10
THE COURIER
i
1 1
THE JININ' FARMS.
By EUGENE FIELD.
YOU eee Bill an' I wuz jest Hkn brothers; wuz raised on jinn'
farms; bo wuz bis folks only child, an I wuz my folks' only
one. So, uat'ril like, wo growed up together, lovin' an'
smypathizin' with each other. What I knowed, I told Bill, an' what
Bill Knowed, he told mo, an what neither on us knowed why, that
warn't wuth knowin'!
If I hadn't got over my braggin days, I'd allow that, in our time,
Bill an I wuz jest about the sparkinest beaus in the township,
leastwise, that's what the uirls thought; but, to be honest about it
thero wuz only two uv them girk we courted. Bill an" I, he courtin'
ono an' I t'other. You see, wo sung in the choir, an' as our good
luck would have it, wo got sot on the sopranner an' the alto, and
bimeby oh, well, after beauin 'cm round a spell a year or so, for
that matter wo up an' married 'em, an the old folks gin us the
farms, jinin' farms, where we boys had lived all our lives. Lizzie,
my wife, had always been powerful friendly with Marthy, Bill's wife;
them two girls never met up but what they wuz huggin" an" kissin'
an' carryin' on, like girls does; for women aint like men they can't
control theirselves an their feelin's like the stronger sex does.
I tell you, it wuz happy times for Lizzie an' me and Marthy an"
Bill happy times on the jinin' farms, with the pastures full uv fat
cattle, ru the barns full uv hay an' grain, an" tho twin cottages full
uv love an' contentment! Then when Cryus come our little boy
our first an' oaly little one! why. when ho come, I wuz jest so happy
aii 60 grateful that if I hadn't been a man I guess I'l have hollered
maybo cried with joy. Wanted to call tho little tyke Bill, but
Bill wouldn't hear to nothin but Cryus. You see, he'd bought a
cyclopeedy the winter wo wuz married an had been readin' in it uv
a great foreigh warrior named Cryus that lived a long spell ago.
"Land uv Goshen, Bill!" sez I, "you don't reckon the baby '11 ever
get to bo a warrior?
"Well, I don't know about that,"' sez Bill. "There's no tellin'."
At any rate, Cryus Ketcbam has an uncommon sound for a name;
so Cryus it must be, an' wen he's 7 year old I'll gin' him the finest
Morgan colt in the deestrick."
So we called him Cryus, an ho grew up lovin" an" bein' loved by
everybody.
Well, along about two years ago or, say eighteen months or so
after Cryus como to us a little girl baby como to Bill and Marthy,
an' of all the cunnin' sweet little things you over seen that little girl
baby was the cunnin'est an' sweetest! Looked ju6t liko one of them
foreign crockery figures yer buy in city stores all pink an whitet
with big brown eyes here, an' a teeny, weeny mouth here, and a nose
an' ears, you'd have bet they wuz wax they wuz so small an' fragile.
Never darst hold her for fear I'd break her, an" it liked to skeered
mo to death to eee the way Marthy an' Lizzie would kind uv toss
her round an' trot her so -on their knees or pat her so on tho
back when she wuz colicky liko tho wimmin folks sez all healthy
babies is afore they're 4. months old.
"You're goin' to have the namin' uv her," sez Bill to me.
"Yes," sez Marthy, "wo mado it up atween us long ago that you
should have the namin' uv our baby like we had tho namin' of
yourn.
Then, kind uv hectorin' like for I was always a powerful tease
I sez: "How would Cleopatry do for a name? Or Venus? I have
been readin' the cyclopeedy, myself, I'd have you know!"
An' then I laffed one on them provokin' lads uv mine oh, J tell
ye, I was the worst feller for hectorin folks you ever seen! But I
meant it all in fun, for when I suspicioned they did'nt like my fun
nin I sez: "Bill," sez I, "an' Marthy, there's only ono name I'd love
above all tho rest te call your little lambkin, an' that's tho dearest
name on earth to me the came uv Lizzie, my wife!"
That just suited 'em to a T, an always after that sho wuz called
leetle Lizzie, an' it sot on her, th'it name did, like it was made for
her an' she for it. We made it up then perhaps moro in fun than
anything else that when the children growed up, Cryus an' leetlo
Lizzie, they should got marr'ed together, an' have both tho farms
an' be happy, an be a blessin to us in our old age. Wo made it up
for fun, perhaps, but down in our hearts it wuz our prayer just the
same, an' God heard tho prayer an' granted it to bo so.
They played togethor, thoy lived together; together they tended
the deestrick school an' went huckleberrin; thoy wuz huskin's an,
spellin' beea an' choir meetin's an' skatin' an slidin' down hill oh,
the happy times uv youth! an' all those times our boy Cryus and
leetle Lizxicwent lovin'ly together!
What made me start bo what made me ask of Bill ono time:
Are wo a-gettin' old Bill?" That wuz the Thanksgivin' night when,
as we set around the fire in Bill's front room, Cryus comb to us,
holdin' leetlo Lizziu by the hand, an' they asked us could they get
marr'ed next Thanksivin time? Why, it seemed only yesterday
that they wuz chicks together! God! how swift the years go by
when they are happy ears!
"Reuben," sez Bill to nm, "le's go down cellar an' draw a pitcher
uv cider.''
ou see, that bein men, it wuzn't for us to make a show uv our
selves. Marthy an Lizzie just hugged each other an' laffed an
cried they wuz so glad! Then they hugged Cryus and leetlo Lizzie
an talk an laff ? Well, it did beat all how thorn women folks did
ta'k and laff, all at one time! Cryus laffed, too, an' then he said he
reckoned he'd go out an' throw some fodder in to the steers, an Bill
an' I well, we went down cellar to draw that pitcher uv cider.
It aint for me to tell now uv the meller sweetness uv their courtin'
time; I couldn't do it if I tried. Oh, how wo loved 'em both! Yet!
once in the early summer-time, our boy Cryus ho come to me and
said: "Father I want you to let me go away for a spell."
"Cryus, my boy! Go away?"
"Yes, father; President Linkern has called for soldiers; father you
have always taught me to obey the voice of duty. That voice sum
mons me now."
"God in heaven," I thought, you have given us this child only to
take him from us !"
But then came the second thought: "Steady, Reuben ! You are
a man; be a man ! Steady, Reuben; be a man !'
"Yer mother," sez 1; "yer mother it will break her hea "t !"
"She leaves it all to you, father."'
"But the other the other, Cyrus little Lizzie ye know !"
"She iB content,"' sez he.
1213 0 STREET-
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OUR
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