1088 RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
P>RAi.\ Fag. —As tlie Parson begins to 
write this inornii ; he has a slight attack 
of brain fag. I sui)i)ose a Parson should 
never be weary or tired, but work as hard 
as he can six days in a week, and twice 
as hard as this on Sunday. Now, he is not 
coinplain'ng at all, but he is ju.st going 
to tell what he did to make him weary, 
lie consented some time ago to go way off 
The Pastoral Parson’s Church 
in another State to speak at a big com¬ 
munity gathering and town Old Home 
Day. The persons urging him to come 
were a mighty long way from being pov¬ 
erty-struck. J.ast year they had some of 
the big men of the country, but |:his year 
th«‘y had been told the Parson was just 
the man they wanted. The letter was 
urgent, and in an unguarded moment the 
Parson tumbled. Yesterday was the 
day. 
’I'liK Tuip.—I spent most of the time 
the day before getting ray “speech” into 
shape when there seemed to be everj thing 
to do on the farm, idother got up at 
daylight to get a bite to eat, and I left 
home on the early car. The Parson 
changed cars four times at four junctions 
before he took an auto for the last 10- 
mile lap. He worked on his address 
every minute of the day. At one place 
he had to hurry so up and down stairs 
and over four tracks that he nearly fell 
as he clung to the moving train as it 
pulled out. lie spoke for a little less 
than an hour as best he knew and was off 
for home. He had waits on the way of 
half an hour, two of <m hour, one of 20 
m'n*;tes and one of 25, and got home at 
just a quarter past eleven, having been 
on the go 18 hours, and on the road 14 
liours since he left. The farm Avork had 
st<iod still all day—the team in the i>as- 
ture—and the Parson got an offer of his 
expenses, which he took, and the thanks 
of the city folks’ committee, which, he 
trust.s, he earned! The lattei*, I suppo.se, 
droA’o home to their beautiful Summer 
residences in their great snorting autos, 
congratulat'ng them.selves on the great 
success of the day—financial and other¬ 
wise. Well they might! 
Another Letter.—T he Parson has an¬ 
other letter before him for just the same 
thing, and on a Sunday at that—and for 
the love of the country boy or girl he is 
going to go some way, and he should say 
that sometimes the people in their great 
cars seem to remember that the minister 
has to pay for Avhat he gets like other 
folks and that if his family looks a bit 
shabby—how the tongues would Avag! 
But he cannot help thinking how many 
times they seem to think faith can clothe 
and feed children just as easy as it can 
remove mountains, and it seems to. just 
about! 
Funerals.—T he Parson gives way to 
no man in his eagerness to help in time 
of sorrow and need, no matter how far 
away, and he speaks this more for his 
brothers than himself, for he is well 
paid for Avhat he does in more ways than 
one. But some things set us ministers 
to thinking a bit and people think it 
strange that ministers’ sons don’t fairly 
scramble to get into tbe ministry. There 
Avas a funeral some distance from here 
a wh’'le ago. The people were much bet- 
t^'i* off than the minister Avho attended the 
funeral; that is to put it mildly. They 
had 11 hacks at $5 apiece, bes'des a great 
onen victoria to carry the flowers over 
and above those hat could not be carried 
in the usual way. It took four young fel¬ 
lows besides the undertakers to load and 
unload the floAvers before the wondering 
gaze of the neighbors. One less back and 
a five to the dominie that night Avould 
ha\ e cheered him mightily as he went to 
buy something for supper for himself 
and little ones. When this same family 
saw the church solicitor coming they 
locked the doors and Avent upstairs till 
he had gone by. 
High Cost of Dying.—II oAvever 
much it may cost to live now, one cer¬ 
tainly cannot afford to die—speaking in 
all sei’iousness. When good old Bishop 
Williams of this dioce.se died, he directed 
that his body be put in a plain pine box 
and laid away with no flowers Avhatever. 
They had to make the box a little better 
than he directed, or it would not have 
held together. He was a great man and 
longed for plain and simple Avays. with 
no pomp or show. One day a friend felt 
it his duty to call his attention to his 
need of a neAV piiir of shoes. The Bishoj) 
gazed at his frayed and leaky pair long 
and solemnly. “There are plenty of men 
in Conecticut W'ho Av'ould be glad to step 
in my shoes as they are,” he remarked, 
and Avent on Avearing them out. 
A New Bust.vess.— Last time the Par¬ 
son was busy in the laAV business getting 
some quarreling neighbors to .settle out 
of court, and now he has been in the real 
estate business. A B. N.-Y. reader from 
New .Tersej' blew in Saturday looking for 
a farm. He is a duck and goose fancier, 
and has many kinds of chickens. He 
wants a farm with a nearby brook, and I 
rather doubt if any around here will just 
suit him. He has a trade and gets large 
pay in the shop. The Parson advised him 
to get not too big a place, and work part 
of the time, Winters, at his trade. That 
fiA^e dollars a day through the long Winter 
will be a great help, I can tell you. Do 
it at least till the frame is tooled and 
stocked and paid for. The factories are 
very decent now about giving the men 
Eureka sticks its head aloft and has be¬ 
gun to make ears, though none were ex¬ 
pected. The rain last week saved the 
flint corn planted on phosphate, and it 
is looking promising enough. Pretty 
nearly the whole farm is living on .sweet 
corn; we have it twice a day, and the 
bo.vs and the Parson eat all that Moms 
will let them. The cows are living on it, 
the pigs are living on It, yes, that one 
lone goose is living on it. Even Old Doll 
reaches over the fence and helps herself. 
We put in a lot, but not enough. One 
man down county has three acres of SAveet 
corn to fatten his hogs on. We shall 
plan to put in more next year, and haA^e 
it all near >the house or along the fence 
where it can be easily fed. 
A Doavn County Trip.— Sometimes it 
seems as though we never Avould get 
started on a trip. It was so last Sat¬ 
urday. The windshield of the auto Avas 
having a new glass, the radiator was be¬ 
ing soldered, and' the battery was be¬ 
ing charged. We could not get them till 
afternoon, and did not get home from the 
city till four o’clock. Then it Avas hustle 
to get off, for there Avere tvA’O parties on 
that night. We had the Ice cream all 
made up, which helped some. 
The Windshield. —We had AA-aited for 
nearly three years till we thought Ave 
could have a neAv glass in that shield. 
The old one only had a small piece out 
of the end and answered the purpose. 
Now AA'e Avere to have a ucav one. Of 
course AA'e Avere hurried in putting it in, 
and it did not want to go in, and suddenly 
a crack, and there it Avas—Avdh a crack 
doAvn the end again. How things do go 
sometimes! 
The Badiator.—Hoav radiators loA'e to 
leak. They fairly doat on it, and are 
neA’er so happy as when the Avater runs 
out as fast as you can pour it in. It was 
hard to get the connections Avatertight, 
and still harder to get the light Avires 
all connected up right. We had her all 
on Avhen we found the top rod Avas not 
in. and had to take her off again to start 
tills in place. 
The Battery. —Then in with the bat¬ 
Septemher l.l, 1917 
ries, and the horses pulled us over the 
hill, and we got home between 10 and 11 
that night. 
Working in the House.—Noav AA-ork- 
ing in the house and doing houseAvork 
are two quite different things. FeAV men 
take to houscAVork unless it is quite 
necessary, but about once in so often a 
man ought to turn to and Avork In the 
l.ouse.^ So many things a man can do 
so quickly and easily with a feAV tools 
that make such a difference with a 
Avoman's work. There’s the matter of 
flies. What a help to have netting tacked 
over the AA’indoAvs and not keep taking 
out and putting in these store screens! 
Then there is paintmg to be done. The 
Parson has stuck right to it, off and on. 
for more than a week. We used Avhite 
for the woodAA^ork of the chambers and 
a gray for the floor—mixing the paint 
ourselves. Dust grey is a fine color for 
floors, and so easily made by putting drop 
black into AvhHe. Put in plenty of drier, 
so it will harden up well. Be sure to 
patch up the bad places on the floor first 
and then by going oA’er the whole it will 
make a nice job. 
Casters.—T he Parson feels ashamed 
he has not fixed all those casters before. 
What a trial to move a bed with the 
casters worn flat or gone entirely! Mrs. 
Parson declared that two book cases 
Avould have to be relegated to the attic— 
she could not and AV'ould not move them 
any more to ti’y to clean behind them. 
As a rule she had to take out every book 
every time, and it was too much work. 
It cost just 40 cents, at the five and ten. 
to get roller-bearing casters to put on them 
so that a child Avould move them about. 
What a shame it had not been done be¬ 
fore ! A hard moAung bed is as exa.sper- 
ating to a Avoman as a coav in the corn to 
a r.ian—and can be fixed AA'hile you are 
setting a fence post. 
The Church.—H ere is a picture of the 
Pastoral Parson’s church. As you go 
info the front door you step into the 
reading and visiting room, Avhere men can 
smoke if they Avish. To the left of thi.s 
room is a room with a large dining table 
and cook stoA^e and cupboard. In that 
AAdndow upsta’TS is the room for games 
and dancing. Here is a piano and vic- 
trola and a floor as smooth as glass. 
Beyond both of the rooms is the church 
proper. There is a fine bell, but for a 
good Avhile Ave had no bell Avheel. We 
had a neAV one made, but a fire in the 
factory destroyed both it and the pat¬ 
tern. The Parson found a horse power 
belt wheel back of the corn barn up in 
Yermont, and shipped it doAvn and it was 
just the thing. 
F.ai.l Field Day.—I s your church go¬ 
ing to have a Fall Field Day? It Avas a 
fine thing for us last year, and aa’o shall 
haA'e qnother this year. The other picture 
shows you a load of us in the senior 
warden’s ox cart starting out to go from 
house to house to look over the farms, 
AA'h’le the Avomen AAore having a talk on 
cooking in the church. 
Next Time.—.\ nd next month Avill be 
a busy month. The potatoes Avill come 
out, if they ever stop growing, and the 
corn will be in the silo. The school Avill 
begin and the AAUiter AA'ill be let out of 
the swl.mmiug hole and we shall be eating 
in the house once more, and I guess the 
Parson will haAm to Avrite in his next, by 
the looks of things, that the boys’ potato 
plots yielded better per square rod than 
his. 
The Bed-cot Gardener 
I like The B. N.-Y. because it is a 
mighty big help to the backyard garden¬ 
er. Most of the agricultural papers over¬ 
look the little felloAv Avhose land is meas¬ 
ured in inches and not in acres. Last 
Spring Avhen I started, I knew very little 
about gardening; to be perfectly frank. 
I didn’t knoAV a thing about it; I couldn't 
tell the difference betAveen a dry hand 
milker and a spineless cactus, but with 
the aid of The B. N.-Y., a hoe and a 
feAV other things, I have raised from a 
garden no larger than an ordinary folding 
bed, 11 heads of lettuce, three quarts of 
potatoes, a handful or two or radishes. 
The Backyard Gardene and His Working Partners 
seven beets, several sjlisters and a coat of 
tan. In fact, my first venture has been 
so successful that next year I intend to 
increase my acreage by removing tbe gar¬ 
bage can and the ash pile, which will en¬ 
large my field by three or four feet. I 
hope that you Avill continue to give us a 
bright and cheerful paper, in the same at 
tractiA'e form, with all the new ideas and 
suggestions, as you have in the past. 
HARRY B. STILLMAN. 
In the Senior Warden’s Ox Cart Going to a “Field Day” 
time to Avork small farms or big gardens. 
Their help must have food. 
Some Good Ones.— He looked into the 
Parson’s henhouse. “You have some 
good I..eghorns there,” he said—emphasis 
on the some. He pointed out tAvo or 
three. The Parson admits his hens are 
good for nothing but to lay and be eaten. 
