Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-07-06

cent. I remember my mother said:
Homer, I wish you didn't have to
60 of to the city with a hole in
your telescope"
My mind races away to St. Joseph
where I saw my second street-oar
and I think Of something that hap
pened, later, when I came to have
as a friend the man who invented
the electric streetcar, Frank ].
Sprague, and he told me this street.
car line was the second in the United
States.
We 60 into "Renzo Davis " room.
Two sacks Of shelled corn are on
the floor. 1--WE don't dare leave our
hybrid at the barn." says Spide.
Mice"
"This room should be papered,"
says Nellie.
From room to room we 60, and
from place to place, then outside.
The kitchen foundation is getting
weak in the knees; we'll have to
have the cement man out.
We 60 into the basement under
the parlor, and I think of the time
my father got the acetylene gas
craze and had a machine installed
in this cellar room. The machine
was supposed to dump pockets of
carbide into the water and make gas
for our lights. One night the ma
chine didn't work and Pa told me to
take the lantern and go down and
see what was the matter. I came
into this room, opened the machine
and peered into its depth, aided by
the lantern. Suddenly there was an
explosion and I was knocked as fiat
as a dolly.
In the back yard, behind the
new house, is the house where I
was born. If there are any chickens
in it, I'll wiring their necks. Thank
God! there aren't. In the floor is
the augurhole where I used to see
the water drain off and wonder
where it went; and under the clock
shelf is the very nail where our
Hostetter's Almanac hung. And a
little to the left is the wall where Pa
Kept the International Harvester cal
endar, with circles around the dates
when the cows would freshen.
Then to the henhouse. The roof
leaks. don't know why it is, but
henhouse roofs always leak. Put
that down, too.
We have supper and that evening
the neighbors come in. the bows
and girls I've grown up with; and
with them their children. And, here
and there, a grandchild. It just
doesn't seem possible. But there
they are, staring popeyed as if
was Rip Van Wrinkle. We talk about
the weather and crops, just as we
used to; and how the schoolteacher
is panning out. Then about what
the government says we'll have to
do next. That's all new. And puz-
cling. But on the good side. Our
farmers like what the government is
doing.
They know about the tall build
ings, for they've seen them in the
movies; but the subway is different.
When l tell them that the train I
60 to Washington Heights on, runs
three miles under the ground with
out stopping, they glance at each
other again. Well, let him talk.
His father and mother tried hard
enough.
After my lilies" are over, the con-
versation again swings back to
neighborhood matters. Mysterious
ly Nellie and Opal get up and tiptoe
out and there is a blinking in the
kitchen. Refreshment time; pretty
soon we are eating ice cream and
homemade cake. Not ice cream
made on the back porch, in a salt
water freezer, but fetched out from
town. And not as good, either.
The children are getting restless.
It's half-past nine Why, we haven't
been up that late since Grandpa died.
After while they've gone and
the house seems lonely and empty
just as it did when I was a boy.
A train whistles in the distance and
an exquisite agony lays hold of me.
And now, as lie in my old room,
I think: Some day I'll be no more,
and when that day comes I'd like
to have my ashes sprinkled on the
farm.
The next day we go in to trade,
but now it takes only few minutes
to clip off the six miles. What
wouldn't I have given if old Dave
had had six cylinders? It's a farm
ing town, the guidebooks say, then
add: "Industry-none." They're a
little off, for there's the lightning
rod factory. A dozen people en-
ployed there, counting, of course,
the Office workers. You're nobody if
you're not proud of your home town.
We have some "names" that we're
proud of-men who were born in
the county and who have distin-
guished themselves. There's George
Robb Ellison, judge of the Missouri
Supreme Court. Remember men,
toned a boy who went to Harvard
and came back with feather-edge
uor b,< xr,o-