796 
Tshe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 10, 1917. 
WOMAN AND H O M E 
When Jim Ferguson “Went Back” 
The Mechanic Turns Farmer 
By the Brown Owl 
Part IV. 
There were three cows to milk and 
9iy the same arrangement as during the 
previous Summer the milk was carried 
to the factory. At exactly six o’clock 
every morning, rain or shine, old Mike 
Tummins drove into Kate’s yard for the 
milk. The fear that she might be late 
robbed her of many a peaceful night's 
rest. She must not sleep a second after 
five, she knew', for to be late for old 
Mike would be a calamity. lie was one 
of tho.se men who delight in rising at most 
unearthly hours and .stalking through a 
sleeping house with his heavy shoes on ; 
Summer and Winter alike found Mike 
ready for business at 3 A. M. Kate was 
not late once that Summer, but the fear 
that she might be acted as an excellent 
alarm clock. 
Two of the cows milked easily enough, 
but the third, a dreadful little black one, 
had a maddening habit of holding her 
milk and then giving it so grudgingly, 
that many a time Kate was sure she 
never could get that cow milked in time 
for old Mike. When the cold weather 
came the milk was kept at home and 
Kate again made butter. That Winter 
was to be the last one for them to be 
alone, but it went slow'ly enough. The 
little boys were old enough now to ludp, 
and so they managed without hiring the 
chore boy again. 
On one of Jim’.s trips home he handed 
Kate a scrap of paper that had been torn 
from a page, and said: 
“When you go to town again, Kate, 
will you mail a dollar for a year’s sub¬ 
scription to that paper?” 
“What is it?” asked Kate, looking the 
grimy scrap over carefully. 
“I don’t know exactly,” answered .Tim. 
‘T found just a part of that page in a 
lot of old scrap paper in the mill one 
day, and there was .something that caught 
my eye, so I picked it up and read it, 
and say, it was a perfectly red-hot edi¬ 
torial. I tore off the corner ond I saw 
it had the address, so you just send for 
it. I want to see more of a paper that 
talks like that.” 
Kate copied the address on a clean 
piece of paper and here it was: 
The Kurae New-Yorker, 
.3.33 West .30th St.. 
. New York. 
And that is how The R. N.-Y. became 
one of the family circle in the Ferguson 
home, and ,7im often remarks that he 
couldn’t spare it any more than he could 
one of the children. 
The next Spring .Tim Ferguson g.ave 
up his job and went home to work his 
place. During the three years'^ he had 
been working away he had bought new 
farm tools to replace the old ones, and 
with two good horses he felt pretty well 
able to start in. There was a snug nest 
egg in the bank also, but Jim found that 
he would have to call on it at once for 
the necessary Spring expenses. 
Five years from that Spring found 
him still on his place. In that time he 
had learned many things besides how to 
plow. I’e learned that farming was a 
trade just as much so as civil engineering 
and carpentry, also that the fine farm 
w’ork of some of his farmer neighbors, 
that to an outsider so much resembled 
clockwork in its fine regularity, was the 
result of knowing that trade, and not 
merely reading government bulletins and 
a certain lot of “farm papers” that made 
a business of picturing even a field of 
cactus in actual dollars and cents, with 
little expense or work. 
Of course .Tim made mistakes, lots of 
them, but his neighbors, although they 
might smile at some of the things he 
did, always said that he was a “fierce 
worker.” After five years of farm work 
Jim found that his nest egg in the bank 
Avas nearly used up. Of course the place 
had been A'astly improved. He had four 
good cows, but the cost of feed was 
high, and the price of milk low, so that 
the actual profit on the cows was small. 
There had been enough to feed and clothe 
his family, which now numbered six, two 
little boys having been added to the 
flock. There was always a fine garden, 
and in the Fall plenty of beef and pork 
for the family. But the children were 
growing, and every year it was taking 
more and more to keep things running, 
and the Fergusons looked into the fu¬ 
ture and wondered how it would all come 
out. 