From just about 50 hens the second boy 
brings in around 50 a day. The other 
day he got 56 Avorth 60 cents a dozen. 
In the early morning I see them over 
on the Avheat field Avith the grasshoppers 
and at night they get some old corn on 
the cob. They are far and aAvay tbe 
most profitable thing on the farm. 
SoAviNG Wheat. —A great many are 
going to sow Winter wheat about here. 
The Parson will get his in next week. 
The potatoes seem determined never to 
stop growing. Most of them are still 
green and it is September. It looks like 
a big crop around here. The wheat must 
go in next week on the potato ground. 
If land has raised good potatoes it will 
need no further fertil’zer for wheat and 
only harrowing for cultivation. 
Soy Beans.— The Parson was persuad¬ 
ed to plant Soy beans in the corn—about 
half of it. He ' icd a hand planter and 
put them right close to the hill. I sup¬ 
pose they will make fine silage. But they 
haA’e groAAm fast and all fallen doAA’n and 
running about on the ground. It certainly 
will be a terrible job to cut the corn and 
get the beaus too. Then too, he has been 
able to sow no cover crop. He cannot 
run a cultivator without tearing the beans 
all up, and he wanted to put in cover 
crop the worst way. The land parti¬ 
cularly needs humus. He will have to 
be content to soav rye just as soon as 
the corn is off. We put some of these 
beans In the open, hoping for real Soy 
beans, but never a blossom on the farm 
as far as the Parson can see. Perhaps 
we got the “fodder” variety! 
Corn Is Kino.— u will remember the 
Parson said in the Spring he was not 
having a fit over this potato craze. He 
is certainly glad he went into com in¬ 
stead. Tbe crop is the best we have 
ever raised, or at least bids fair to be, 
Avith the frost holding off well. The big 
tery. We run the lights Avith a storage 
battery, and this is safer, and they don’t 
go out Avhen the car stops. We got her 
ail right Avhen Ave smelt a great burning 
and the smoke Avas com’ng out of the 
car in great shape. The horn AA-ires were 
literally burning up. Shelly, the oldest 
boy, and the Parson yanked out the wires 
again, and after much.trouble had to 
let the hoi'll go. The Avires would burn 
right up. There must have been a 
“short” someAvhere. It was late supper 
.und some IS miles to the first party. 
They Waited.—T he roads were bad, 
and Avhile at home Ave were parched Avith 
drought before Ave got there Ave were 
iiearly stalled in the mud. It was the 
fir.s't party I ever knew in that district, 
and I Avas doubtful of its outcome. But 
the children had begged me to come. “If 
any did come, it is so late the.v haA'e 
gone home,” I remarked. The lights 
flashed on the schoolhouse and there 
they Avere waiting. Two had wearied and 
gone home, but about 60 were on hand. 
Such a good time as we had! Hoav the 
ice cream and soda went! And then 
games in the yard. It Avas nearly 10 
when we pulled out for the next place. 
A Long Day.— At the church we found 
another party in full swing. We were 
hailed Avith a great shout—more for the 
ice cream, I take it, than for us! This 
gathering broke up just at 12 and when 
at a little before one Ave settled doAAm 
on the cots in the vestry room of the 
church we were tired enough. It had 
been a long and busy day. Things went 
f.i'rly Avell the next day till we were 
headed for the lest stop, Avhen going up 
a steep grade the car stopped. We had 
to let her back doAvn the h''ll and before 
Ave kneAv it Ave were in the ditch. There 
was so much stuff in the body behind I 
could not see over to see the road well. 
The gas would not feed into the car¬ 
buretor on so steep a grade. We jacked 
her out and lugged stones and all to no 
purpose. At the nearest house the women 
folks had gone for huckleberries. When 
AA'iU a woman leaA’’e a huckleberi'y patch? 
Did Ave not wait till plumb dark? They 
had picked 26 quarts that afternoon. 
Well, the Parson bought all their ber¬ 
