Prairieland Talk . . . Frets About Arkansas Snakes By ROMAINE SAUNDERS, Retired, Former Editor The Frontier __ .1*_ — LINCOLN—Idling away the passing moments seated on a bench in the ^hade of a tree, a little • girl came to sit with me. The faith and simple trust of a little child—why should life’s harsh ex periences in after years curdle the milk of human • , kindness and childish trust! She was a sociable little lady and about the first thing she confided in me was that I would not see her again, because her fam ily was moving to Arkansas. Said they did not have much money but her daddy and mamma both : worked hard to get enough for ' the move and to get settled in a new home. Both mother and fa ther will teach school where they are going. The little lady quite concerned about the snakes and snapping turtles she had heard about but would try to 'keep away from such, but still was a little fearful lest a rattle Romaine snake would get into their house! Saunders She confided in me that she was 5-years-old, next would be 6, then 7 and some day she would be big, get married and have babies, thought five would be the limit. I gave ner a dime and she scooted away to a nearby store. Presently, she came back with a bot tle of grape, sat by my side and in the course of a few minutes emptied that bottle down her 5-year old neck; meanwhile, keeping a weather eye to the rear and side for fear her brother would show up and demand a drink from that bottle. Bottle empty, the little miss took it back to the store, hoping to receive two pennies for it which she said she would give to me. * * * I An irrigation project in the McCook communi ty serves a territory 17 miles in length by three miles in width. Talking with a patriot from that part of the state recently, it was learned that the reports of crop and weather conditions out that way had been badly mixed with fiction. The gen tleman informed me the fruits of the ground were abundant and the community prosperous. Both Co zad and Brady taxpayers thought it their duty to provide, via bond issues, more and better facilities for the school kids. . .Among the tragis stories com ing over the air this Monday morning is that tell ing of the drowning of a Long Pine man in Enders lake. . .Lincoln has hung up the welcome sign for state fair visitors, but I don’t think you will have as much fun as you did down at Chambers as the Holt county fair came to life again. The first Holt county fair was held on the open prairie a mile east of a village called O’Neill in 1.884. * * * While out of the city earlier in the month, a pioneer Methodist preacher of Holt county died and was laid to rest in Wyuka cemetery in Lin coln. The deceased had lived in Lincoln in recent years. Some living in the Blackbird community today may recall when Reverend Kuntz was pas tor of the Methodist church there and at Min She was looking up at we branches of a lordly cottonwood that stood in a setting of silken-gowned bushes and reached its foliage-adorned arms heavenward. It was at an in tersection suburban bus stop., a moment to wait for the outgoing bus that would take her back to her down-town abode where stone walls and sun-heat ed concrete left no room for a blade of grass or a growing twig. There is a bit of pantheism or love of nature in most of us. The lady had gone to the very city limits to get away for a brief span from walled-in surroundings and where she could stand upon God’s green earth, walk among the flowers and trees and look up into the blue above. Then the bus rolled to a stop and the lady with whom I had talked of green fields and hospitable people on distant prairieland got aboard with a bit of wistfulness reflected in a parting look. * * * Mr. Spindler’s story of the battle of Wounded Knee recalls seeing some 10 years ago in a museum in a New England city the figure of an Indian on which was the buckskin jacket worn by Lieuten ant Bullhead, the Indian police who shot Chief Sit ting Bull and brought on the battle on the Pine Ridge known as Wounded Knee. The lady and gent in charge of the museum were told the story of the killing of Sitting Bull and the battle that fol lowed by the supervisior of this department and they looked at me in wonder. Whether it was be cause they were listening to a real Sioux Indian story or looking at a specimen from the Nebraska prairies I did not learn, neola. • * * A plutocratic Nebraska dairy concern pays money to go on the air with a glib salesman to tell the world that their “sweet cream” butter has been exalted to the clouds by the experts. You don’t know what the real thing is if you have never spread a slice of bread with country butter churn ed from sour cream. When I sat down to the din ner table at the George and Maude Meals ranch south of Atkinson recently, I went all out for the country butter and maybe the girls had to do a churning after my departure. * * • The Wesleyan Methodist church leaders came to Holt county to pitch their tent and establish a state camp ground. Camp meetings went out a generation or two ago and it may be this group will revive interest in open-air church services. The camp site is six miles east of At kinson And St. Joseph’s Catholic church in At kinson invites its communicants now to bow the knee in a splendid new church edifice. • * * The fellow who told his wife that he had turn ed down an invitation to dinner and dancing be cause he wanted to listen to the ball game will be up and around in a day or so. * * * While the United States is bringing up its youth to be air-minded, the communists seem to train theirs to be error-minded. Editorial . „ . Something Is Wrong Nebraskans are beginning to ask themselves: