Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-03-23
CHAPTER TX

oAuAld1y HullL. DuI THeDe hIleW IlOW
and would 60 from one to another,
arranging patches and making sug-
gestions. And now, as the days
quilting drew to climax, there
would be great hubbub as they
tried to decide which color of thread
went with which patch and what
kind of stitch to use. But Phebe
knew. She wouldn't fancy stitch at
all herself, because she would be
too busy showing others. Ma would
come in and stand in the back
ground handing out patches and
picking up the chalk when it rolled
off on the floor.
Phebe would lower her voice.
"Aunt, where do you want the cam
paign ribbon to go?"
In the middle" Ma would say.
The women's voices would fall
away to hush, because they all
knew what the campaign ribbon
meant.
It could not be finished in day;
sometimes it took a woman years,
working alone winter evenings, to
complete her crazy quilt. But it was
helped along, and the women all
wanted to say they'd had a part
in the quilt.
They would begin looking out the
window to see if the men were
coming. There's Newt" Mrs. Ken
nedy would say. One by one the
men would arrive and stand in the
lot talking to Pa, never dreaming to
60 to the house.
One by one the carts and buggies
would leave. Mrs. Gerilda Knabb
would come out, but there would
be no surrey now, so I would have
to 60 to the granary and get two
sawhorses. I would try to maneu-
yer her horse up, but he had been
standing all day and wanted to get
home. Mrs. Knabb, standing on top
of the saWhorses, would shout,
whoa! Whoa! Stand still now!"
and would shout, too, to the pranc-
ing horse. Ma and Phebe would
hear us shouting and would come to
the door and begin calling warnings
to Mrs. Knabb and instructions to
me. And now, with everybody shout
ing, the horse would prance more
than ever. Finally Pa would come
up through the hog lot and take hold
of the bit, and I would help Mrs.
Knabb and pretty soon she would
be on and going toward the main
road, pulling and saving at the
frisky, snorting animal.
Homer, take down the frames"
Ma would say, once more coming
into charge.
The people in our section took few
papers, but the ones we did take
were read and reread and stacked
in a pile and treasured. We even
kept our mail-order magazines. That
was the final test.
Everybody tried to subscribe to
the home weekly, but there was
pinch; it was $l.50 a year. When
Pa went to town Saturday and asked
for the mail, there it would be with
Pas name written across the top in
lead pencil. We couldn't wait till
we got home, so Ma would put on
her glasses and read snatches aloud
as we jolted along in the hack. But
it wasn't until after the chores
were done, and the lamp lighted,
that we really tore into it. Item by
item, then. After nearly every one
there was a discussion. Ma would
read a name, and there would be
silence. Then Pa would say, "Why,
I saw him not three weeks ago."
Everybody took farm paper Or
nearly everybody. Wallaces' Farm
.er was the most popular. but The
Iowa Homestead was on its heels.
And there was The Mail and Breeze.
But hardly any family took more
than one. Two dollars year, there.
Ma would read the Farmer aloud
and it opened up world the county
weekly didn't know existed. There
would be mention of towns we never
even heard of, far off places in Iowa
and Nebraska. Now and then there
would be mention of Ohio. Pa
would lean forward little.
Every family took religious pa
per. Ours was The Rams Horn.
Sometimes, of an evening, Pa would
be reading Wallaces' Farmer. Ma
would be reading The Rams Horn,
and l would be GREATNESS in The
Youths Companion. Especially in
Cracks End" by Hayden Carruth,
where the Indian came crawling
through the snow tunnel.
But there was another kind of
paper that everybody took. And
that was what we called "the mail
order monthly" The reason every
body took it was because it was
.cheap-twenty-five cents year.
Once the thing got coming, it kept
on coming. 1t was not like The
Youths Companion which gave you
two weeks notice and meant it.