<-)ne lovely Spring morning the R. F. 
D. carrier left a letter in their box that 
had the address of old Mill No. 3 on the 
corner of the envelope. Kate looked at 
it a long time, and then went down into 
the garden where .Tim was at work. To¬ 
gether they walked over to the orchard, 
and seated under a tree that was load¬ 
ed with blossoms and honey-bees they 
read the letter. It was short and to the 
point. Jim was offerwl the position of 
foreman of his old depai'tment at a really 
fine salaz'y—answer by return mail. 
They sat a long time, each busy with 
much the same tlidugbts. Then .Tim 
up above them at the blo.ssom-laden tree, 
lie to.ssed his pencil and paper aside and 
together they laughed like happy chil¬ 
dren while they named over the advan¬ 
tages as well as the blessings of the 
country home that they both loved so 
well. 
Suddenly there was a crash and a 
light of glass from the henhouse window 
nearby rattled to the ground. "'I'here 
goes another pane of gla.ss,” but he 
.smiled as he .said it. “I’ll bet we 
bought more glass than any other man 
in this county.” .Tu.st then around the 
corner of the woodshed there appeared 
the very rueful face of a very small boy. 
Seeing his father and mother under the 
apple tree he stumbled along and threw 
himself into his father’s outstretched 
arms. 
“O daddy.” he cried, “Dat ole ’tone 
dus’ goed the wrong way. Me frowed it 
at dat tree way oder dare an’ it goed 
wite into dat window.” 
crazy? .Tust think of no more milking 
to do and no more taking the weather as 
it comes. Why man, that’s the kind of a 
job for you! You just bet if I had your 
trade and was offered a job like that I 
wouldn’t lose any time taking it.” 
.\nd this man was one of the most suc¬ 
cessful farmers on the road, and owned 
as fine a herd of cows as could be found 
in the whole county. 
There followed a pro.sperous season for 
the P''ergusons, but when everything had 
been made ready for Winter and the 
taxes paid there was not much of a 
balance left. 
Jim faced the .situation squarely. 
Something had got to be done to bring 
in more ^oney to meet the need's of his 
growing family. He could buy more 
land and keep more cows than was pos¬ 
sible with his lo-acre place, or he could 
go to work at his trade. Jim chose the 
job he kne- ■ the most about, found em¬ 
ployment in his line in the town only 
two miles away. This arrangement 
worked out very satisfactorily. Of 
course the job was not as big a one as 
he wa.s used to having, but the wages 
were more than enough to meet the ex¬ 
tra needs of the family. The stock was 
sold all but a horse and a cow, and the 
boys were old enough now to care for 
them. Not much regular farm work was 
attempted, but they still had their fine 
garden. For four years now .Tim has 
held his job in town and traveled back to 
his farm home every evening. The value 
of his place is steadily increa.sng, the 
boys are growing and make nothing of 
their two-mile trip to one of the be.st 
.schools in the State. 
Now that the price of milk had got to 
be somewhere near what it ought to be 
.Tim thinks that sometime he will p(!r- 
luips go back to farming. For the pres¬ 
ent, however, he thinks that he Avould 
better not make a change. Ilis advice 
to the prospective back-to-the-lander 
would be to “Live in the country if it 
is a po.s.sible thing for the sake of the 
health and happiness of yourself and 
family, but be sure to hang on to your 
job until you leai'u the other fellow’s 
trade as well as you do your own.” 
