56 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



do you suppose my wife and sons thought of it, arriving on a winter's night in the 

 center of a patch of brush, an open house and no lire? I will never forget the sad 

 and forlorn looks. "Why, father, whatever possessed you to come away down 

 here after passing through to much beautiful country and landing right here in a 

 dense forest ?" 



Well, I had to get out of it the best way I could. I told them to withhold 

 their verdict until morning came, I'd show them the apple-trees that had been 

 full of apples, and the nice high location on a road that w-as just lined with teams 

 all the time. "And," said I, "you have no idea what a beautiful city we came 

 through." (The evening before was Sunday and everythin:^ was quiet, and a very 

 dim gas-light then lighted our city.) 1 had visited the Vernon county fair in 

 September, and had selected several hundred of the lluest specimens of fruit that 

 I could get, and shipped them to my family; told them that was the kind of fruit 

 Missouri produced, and that we would soon have plenty of it; told them of the 

 coal-fields all over the county. Then, just think of the timber : no freezing to 

 death like we were used to in Nebraska. I told them to think back a little, to 

 think of the water freezing in the tea-kettle with a hot fire in the stove. We 

 couldn't have those big logs like them in the fire-place, for the mansion was sup- 

 plied with an old-fashioned fire-place and rock chimney. Then soft words had 

 their effect, and all went to bed happy and contented. 



When the morning came a general look was taken. The day was beautiful, 

 but when we came to the brushy part of the farm, "Well, do you think we will 

 ever get all them brush and all them, big stumps off"?" Well, I tried to console 

 them by telling them that it had been done. I said it looked pretty tough to a 

 tenderfoot from Nebraska, but I said I think we have some nerve left yet ; besides 

 it was a ground-hog case with us. We could sell the wood for groceries while we 

 were doing the work. So in a few days the boys concluded to make the attack, 

 and with axes in hand they began to slay the saplings right and left. If you had 

 heard the licks you would have been reminded of the cannonading of Ft. Sumter- 

 They worked for a day or two cutting off" the small trees about three feet above 

 the ground. 



Presently a neighbor, an old Kentuckian, came along from Grubtown. " What 

 are you doing here, boys ? " "O, we're grubbing out this timber," was the prompt 

 answer. ' ' Well, 1 reckon you don't call that grubbing ?" " Yes, sir, that is what 

 we call it." ' 'Well, let me go to the house and bring out the grubben hoe and I'll 

 give you a lesson in grubben. Didn't you ever see any grubben done?" ' 'I'd like 

 to know how you see grubbing done in Nebraska? Why, it's a $'60 fine there for 

 cutting down a sapling. Probably you have heard of the thousand mile tree? — 

 out on the overland route to California that passes through Nebraska? Well, 

 thousands of people have gone to see that tree." This set the old gentleman to 

 thinking, and off he went and soon returned with the implement. The boys braced 

 themselves against a tree, for they did not know what was coming, but after a few 

 strokes from the old gent they began to get some light on the fine art. After a 

 dozen or two small black-jacks and pesky run-oaks were j^.xtracted the Kentuckian 

 said: "Now, boys, there is a sample. Of course this is very light grubbing; 

 these grubs are not thick, not more than a grub to a square foot." "A grub to a 

 square foot ! " exclaimed the boys, ' 'well, there are over 40,000 square feet to the 

 acre.'' You see the boys understood arithmetic if they didn't grubbing. "Well, 

 now, do you think this ground has all got to be torn to pieces like that ? Why, it 

 will all be worn out before the first crop is planted." "Well, I'll say this, young 

 man, if you ever expect to raise anything you have got to grub it, that's certain 

 Next day the boys procured the necessary implements and commenced work. 



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