Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-04-06
CHAPTER XII


get horses down, you need to get the
names off in a hurry"
Have you got an indelible pen
cil?"
1t wouldn't be long till the harness
would be in our wagon and we'd be
on the way home. Once in while
Pa would turn around and look
proudly at the harness.
When we got home, he would call
for my mother to come out and see
what he had. He would hold up the
harness and she would say it was
very fine harness, indeed. OF course
she didn't really know. But Pa liked
to have her look at it, anyway.
My mother was not only the "qui-
etest" teacher I have ever known,
but, as have said, one of the most
effective. About this time there
came one of those periods when ev-
erything seemed to go wrong. The
sows were roofing under the fences
and getting out, and the steers had
MARBLES. There was a sudden squat
and the head" on our windmill was
broken. This seemed the last straw.
1t meant that we would have to
make trip to town. if the machin-
,ery-store owner didn't have head
to fit, he would have to write to
Chicago and there would be a wait.
Meantime, I would have to pump
water for the cattle by hand. 1t
soured me on life.
My mother watched us feeling sor-
ry for ourselves, watched us MOON
ing over trivials. Sunday dinner was
usually happy time, but today we
hardly talked at all. Another batch
of sows was probably out. Tomor-
row I would have to hill the sweet
potatoes. Then 60 and pump water
for those damned cattle. They'd
probably get blackleg and die before
we could sell 'em.
Ma broke her silence. 'It's nice
day. Let's all go down and visit the
Poor Farm "
The inmates were supposed to be
at their best on Sunday. But what
a best! There were about thirty sit
ting in the yard, or rocking on the
porch, or puttering around. There
y
it had cylinder so that the squirrel
could run round and round. Two
or three of the old people were
watching the squirrel, for it was al
most the only thing they had in the
way of entertainment. There was a
boy about my age, a paralytic, who,
when he walked, dragged one foot.
A bell rang, later; from all over
the yard the wretched people got up
served as dining hall. An old man
was in wheel chair, but he could
not propel it himself and had to de-
pend on others. So l laid hold of
the chair and pushed him over the
CRASHES, hard-packed yard and up
kind of ramp into the dining hall.
Then into corner of the room where
lapboard was leaning against the
wall. Picking it up, he placed it
before him and waited for the other
inmates, who acted as walters, to
bring him something to eat.
After supper the poor old wrecks
went back to their places on the
porch, or on the benches in the
yard, with nothing to look forward
to till the next meal. Those who
didn't go had to stay and help wash
the dishes.
As Pa and Ma and Phebe and 1
walked about the yard, we could see
the miserable old people washing
dishes and hear them banging the
pans. One by one, as they finished
their Jobs, they came limping back
to the porch and to the benches.
Someone had got into another's seat
and a quarrel arose. First one per-
son spoke, taking sides; then some
one answered; pretty soon they were
all quarreling.
One old man had an evil-looking
pipe. He had whitfield piece of
wood into a sort of tamper which
was tied with string and dangled
from a button on his coat. He
fished some crumbs of tobacco out
of his pocket and tamped them down
with his little wooden stick.
At last we started home, depressed
by the sights we had seen. Little
by little, as we got away from the
place, we began to talk. More cheer
fully Ian we had talked in days.
When we sat down to our own
Sunday supper, our low spirits had
mysteriously disappeared. We
laughed and joked as we hadn't done
in days. The steers still had war;
bles, the sows were probably out,
the windmill head wouldn't be along
for days. But that was all right.
It seemed to US we were the luckiest
people in the world. Nothing had
changed. Only ourselves.
My mother, sitting at the end of
the table by the kitchen, looked at
us chatting and laughing, but said
nothing. That was her way.