Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-09-22
By Ellis Parker Butler.

each side and little short curl just
in front OF each ear. She had to wear
gold spectacles when she read. even
II sho was reading the soft-hacked
psalm book that had print as big as q
kids primer, but outdoors she could
see pretty we'll without them. She
liked to have things clean--boys and
houses--and she would always scrub,
no matter what any one would say,
and so her fingers got chapped. so
she couldn't bear silk or stuffy dress-
es, but always wanted old. old linen
and things to wear. with all the stin.
ness and rouphness out of them. just
as it was out of the big white kerr
chief she used to wear folded across
her shoulders.
"Ladylove" forgot good deal. be-
cause she was growing 80 old she
couldn't remember. Sometimes she
called me George. and sometimes she
forgot and thought l was my father.
boy again, and called me Edward.
never let on.
guess nobody over loved trees the
way she loved them. guess she was
always sorry she had come away from
Pennsylvania. where there are lots of
trees and hills. Sometimes, early IN
the morning, she would come out on
the porch and look up and say, Il
lift mine eyes to tho hills!" and then
she would sigh and shake her mead.
That was because there was no hills
III ltlSCTpduk Wueu hAtS" W. A.SA
eyes from our porch. and guess she
was thinking Of the hills In Pennsyl.
vanla, because when she was girl
and lived there there We're always
hills to lift up her eyes to. Hills that
were covered with trees.
guess she knew all the poetry that
had ever been written about trees and
hills--old poetry--and she was always
saying some of 1t.
Nobody loved trees the way she did.
She liked boys, too. She liked all the
boys that ever. came to play with me:
She was the only one that never scolded
me- Plenty Of times when we had fresh
cookies and nobody was to touch
single one until the next day "Ladylove"
would see us playing In the yard, and
with napkin on it piled up with cook.
les. Then she would say verse OF
poetry and give us the cookies and 60
into the house just as happy as could
be- Sometimes she would forget she
had brought us any and would come
right out with another plateful and say
tho poetry over again and be just as
happy. over that one az she was over
When said Let's pull the old stump
that's in the front yard didn't think
Anything but that 1t would be good
thing to pull ! didn't even know it
been a stump since was little bit Of
a kid. anyway. 1t wasn't much Of q
stump any more. 1t was only about as
high as my knee, and right at the
ground 1t was only as big around ms a
but 1t wouldn't cut much. but chopped
the stump with It, could only chop
off little splinter at time and
never got much Off. 1t only made the
stump raggedy at the top. 1t was Just
thing and wasn't any good to anybody.
Swatty and Bony and l started to
move the capstan into the front yard
w n re, ne STUMP r1 was It was SO heavy
had moved 1t an inch or two said:
"AW! we can't move 1t 4"
So Bony said the same thing. but
Swatty stood and looked at the capstan
Yes. we can move 1t. too! We can
mako 1t move itself"
How can we?"
"You come ahead and I'll show you,"
no said. and he did. He drove q stake
into to- the ground about as far as our
tho rope to it. Then he made Bony
turn the capstan pole and that wound
up the rope and the capstan Just had
to TO-. move toward the stake; When We
stake out with an ak and put it in
again further along. That way we
moved the capstan to where we wanted
1t swatty thought Of how to do il.
rro 80 .neh we mad the capstan in the
the old stump and tried to pull It, but
the capstan just moved to the stump.
SO swatty said he knew what was the
matter and that we were ali crazy
because we didn't think OF il before.
ana that all the house-movers when
they were moving houses drove stakes in
front or their capstans to keen them
from moving and stakes behind them
to keep them from tipping up
we got some stakes and did II.
SWatty drove the stakes because he
was strongest and. anyway. he know
now 70 swing an Ak because he had
studied how the circus roustabouts
was In town. lie said he sat for an
hour and Just studied how to swing an
ak at stake, and then he askede ona
OF tho roustabouts to let him driwo
stakes. and lie drove over a hundraJ
He said that while he was driving the
stakes Mr.. Barnum came out OF the
tent and watched him. and he liked
the way sWatty was driving stakes 40
well that he offered to hire swatty for
q a,. hundred &c. d1ilara ycar to drive
Swatty II he took tile offer. ana 20
said he did. He said he wsnt with the
circus all oyer the United Stat"s nr tus
lnk stakes. and he drove them an
often he got 80 he could drive a ataIo
At one blow. and then he went to NJ
barnum and told him he would hav.
70 pay, him 5000 a year after
that. and Mr.. Barnum said lie wouidn,t
do 1t. So Swatty came home, That wa =
what sWatty said, but l guess he was
lyinE, ror IT was only October then
ana the T., last I,, circus had been at River.