pages 147-149

Pages 147-149

                My sister put on an apron over her pretty dress she looked so nice in.  Then seated herself at the piano to practice some of the new pieces of music.  I basted the meat a time or two more.  Then lifted my cake out, put it to cool while preparing a quick icing.  We just about had the dinner ready when the men folks arrived. The grandchildren came running to meet their daddy.  They grabbed him by the hand and said,  “Come on mama has supper ready and it’s something you like.”  Thus he was hustled away without much chance to talk. Soon though he came back for two buckets of water.  That was one advantage they had over Jim and I.  They didn’t have to have a cistern.  Shirley Creek ran through our place too but by the time it got  there the stream was quite small and the water not very good for drinking or culinary purposes.  It was wonderful for stock water though. 

                The evening passed much the same as usual with father reading the paper and mother mending a pair of sox.  We girls were doing the dishes.  And always had lots to talk about when we worked together.  We seemed to be having such a good time.  Jim came out to see if he could get in on it, so we handed him a dish towel too.  Then sister said, “that let’s me out.” And went in to the living room.

                Later Jim and I walked down by the corral gate.  Billy Fortune with his head over the gate, whinnied there in the August moonlight and nuzzled my hand for the sugar I had brought him.  He was growing into a well made hose with his three white feet, star in his forehead, sleek black hair, tail and mane.  And a small white dot on his nose.  He showed the lines of his Hamiltonian ancestors breed.  That of a racing horse with his long keen slim legs and thin slim hips.  He was really beautiful standing there. 

                We stood there for some little time, petting and rubbing his sleek sides, for he seemed to enjoy it.  We left hand in hand for the walk up to my brother and sister-in-law’s.  The twin was doing extra good.  He was now three months old and my sister-in-law seemed to feel better and much happier than she had been.  She said, “things are working out better now.”  My brother had bought a cow so they were having all the milk the children needed.  We sat visiting for some time.  Just before we left my sister-in-law brought in each a piece of pie and a glass of milk.  I kept watching through the window to see if my folks had turned the lights out and gone to bed but they knew where we were and were not worrying.

                As we started home I started running down the hill.  Jim had a time catching up with me.  When we got home we found the folks had gone to bed but the light was burning in the living room.  We had no electricity, just coal oil lamps but they made a nice bright light.  I put the lamp on the kitchen table for Jim to blow out when he came in.  Then I went on upstairs to bed.

                The next day Jim hitched onto the drill and seeded the valley by our house to fall wheat.  I believe they called it gold coin, a new kind of seed wheat.

                Father had some time off, so he worked on our cupboards which we were quite happy about.  Thrashing machines could be heard over the country side.  Ranchers were getting their wheat into the sacks.  It had been a bountiful harvest.   As they thrashed the grain was put in hundred pound sacks and hauled to wheat elevators at Declo or Burley flour mills.  They used from four to six head of horses on these wagons and would take a load in one day, stay overnight to rest the horses and return the next and load that evening for another trip.  They made the round trip every other day.

                I was tempted again to climb that mountain by our house.  For it always seemed to have a defying look.  Each time I glance toward it.  Old Toby was at my heels.  He seemed to sense I had ideas of going places that morning.  Mother was down about a mile from the house herding her turkeys.  I walked down where she was and there just below a ways was a large cherry tree much larger than most of the wild ones and the cherries more like tame ones.  They were getting blacker and riper as the hot August sun bore down on them.  Coming back mother said,  “I see you found it.”  “Yes, I replied, “aren’t they nice?”  She said we’d make jam and jelly from these.  Mother was rounding up her turkeys when Toby jumped in the middle of them.  What a clatter! Turkeys gobbled and flew in all directions.  Mother left the turkeys alone for a while to take care of Toby.  She held a stick behind her and called to him.  He came in a subdued manner, almost crawling on his stomach.  Mother took him by the ear and asked “Is this what I feed you for to make work for me?”  He seemed so repentant, mother didn’t whip him only scolded.  He stood by whimpering and wanting to help but not daring to move as mother and I got the birds back together.  I gave him credit for more intelligence than I figured he had.

                Such a lovely day.  I was enjoying all of it.  Here we found a shady place by the creek so we sat watching the turkeys.  Toby layed down at our feet.  Still in a remorse state.  After an hour or so of watching the turkeys picking grass and gulping grasshoppers by the dozen, Toby lifted his head, raised his ears to listen, then began to growl.  At the same time the turkeys stopped and began to gobble acting excited.  Toby jumped to his feet , ran toward a small ravine.  Soon we heard growling and yipping and we knew Toby was in trouble.  Picking up a stick I started in the direction Toby had taken.  I hadn’t far to go when I could see Toby being held at a distance by two snapping snarling coyotes.  Being the time of year in the heat of summer when rabies was prevalent among them  I wasn’t in for letting them bite Toby so I stayed back a ways prevailing on Toby to come back.  As Toby turned toward me they jumped, snapping and snarling with full force at him.  About that time I tossed a rock in their direction causing them to turn tail and high tailed up the canyon.  I continued to throw rocks as long as I could see them which wasn’t long.  For a coyote in flight is something pretty fast.  Some distance away they turned and let out the most weird cry.  It even made the turkeys panic but as luck would have it they headed for home.  Mother and I just followed being thankful Toby went along for mother would have been minus some turkeys.  As we drove them though the corral Billy Fortune came close nuzzling my hand for sugar.  Toby was treated to a scrumptious feed with a few extra pats on the head.  That evening Father brought home two cats some folks had given him.  They were pretty kittens and we petted them a lot all to Toby’s dislike.  He tried being friendly to the cats but all to no avail for each time he advanced toward them they would rear back on their hind feet with claws bared, teeth showing and cat-like growls and snarls.  He’d backed away since he’d had porcupine quills in his nose.  So the mutual understanding between Toby and the cats never did materialize.  Toby went on about his business as usual, doing his chores like keeping the geese out of the garden.  They liked to walk down the rows and with their saw-like bill s snip off the tender green leaves of the vegetables.  After Toby had seen us drive them out a time or two he took the matter upon himself.  A fight of course always ensued.  The gander with his bill wide and hissing with wings beating the air came at Toby and when he finally got around to nipping Toby’s tail with his saw like bill that was too much.  Toby would howl with pain and go after the gander making the feathers fly in all directions.  Then mother would intervene to save the gander’s life.  I didn’t’ blame Toby for he was really mean with the bill of his.  Once I was standing in the yard not knowing he was any place around until I felt him nip my leg.  That spot stayed black and blue for a long time.  So I knew what Toby’s tail felt like.  Toby never gave up guarding the garden though.  He seemed to think it was his sworn duty and also the place where we got our water for household use was a favorite place for the geese to paddle and Toby didn’t intend letting that happen either.  Toby became a very valuable dog.