Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-06-15
CHAPTER XXI

1t broke my heart to 60 back to
the farm. A succession of renters
had about stripped It; the cave
where we had hidden from the cy-
clones was falling in; the fences
were down, the hog pens my ia
Their had taken so much pride in
were ankle deep with filth; the corn
rows were green with cockleburs.
In a way, I was glad my father
could not see it.
I was tempted to sell it. But I
could not quite do that, for the feel
for a farm is deep and abiding;
especially if it is wrapped with ten
der youthful memories. No, I could
not sell it. Nothing could make me
do that.
A black shadow appeared. A men,
Der Of my family got into trouble
and wanted to put a mortgage on
the farm of So, 500. thought of what
my father had said as had sat on
the camel-backed trunk, but the
situation was so serious that the
mortgage had to 60 on. 1t was as if
a hand had squeezed my heart.
I came back to 10 Standish Road,
depressed. I looked at The Little
House with the Big Mortgage and
my heart went down again. AS so
often happens, this was the time my
stockwasup, when everybody thought
I was prosperous. My name was in
the papers, had sold the first talking
picture for Will Rogers at what ev-
erybody assumed to be whacking
price; and let them think so, un-
comfortable as sometimes felt.
Meantime there was that $210 a
month; and some months I was not
making that. How often they came
around! The Irving Trust Company
had the mortgage on both the lot and
the house. can still see those printed
forms that came snowstorming in
with the blank spaces filled in with
ink. If by a certain day, the money
had not been paid, an impersonal
voice would call up and say that we
had undoubtedly overlooked it.
: I was trying to write humor. In
all the writing business there is moth
ing so hard to sell. You'd think
every magazine would want humor;
and every magazine says it does.
But they don't buy it. Chiefly be-
cause no two persons ever agree
as to what is humorous and what is
pretty terrible. In a magazine Of
fee, among the manuscript readers,
there is always divided opinion;
so, usually, the editor plays safe by
taking something everybody agrees
on.
Finally the lane turned, but not
before it was almost at the preci-
pice. I got a new tenant for the
farm, Mr.. and Mrs. Spide Logan.
Thank God it was just in time! l
had known Spide when was boy,
but not very well. His first name
was nickname, but it had become
so universal that it took an old-timer
to know that he had another. He
had long legs, in his growing days,
and the boys had started to call him
Spider" finally it had shortened to
.Spide and Spide it still is. Never
had realized what a blessed differ
.ence a good tenant could make. We
drew up contract which said, in
effect, we were partners and we
would go share-and-share alike-fif-
ty-fifty-with certain provisions.
was to furnish the land and the
fences and the seed; he was to fur
,nish the power" which meant
horses, then, and the help to operate
the farm. The contract got down to
D. a finer point than that; for instance,
I was to pay half the fuel oil, if we
ever made enough money to buy a
tractor. Then a little twist in the
contract: was to get one-third of
the eggs. I did take it for
while-and thankfully, too-but final
ly told Nellie Logan the egg money
was hers.
The barn, which Pa had built aft
er the cyclone had whisked the first
away, was now noble ruin. When
you went in it, you ran a chance of
having it come down on you. One
tenant had fancied door, so the
door had departed with him. We
had to build new barn. How we
were going to build it, didn't know.
But that barn meant something to
me emotionally. l had played in
the old barn, had slept in it during
the haying season when an exciting
hired man told exciting stories. One
night storm had come up. I wasn't
quite brave enough to stay. But the
hired man did. You had to respect a
man ike that.
1t is truly astonishing what you
can do when you have to. But it
also makes a person feel that half
the time he is a pretty weak vessel.
The barn was to cost thousand
dollars. The sum was staggering.
I went to Joseph jackson, president
of the bank, and told him my trou-
bles and he drew up some papers
and after a while there was thou
sand dollars in the farm account. I