Songs of the Fields 



The (loorvard is filled with pear, ])luni, ajjple, 

 and some fine, hig walnut trees. The barn is of 

 logs; and at the door and all around tlie well and 

 watering-trough are beds of crushed stone. Across 

 the end of the house, facing the road, "father" 

 built a schoolroom. It was fifteen feet wide and 

 twenty long. There he taught the neighbors' chil- 

 dren in winter and dried fruit in summer. Just 

 back of the house a large meadow, tree-sprinkled, 

 stretches do^^■u to the road, and in the corner next 

 to the barn grow three willoMs so mighty that they 

 called me to them, — and so I discovered a home, 

 and "father" and "mother." 



In a little dip in the meadow near the barn 

 "father" planted those three willows thirty years 

 ago. "When they had gro\\n to sufHcient size to Comfort 

 make enough shade, because the barn was low and ^^'^ Stock 

 hot, he built this big feed-trough imder them, and 

 tlien he carried corn and grain to it. The trough 

 is six feet wide, eighteen long, and six inches deep. 

 One of the trees is nine feet in circumference, one 

 twelve, and one fourteen; and "all the birds of 

 the heaven make their nests" in these boughs, while 

 the trees sing unceasingly. The watering-trough, 

 that father always ke])t filled, stands along the side 

 of the yard fence next the barn. Tliere must be 

 forty acres of woods, from which trees have been 

 taken only for fuel and to let in enough light to 

 make the grass grow for pasture. 



24..5 



