The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1921-12-30

All the time she was gathering in her apron
dropped rose leaves and poppy leaves to press be-
tween the leaves Of the big Bible.
A little down the slope lay the vegetable garden
of my father. full Of long, narrow beds, all turned
over each year by the spade and the spine. On,
Lord! but yet l have the memory Of it in my back.
Why had they not thought of gardens to be fur
rowed by horsepower? But they had not. l think
because they were yet too full Of Old England,
anu a Yankee was, after all, the most Initiative
creature In the world. He shook his fist, and
wagged his tongue like the great bell at Moscow
at the world Englishman, but for all that he was
himself English, both In his stomach and In his
head. He not only spaded his gardens. but he
took his snuff like an EngIishman, and he built
his fence after an English pattern. What else
could explain why he had so many little yards
about our house, and built our house close down
by the road? AS if we were crowded into a little
island, and had not room enough to turn around
in. We are more independent now, and really
are getting some notions of our own. But then
our house stood only a stones throw from the
highway, and there was a little box of a yard In
front, anf this was full of locust trees and honey
suckles, and there at night the honey moths would
come and play high-spy in the blossoms. George
III, our great gray cat, would sit down to look
at one that cam too near-for what was TIA
bird or a butterfly? And like all of us, he was
a bit OF a naturalist. He liked very much to claSSl-
fy the world. but never hesitated to put the choic-
est specimens in his stomach, which is, / see, the
way with other scientists. They will eat a
megalothoporoid as quick as a pig.
But you should have seen the "stUrtions,' as they
grew in rows all about the vegetable beds, for our
father also had an eye to beauty. Did he not set
hollyhocks all about his corn fields? Then, when
the. great stalks Of crimson and gold stood up in
summer, and the folk that went by to church
stopped to look with admiration, he said, Truly,
one shall not live by bread alone" And he liked
best those ~neighbors who looked the longest, as
the little mother liked best those who ate most Of
her goodies. The saffron, and dill, and the rue
and rosemary, and carraway, and fennel, and the
mints, grew by the brook that ran down back Of
the house and garden; and, indeed, there were
also more of these herbs that stood always in the
place of a family doctor. Indeed, you may look:
but it was not SO bad an exchange. And as for
the notions, they may have been no worse than
the guesses OF the profession nowadays.
There is no good living where there are no
brooks. and this was n brook of the first water.
1t dubbed out Of a rocky hollow, some little secret
cavern, and then 1t laughed and tumbled for half
a mile before it got over It's fun. The little mother
in summer would walk with us there. and she
would sometimes say, "Now, let us go father over
to tire glen, where the bigger brook is, and the
ferns, and the witchhazel and the yellow birch.
and the beechdrOps." Oh, 1t was glorious fun
But at night, after work, the dear father would
come early from the field, and say, Now. let us
all 60 for Strawberries" Ihen-ah, but how can
tell you such delicious joys! You know nothing
of wild Strawberries. much less do you know the
delight of creeping about the meadows and down
by the stumps In the pastures, while the bobolink
whistles, and the brooks gurgled, as we gathered
the long stems that lay lovingly against the grass.
Where are we? l had no business out Of season
and in midwinter to take you through snow banks
to pick Strawberries. But tits such tricks the mem
ory plays. We will get at once back to the house.
The front door, as you see, opens just in the mid
die i'm halves, and from that the hall runs back as
straight as a Puritan's nose, right through every
thing. till it lands in the big kitchen. And the two
halves of the door swing Slpen separately. / know
not why 1t was, unless 1t were an inheritance from
pioneer days. when ii was well to be able to look
out and parlcy a little before opening the way for
an Indian rush. SO, ut any rate, all the doors in
those days were cut across the middle. In the big
ward was the woodshed, and that was full of piles
OF wood as dry as finder. 1t was the comfort of
winter, and the very right arm Of a successful
home. From the woOdshed we all went, kicking
first the dirt from our boots, into the great living
room, where we were all together. Over this door
was twined with care a great bittersweet, and
all over the stone curb of the well was q wild
white-flowering cleInatis.
Father" said the little ~priestess, "'tis as well
to cultivate the beautiful and enjoy 1t. WHY