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the awl with my chest and was turning the awl on my toe
nail. I said, "See how hard my toe nail is?" About
that time the awl went through my toe and into the floor! I jumped and
grabbed my toe. I had to pull the thing out of my toe. I hollered, "I'm
dying!" I never bothered my brother any more while
he was mending shoes!
THE NEW HOUSE Pa built the new house and two stick chimneys. They were good while they were new, but when they got old they gave us trouble. The dirt would wash off the sticks, and they would catch fire. IN A LOGGING CAMP When just a small child my older brother took on a job of punching cattle with a big logging company. One Saturday he came out with a yoke of his cattle to buy feed for his cattle. He stopped by our house and had dinner with us. He began to prevail on my Pa and Ma to let him take me back with him to his logging camp. He said he would see to it I would be in good hands; that I would not get hurt. Finally Ma gave her consent and pretty soon we were on our way into those swamps. I was so anxious to get going I thought what fun it would be to ride on an ox wagon and have three yoke of cattle pulling the wagon. It was a lot of fun till we got to the high water. The water was from knee deep to deep enough to swim those steers. I remember quite well wanting to go back home. I had all of this deep water I wanted! My big brother would hold me tight and tell me we soon would be on dry land. I could see water as far as my eyes could see. My brother did not have a line on the steers. He would just talk to them and they would mind him. It took a long time for us to reach his logging camp. When we finally got to his camp it was a sight to see him feed those cattle. He chopped up one half bushel of corn to each steer. That was sixty ears of corn. One hundred and twenty ears to the bushel! 21 |