Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1924-06-19

fuI school teacher. the pgineipal AT Ia
high school in . gootksb3ed 8sAuhl@n,
city, and when shs eass& u 80. hss.sD
she brought vita her = wsa1kh of pres
ents from friends and relatives. 9ha
could have induced her "a benosma ssao
mother to five little devils lika a. 4
more than / can yet understand.
Seen my father aeespfsd nnesAel
eaI and we moved to another town
whose wonders never ceased
In our field Of two acres there VA.
pond where frogs, turtles and wsss,
snakes abOundsd. By playing viii
them we learned the life history Of Mi
sorts Of water creatures.
We had a menagerie Of turtles
snakes, frogs and birds which deligat-
ed as. We had pig OK two that wers
still runts when they were butchered.
We had an old cow whose horn per-
sisted in growing toward one eye.
This COW we al admired and when
eventually she was sold to the butcher
we ate no beef for many days.
Dat meal was cooked the day before
it was used, poured into a bowl and
allowed to CONCEAL. The next day for
breakfast it was cut into chunks and
eaten with milk, maple sugar or aor-
ghum. At noon, quite often there was
a big iron pot filled with bot hasty
pudding to be eaten with the sams
garnishment as the oatmeal. At sup
per we often had salt pork and pota-
toes with white bread. We were never
allowed to eat between meals and Of
Ten urged by the panga Of hunger, we
filled our boyish stomachs with tux-
hips, green apples and anything else
sdibIe. The Fourth Of July, Christ
mas and Thanksgiving were red letter
lays in the year because ON these
lays we had real feast and on thrss
lays in the year our hunger was satsI
SIZED e; ne \
The parsonage was sort Of hotel
or all people of our creed passing
trough and because there was no
ther Protestant church In the placeI
became the stopping place for al
he itinerant preachers. missionaries,
nd members Of the other sects as
veli.
One day we went fishing in q small
Ike and young as we were we came
ONE In the afternoon with strings
I'll Of perch and sun fish. We were
I'D that there was company for sup,
sr and urged to dress the fish quicls-
!. We did So and while we were kept !
the. background we soon discovered
lat Chinese missionary and two or !
Tree well-fad preachers with thair
ives were TO spend the night at our
suse. When supper was. over there l
ere no fish nor anything else left for I
boys, for whom there was no room q
the table, SO while our parents were d
Isy entertaining the visitors we z
cared the table, washed the Dishes {
oked some hasty pndding and ate il !
ith sorghum. q
On another well-remembered day P
nen . strange preacher stopped OverI 2
lnday with us and IN honor Of his s
ming two old hens had been fricas- -
ed. The visitor said grace and whiIeHf
III his "Amen" unspoken, boyishi =
es discovered that the preachers :
es were devouring the platter fun ) j
chicken. AS his sonorous voice :. :.
unded out the accustomed grace his :,
nd shot out and picking mp the top q
Ate Of the pile hi frontof father Osfff 1.
est extended the plate ready for q
theirs helping as hsS said @Give me "a
lite meat and all you can spare Of d
On another occasion my youngez d
other and were brought in. prdbc IL
" il was Monday and we had clean
rments on, and introduced to a ca th
verous old fellow with a chin whis- Gl
r and the most cruel looking mouth NJ
sver saw We sat down not know
! what 70 say while be glared at as. Va
} aQuirTaed and wished ourselves do
my miles away. Soon he rolled his be
ss, then stared me out Of counten- 81
e and the next minute like the ve
Of doom came the aw- Y,
words, ~SOnny. have you made -
ir peace with Gawdf" pp
In instant later I had gone through q
French window near me and nay =
niger brother was hard at my heels.
expected 70 receive severe beat ~
be6ore we went 20 bed but for -
ne reason my father never heard OF
occurrence.