Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-06-10
CHAPTER VI.
(Continued.)

|
my hardest choar IS 10 get up
after uncle calls me. ] scambie
down stairs and pick up my boots
and socks and put them on. Then /
20 into the setting room and put on
my jacket. 1 get some brand for
| the sheep. Then | put on my cap
and mittens and go out and feed
the sheep. Then l get my break
fast. Then / put on my frock coal
cap. mittens and fetch in my wood
Then l feed the horses their oats.
Then I lay away my old clothes IN
til night. | put on my best coat
and mittens and tipet and start LOT
school. BY the time l get to Joe's
nv toes are cold and ] stop ana
warm them. When | get to school
/ warm me at the stove. Then | go
to nv seat and study my reader,
then | take out my arithmetic, then
nv spelling book, then comes the
hardest study that ever landed on
Plymouth Rock. 1t Is called geog-
raphy. After the spelling lesson
comes noon. The teacher plays
with me cos the other boys are so
big. l am glad when / go home.
Then do my choars again and near
nv aunt read until bedtime.
There were girls in the school,
but none like Sally. They wins
rered together with shy glances in
our direction, as if they knew funny
secrets about US, and would then
break into noisy jeers. They ala
not interest me, and probably be
cause l had seen the lightness and
grace and beauty of Sally Dunkel-
berg and tasted the sweetness OF
her fancies.
There were the singing and
spelling schools and the lyceums,
but those nights were few and far
between. Not more than four or
five in the whole winter were we
cut of the joyful light of our own
home. Even then our hands were
busy making lighters or splint
brooms. or pairing and quartering
and stringing the apples or crack
ing butternuts while Aunt Deel
read.
After the sheep came we kept
only two cows. The absence of cat
tie was a help to the general prop
lem of cleanliness. The sheep were
cut in the fields and l kept away
from them for fear the rams would
butt me- remember little of the
sheep save the washing and shear
ing and the lambs which Uncle
Peabody brought to our fireside to
be warmed on cold mornings of the
NV -cyI- f-1 n
where the lambs came from when |
was small boy, and that Uncle
Peabody said they came from "over
the rivera place regarding which
his merry ignorance provoked me.
In the spring they were driven to
the deep hole and dragged out, one
by one, into the cold water TO have
their fieeces washed. When the
weather had warmed men came to
shear them and their oily white
fieeces were clipped close to the
skin and each taken off in one piece
like a coat and rolled up and put
on the wool pile.
I was II years old when | began
to be the reader for our little fam
lily. Aunt Deel had long complain
ed that she couldn't keep up with
her knitting and read so much. We
had not seen Mr. Wright for nearly
two years, but he had sent US the
novels of Sir Walter Scott and
had led them heart deep into the
creed battle of Old Mortality.
Then came the evil days of 1897
when the story of our lives began
to quicken its pace and excite our
interest in its coming chapters. 1t
gave us enough to think of, God
knows
Wild speculations in land and the
American paper-money system had
brought us into rough going. The
banks of the city of New York had
suspended payment of their notes.
They could no longer meet their
Engagements. As usual, the burden
fell heaviest on the poor. 1t was
hard to get money even for black
salts.
Uncle Peabody had been silent and
depressed for a month or more. He
had signed note for Rodney
Barnes, a cousin, long before and