Tribute to a Pet Sheep 
“ Mollie is Dead ! ” 
She lived to be 14 years old, a long 
life for a sheep. Several year’s ago it was 
thought her usefulne.ss was over, but it 
was decided that she .should die on the 
farm she had served so well. In 1904, 
when the papers were full of the Roose- 
vclt-Longworth affairs she had her first 
lamb: it died, and she was presuaded to 
own a pair of orphan lambs named 
“Nick” and “Alice.” She readily adopted 
“Nick,” but “Alice” was always a thorn 
in the flesh. In all these years she has 
never but twice failed in raising twin 
lambs and lost only three; even in her 
old age her lamb.s were so strong. Nat¬ 
urally she had a little extra care, and the 
place under the hay chute where the 
clover leaves fell was her favorite. A 
creature of extraordinary intelligence, she 
always seemed to know what was said to 
her, and would come from any di.stance 
at the sound of a familiar voice. When 
the others hai)pened to get out, it was 
“Come on, Mollie,” and the rest would 
follow back to the place wanted. Truly 
dumb animals are missed and their lives 
of faithfulness and service give us food 
for thought. Mollie wasn’t a very large 
.sheep, a grade Shropshire, yet her lambs 
were always among those saved on the 
farm because of their wool and produc¬ 
tiveness. One of the touching things 
about Mollie was that v'hile her voice 
was the first to greet you, yet when she 
was ailing she never made a sound, and 
her death caused by an injui’y, while 
catching the others when shearing, makes 
the parting with her seem the harder to 
bear, and the fine lamb she leaves will be 
well eared for. H. B. Q. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
‘ Seated Under a Tree that was Loaded with Blossoms and Honey-Bees they Read the Letter 
fished a stub of a pencil from his pocket, 
and using the back of the paper began 
setting down figures. 
“MVll have to figure this thing down 
fine, old girl,” he said. 
“If we go we can sell the place to 
Morgan; Ave have a' standing offer for 
three times what Ave paid for it and 
the stock would bring quite a bit more. 
We Avouldn’t be afraid of running short 
of money any more.” 
“The children would be near school in¬ 
stead of traveling two miles to town 
through all sorts of Aveather.” 
Then Jim turned toward Kate with 
a smile and Avrote the simple item of 
“clothes.” “That means,” he said, "that 
Mrs. Fergu‘.( j couM h.'iA’e some pretty 
neAV clothes instra ■ of forever m.ikiug 
over ;he edd om'S. 'I'he work vo.i.d n. t 
be hard and I Avould k:ioAv right Avheie I 
was at every minute. There.” said .Tim, 
as he looked over the list, “I can’t think 
of any more advantages to be gained by 
going. Let's set down a fcAV of those 
Ave would have by staying.” 
“The spring Avater,” .said Kate. “You 
know the kind of Avater Ave used in L—.” 
Jim made a note of it and said, 
the garden, Kate.” 
“Yes and all this,” answered 
waving her hand out in front of her. 
.Tim looked out over the neAA'ly plowed 
fields, at the new green grass taking the 
place of that, that Avas dead and then 
‘Xnd 
Kate 
“As u.sual,” sighed Jim, as he haggf 
the little man tight, A vision of tl 
Avhole healthy romping noisy ble.ssf 
bi’ood came before the mind of the: 
mother and she said, “O Jim, Avhatevt 
would we do AA’ith those children in tl 
city noAv? It would be like shutting u 
so many Avild birds in a little wire cag( 
They would just die without their fre( 
dom.” 
They certainly were a lively lot c 
youngsters. They tramped through th 
fields, knew all the birds and Avild flow 
ers, and enjoyed every minute of thei 
waking hours as only healthy happ 
country chiWren can. They Avere learr 
ing to lead simple useful lives, wher 
each day was crowded so full of real en 
joyment that there was no time even t 
think of movies or soda fountains. On 
thing that the town and city parents ar 
going to realize after a W’hile is that th 
majority of the moving pictures are i 
greater menace to the morals of thei 
children than the reading of dime novel 
ever was, : nd they w’ere pretty bad. 
That eA'ening a neighbor dropped ii 
to visit a while Avith the Fergu.sons am 
Jim handed him the letter to read. Tin 
man greAV excited at once and said 
“lYhew, but there’s a fine job for you 
AYhen do you go?” 
“I’m not going,” quietly answere( 
Jim. 
“Not going! Why, man alive, are yoi 
