The Press., 1918-01-03
Obstreperous & - --- Story of a Farmer
 Boy.
RyF. A. MITcMEL

There are two things that especially
 interest me. One Is gardening, thC
 other automobiling In these I have
 found occupation and amusement afteI
 retiring from business, though I an
 free to confess that since gardening
 Is confined to a portion of the year
 and one can go motoring at any time
 I have done more of the latter than
 the former.
 It Is in the spring that have found
 comfort in my garden. I prepare my
 ground early, and then when the first
 warm days come on start out on a
 brief tour in my car, for experience has
 taught me that tone swallow does not make a 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 germinating my seed than by
 putting 1t fin 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 I stopped at a farm house for water for my radiator. The farmer came out, took bucket, pump ed the water and insisted on pouring it into my tank. Before leaving him I in- dulged him fin conversation, for I have noticed that If there Is one thing a farmer likes It is to talk.
 This Is natural. 4 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 he quiet. But the farmer Is in a great measure cut of 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 impels, till the COWS come home.
 You seem to have a great variety of produce on your farm" I said to the farmer.
 ;-Yes," be said. we 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 a dead loss"
 At that moment a sturdy boy of i've came out of the house and stood look ing admiringly at my machine.
 'Your boyY" I asked the farmer.
 'I'm his granddad."
 'sWhat would the world he without the childrenT'' I 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 cbstreperous 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 1t said when he was It, tie feller hIs teacher took him to his mother and told her the boy was a dnnee. The mother took the job O teachln' him herself, but reckon that boy was born to teach other people, for. that's what he's been doin' 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 ts be thirteen or fourteen years old he snew morn I and his mother and the whole family. He was ready to tell me how not to run the farm, hut he couldn't tell me how to run 1t. He thought he could, and sometimes he did. told him he'd better keep his opinions .O himself.
 sometimes he'd do things without my knowing 1t or against my orders. 1 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.v What-did-he-de but cut off al-the top ones. T didn't give him a lickln' for his disobedience, but I seolded him a lot. Do you know the little euss' wave O doin' 1t turned out line. Alter that the tree he trimmed give Us the biggest and the best apples of any In the orchard. And the best part of 1t was we didn't. have to go up on a long ladder to pick 'em and lose a lot hy not bein' able to get at 'em.
 Well, Jim was always doin' 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 1t, espe- eIally a boy that he has brought up from baby. Jim was always monkey In with the farm machinery, throwin' it out O gear mostly, though once in he'd make 1t run even. I told thing alone. but 1t 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 it. Tim was about sixteen when he did -hIs. and concluded to get rid of him. told him he'd better go out for Tired hand. only I warned him that ,e'd better not tell the men he worked 'or how to run their farms and do things as he was told to do 'em
 About tiis time his grandmother lied and left him her savin's. about SI .206 Instead O leavin' it to me. as Jlm's guardeen. she left it to him to nave right of I think the most incOr- rigible boys Is tine favored ones of heir mothers. and they certainly are pr the gals. Anyway Jim was a fa- Torite of hIs grandmother, who seemed to think that hs knew more than I did
 Jim went away. and supposed he was goln' to do as told him-hire out Tor q farm hand.
 Meantime while he was gone wasn't gettIn' along very we'll with the farm. reckOned the land had been worked out and required to be ferti- lzed. didn't have the money to do he job as it ought to be done, and thought that If didn't spend lot on t I'd lose what put into 1t, so I didn't To anything. I tried to raise such .rops as didn't need much fertilizer 'ut didn't get much of a return.
 'Jim was away four years, and all the