The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Pastoral Parson and His Country Folks 
By Rev. George B. Gilbert 
Rainy Sunday.— Here it is Sunday 
night, and such a nice day we have had 
of it! Yesterday it was like Summer and 
Mrs. Parson entertained callers on the 
porch. The boys, among other jobs, took 
away the banking on the north side of the 
house—a sure sign of Spring! But the 
Parson awoke this morning to the music 
of an old-fashioned nor’easter. How it 
has blown and poured all day! A little 
time at the ’phone settled the matter of 
going off on any missionary trip to-day. 
In fact, it would have been impossible to 
have gotten the old car out onto the State 
road at all. The Spring mud was bad 
enough, but this flood on top of it was too 
much. 
Mrs. Parson Smiles. —Mrs. Parson 
wears a broad smile when a flood or a 
blizzard breaks on Sunday morning. If 
bad enough, it means the Parson will be 
at home and in the house at that. She 
is always wanting him to stay at home, 
and ever dreaming of the time when the 
children get bigger and able to help more 
and he will not forever have to be on the 
go. Sometimes the Parson, too, looks for 
that time to come, but he knows if he did 
stop swinging round the big circle of his 
friends he would miss them dreadfully. 
The Children. —A bad day for the 
children with this dreadful storm! ‘T 
wish I could bring over something today.’” 
said the oldest boy. hardly daring to tell 
it, “but I don’t believe you would want 
me to.” The Parson caught on in a min¬ 
ute. He wanted to bring over the big 
storage battery from the car. It had just 
been charged, too. But then, with their 
little motor, they would all have such a 
fine time all day. And shouldn't Sunday 
be the very best day of all days! So the 
Parson let them bring it over. What a | 
time they had with it. With their Meo- ! 
anno, they rigged up the greatest things. 
They had little trucks darting, like rats, 
about the house, fastened to endless string 
belts. The battery seems to be still over 
here in the house and after they are all 
at school tomorrow it will probably be up 
to the Parson to get it over to the car 
again and connect it up and have it tested 
out when again in the city. But then, 
what better use could it be put to? 
A Quiet Time. —The Parson helped 
about the house in the forenoon and w< i 
had such a good dinner! Mashed potatoes 
and smoked shoulder and friend onions, aud 
then we just lay around and sat around 
and played with Cliarlsie Boy all the 
afternoon. When have we done such a 
thing before! And how nice it seems. 
What a shame we don’t have more time 
to love and enjoy our babies! We all 
went over to do the chores together. One 
would have supposed there must be 150 
cows to milk to see the procession going 
to the barn. But there are three—one 
apiece! The Parson does not like to see I 
a man sit in the house and order the boys 
to go and do the chores. He misses the 
good time we have doing them together. 
The cows must be talked over and talked 
to and the baby calf and the baby pigs 
must be petted and scratched. George 
pounds up his corn with a big mallet and 
gets his eggs; 31 tonight, a rainy day; 
yesterday, 39 from (>0 hens. We have to 
buy nothing for them hut oyster shells. 
Easy Suiters. —We have many easy 
suppers lately. Tonight mother made a 
cornstarch pudding with whipped cream, 
and this, with milk and bread, was 
enough. We only had to use seven sau¬ 
cers and spoons and seven glasses. We 
let washing these go till morning. Quite 
often we use less dishes than that. We 
just sit around the coal fire and make 
sandwiches and drink milk, and so there 
are really no dishes at all to clear away 
and do. It’s a job to have a great pile of 
dishes at night. 
The Housework. —When there is a 
pile of dishes at night the Parson and the 
boys try to get them out of the way before 
Moms comes down from putting the little 
ones to bed. One or two of the little ones 
are generally asleep before supper is over 
with, and they must be tucked away for 
the night. Mother lies down with little 
Charlesie Boy till he is fast asleep, and 
then for her to have to come down and 
tackle a great pile of dishes or even a 
small pile is too much. 
Daylight Saving —While this chang¬ 
ing the clock back may be bad for farmers 
who hire help, it is certainly a great help 
to many others. We can do practically 
all our farm work after the boys get home 
from school with this new arrangement. 
Such nice long afternoons. One of the 
boys goes at the chores when time, and 
the rest of us keep right on with the work. 
Of course tin 1 boys have a drink of milk 
and a piece of bread before we go out, and 
such good times as we have! We have 
no help in the house, but we get along 
quite well. After carrying the children 
to school in the morning and finishing up 
the barn work, the Parson comes in and 
helps about the dinner, getting the veg¬ 
etables ready. An hour’s boost right at 
this time seems to put the housework over 
the brow of the hill for the day. With so 
many boys and only one girl, it’s up to 
the Parson and the boys to help even up 
things in the house. 
Making Butter. —Just now we are 
making quite a lot of butter: last week 
we sold 15 lbs. The stores pay 55 cents. 
