to fol-
low heat
But there is work In gardening, and
motoring is all pleasure. Therefore I
confess prefer the latter.
One morning stopped at a farm
house for water for my radiator. The
farmer came out, took bucket, pump
ed the water and insisted on pouring 1t
into my tank. Before leaving him In
dulged him In conversation, for have
noticed that II there is one thing a
farmer likes 1t is to talk.
This Is natural. A countryman does
not mingle In the hurry burly of city
life. The city man comes home In the
evening having had more talk than he
has needed and prefers to sit down and
be quiet But the farmer is In a great
measure cut of from all interchange of
thought with his fellow men. If he can
get city man to swap ideas with him
he win talk or listen, as his makeup
impels, till the cows come home.
fYou seem to have a great variety of
produce on your farm" said to the
farmer.
"Yes," he said, eve have. We're near
enough to the city for market, and
we put In a lot Of different things, so
that If some fail we don't make dead
loss"
At that moment sturdy boy Of five
came out Of the house and stood look
ing admiringly at my machine.
=
"Im his granddad."
what would the world be without
the childrenf" observed
you're right there, stranger" said
the old man. 1.-THE only trouble about
children is to understand EN- 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 lit
tie Teller 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 reckon that
boy was born to teach other people, for
that's what he's been dom ever since.
'T never 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 1 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 how to run it. He
thought he could, and 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 / told him to trim
an apple tree and be particular to cut
off the lower limbs that was hangin'
near the ground. What did he do but
cut Off all the top ones. didn't give
him Hckin' for his disobedience, but
I 'scolded him lot. Do you know the
little cuss' way O. dom it 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 long ladder to pick 'em and lose
lot by not bein' able to get at 'em.
"Well, Jim was always dom som'pin'
the wrong way. When q 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 baby. Jim was always monkey
In with the farm machinery. THROWN
1t out O. gear mostly, though once in
awhile he'd make it run even. l told
him to let 1t alone and to let every
thing alone, but it 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 it.
Jim was about sixteen when he did
this, and concluded to get rid Of him
I told him he'd better go out for q
hired hand. only l warned him that
he'd better not tell the men he worked
for how to run their farms and do
things as he was told to do 'em.
about this time his grandmother
died and left him her savin's, about
$1,000 Instead o. leavin' it to me, as
Jim's guardeen, she left it to him to
have right off. / think the most incor-
rigible boys is the favored ones of
their mothers, and they certainly are
of the gals. Anyway Jim was IA
vorite of bis grandmother, who seemed
to think that he knew more than did.
"Jim went away, and supposed he
was goin' to do as told him-hire out
for farm hand.
Meantime while he was gone !
wasn't gettin' along very well with the
farm. reckoned the land had been
worked out and required to be ferti-
llzed. / didn't have the money to do
the Job as 1t ought to be done, and l
thought that If / didn't spend lot on
It I'd lose what put into it, so didn't
do anything. tried to raise such
crops as didn't need much fertilizer,
but didn't get much of a return.
"Jim was away four years, and all the
while was runnin' down financially.
He used to write home once in awhile,
but he didn't tell US what he was dom.
But Jim was never good hand at ex-
plainin' things. I've thought since that
II when he was boy he'd have told
me somep'n about what he was drivin'
at I'd have had more patience with him.
''The only thing Jim did tell us, and
be wrote that to his mother the last
year he was away, was that he'd got a
sweetheart. He said she was the pur-
| TEST gal In the world and the best.