The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1947-10-23

usual fall scenes; SHOCKS Oh corn In
the fields, pumpkins, leaves turning
beautiful red and yellow. One of
our first thoughts of October is Hal
Ioweenl This is the month when
we store our swings and other porch
furniture; when we make sure
house shutters are securely fastened;
automobiles put in the garage every
night; it is the month of COLLINS and
witches. We can see our parents
solemnly shake their heads and hear
them say, when we were boys"
But they were pranksters too and
thoroughly enjoy telling of their adj
ventures and narrow escapes.
One of the favorite tricks of the
boys was to hunt the fellows who
had dates on Sunday eve. Usually
the horse and buggy would be hit
ched to the hitching post outside the
yard fence. A number of the boys
would move the buggy over to the
fence, remove the two wheels, slip
the axle through the fence and then
put the wheel back on. Of course
when the "beau" was ready to de-
part he had a nice little job on hand.
Speaking of dates in the horse and
buggy days-my Grandmother used
to tell about her own. She says my
Grandfather used to keep COM
pany" with her every two weeks
mind you that was after their en-
gagement. If he saw as much as
one cloud in the sky he didn't come.
Clouds don't count these days
Moving farm machinery was an
other Halloween sport. Making
sure the farmer had retired, the boys
would move hay wagons and other
farm implements out in the fields,
or along the roads, or to some other
farm, and in the morning the farm
ers would go around gathering to-
gether and sorting their machinery.
On one occasion the boys decided
to put some on the barn roof. No
one was around to interfere so the
hay wagon was taken apart. Every
thing was taken off that could be
removed, ladders were brought and
they went to work getting the wagon
to the barn roof After many strug-
giles they succeeded in getting the
wagon up and reassembled it to-
gether again. This sure was putting
it over on farmer Brownl Down
the ladders they climbed and were
preparing to leave when a figure
stepped from behind a shed carrying
a gun. 1t was farmer Brown.
That was nice work boys, now
get the wagon back down" They
did.
Another story which came to me
was that of Mr.. Smith, Sunday
School teacher. Smith was known
as a congenial fellow and was well
liked by every one, including his
class of boys. His class, which con-
sisted of group of ten boys about
the age of twenty, knew Smith to be
one who practiced what he taught.
Well, the story goes that three of
these boys, who were always out
for a good time, decided to play
trick on him. Now Mr. Smith
owned some chickens which were
his pride and joy and previously
won some prizes on them at the
Fair, The boys thought it would be
fun some dark night to take few
of these simply to excite him, and
of course return them few nights
later. So one dark night these
three. boys made their way to the
Smith residence taking great care
they were not seen or heard. In
those days lots of people didn't
bother putting their chickens in the
chicken house at night, they would
simply let them take to the trees.
Look SAM" said one of the boys,
your legs are longer than ours; you
climb the tree and hand them
down" But while Sam was climb
ing the tree the other two boys
heard noise and getting scared,
slipped away leaving poor Sam to
his own destiny.
"Are you ready boys?" said Sam
Lets CO." whispered a voice AL
right here comes the first one. This
is Father Smith! Do you have it?
Here comes another one. This is
Mother Smith! Now, one more.
Here you are and this is Betsy
Smith. I'm coming down now"
When Sam got down he could find
neither boys or chickens. Later,
when he found the rest of the gang,
everyone was greatly puzzled as to
who had received the chickens.
About two weeks later Mr.. Smith
invited his Sunday School class to
his house for dinner. Along with
the other good things tn eat were