The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-07-17
Obstreperous
Jim
Story of a Farmer
Boy.
BY F. A. Mitchell


retiring from business, though l am
free to confess that since gardening
Is confined to 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 l have found
comfort In my garden. l 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 zone swallow does not
make summer" and have obtained
better results by refraining from plact-
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
confess / prefer the latter.
One morning / stopped at farm
house for water for my radiator. The
farmer came out, took bucket, pump
into my tank. Before leaving him in
dulged him in conversation, for have
noticed that If there Is one thing a
farmer likes it is to talk.
This Is natural. A countryman does
not mingle in the hurly 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 great
measure cut off from all Interchange Of
thought with his fellow men. If he can
get city man to swap ideas with him
impels, till the cows come home.
you seem to have great variety Of
produce on your farm | said to the
farmer
"Yes," he said, 1--WE have. We're near
enough to the city for a market, and
we put In lot of different things, so
that if some fail we don't make a dead
loss"
At that moment sturdy boy Of five
came out of the house and stood look
ing admirinely ut my machine.
"Your boy" | asked the farmer
I'm his granddad.
"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 EN-. We
don't consider that they're children
Of
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.
Il 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
II 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 | and his mother aud the
,'holc family. He was ready to tell
nc 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 1t 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' |
near the ground What did he do but
cut Off all the top ones. l didn't give I
him a lickin' for his disobedienca but
l 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
or 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 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 IL, espe-
cially boy that he has brought I'm
from baby, Jim was always monkey
in with the farm machinery, THROWN
1t out o gear mostly. though once In
awhile he'd make 1t run even. I told
him TO let 1t alone and to let every.
thing alone, but it didn't do any good.
One 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 il
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 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 md loft ka-