When the cream is well ripened on the 
back of the stove it takes it only a few 
minutes to come. Sit generally turns the 
barrel churn. Moms had a deal of trouble 
with the butter sticking to the print or 
butter stamp till someone told her what 
to do. After scalding it thoroughly you 
rub salt into it while it is still hot and 
(icorye and Jerry Make a Pair 
then let cold water run over it. After this 
the butter will not stick at all. Fold the 
ends of the butter paper and turn right 
in under the print, letting the pound print 
rest on them. This holds them in place 
and makes a nice-looking job. 
Wild Onion.—T he mild Winter has 
been splendid for the wild onion crop up 
in the pasture. There is a big growth of 
it. It just about spoils the milk for 
nearly a month, after which there is no 
more taste of it. We have to look around 
and buy a couple of bull calves for fat¬ 
tening and let them suck the cows. This 
both sells the milk at a fair price and 
tickles the boys, as it cuts out moot of the 
milking. Thore seems to be no way in 
the world to get rid of this stuff when it 
is scattered around among the trees and 
bushes of a pasture. 
Old Jerry.—I n the picture you see one 
of the boys holding a very important and 
valuable member of the family. Old .Ter- 
The Boy and His Kite 
ry is now about five years old. aud orig¬ 
inally came from New Jersey, being 
brought to Connecticut in a sack by a 
back-to-the-lander. He weighs 19 lbs. This 
time of year he has to be shut up in a 
yard by the brook. Little Flossie came 
in from school the other night scornfully 
701 
telling how some of rhe girls were afraid 
ot the big gander. “I’m not afraid of 
him, am I. ma?” said he. It wasn’t live 
minutes later before he started for the 
barn to look for his goose's eggs. Jerry 
spied him in an instant, and must have 
heard his boast. 
1 hose Pants. — He stole up behind him 
and without a bit of warning grabbed 
him right by the* seat of his pants. Crying 
and screaming, the boy started for ’ the 
house with his arms a-swinging in the* air. 
Jerry he'd fight, with his big wings Hap¬ 
ping. The pants gave way and Jerry re¬ 
treated. It took poor Moms a whole eve¬ 
ning to get that suit ready for school the 
next day.- ; 
. His Turn. —The boy you see in this 
picture was much elated over this affair 
and said old Jerry would never dare touch 
him. lie would hit him with a stick. But 
the" other night, just as he was getting 
off to bed he suddenly began to pucker. 
“It hurts awful."Abut hurts?” we all 
cried.^ “My leg hurt.-." “IIow did it get 
hurt i ’ we asked. “Old Jerry grabbed me 
as I crawled under the. corn barn for 
eggs.” Sure enough. thei:e was a great 
black and blue spot on his leg. “You must 
keep that goose shut up.” was the order 
from Moms, and we all saw she meant 
business. 
That Poor IIen. —One day a big 
White Wyandotte went, setting under the 
corn barn. The boys reported it at night 
and the Parson was delighted. “We will 
give her goose eggs.” said he. So he fixed 
up the nest and put in the eggs. Mamma 
Goosie was always around looking after 
her nest, and she spied those eggs up in 
that box. What a fuss she did make! 
Old Jerry rushed up and they held a long 
conversation over them. Then they went 
off for a swim. In due time that kindly 
old biddie weut on her nest to do her 
duty. Jerry wandered in and found her 
there. He reached over and grabbed her 
by the neck and yanked her out of that 
nest and shook her till she was dizzy. 
(Continued on page 70S) 
Western Electric 
Power 
and 
Ten Features that Make 
This Plant Dependable 
1. Vacuum teed system; same as on high 
grade automobiles. 
2. Air preheater; completely vaporizes the 
kerosene. 
3. Pushing this switch down starts the 
engine. 
4. Throttling governor; keeps the engine 
speed practically constant at all loads. 
5. This device automatically stops engine 
when battery is fully charged. 
6. Moving this switch makes all the 
engine power available for operating 
other machinery. 
7. Pulley; for operating other machinery. 
8. 1500 watt generator direct connected 
to engine. 
9. Oil for splash-lubricating system sup¬ 
plied here. 
10. Kerosene supply kept in this tank. 
Entire plant stands about 4 L. feet high. 
Storage battery consists of 16 cells. 
Light 
A fine piece of 
machinery 
Fine quality is evident in every part 
of this Western Electric Direct Con¬ 
nected Plant. Its ten important 
features are outlined in this adver¬ 
tisement. 
If you are any judge of 
machinery 
—be sure to read these ten points. 
They will mean much to you: you will 
want us to tell you more about them 
and all about several others that make 
this plant distinctive in many ways. 
If you buy machinery solely 
by name 
—then consider that the Western 
Electric Plant is guaranteed by an 
organization of nearly fifty years elec¬ 
trical experience; one with unlimited 
resources for making you entirely 
satisfied long after the sale. 
A Western Electric man near you 
will demonstrate this plant and ex¬ 
plain how easy it is to have the safety 
and convenience of electric light and 
the dollars-and-cents 
help of electrical 
power for farm work. 
Write for booklet No. 
RNY giving full details 
WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY 
INCORPORATED 
195 Broadway, New York, N. Y. 
410 South Clinton St.. Syracuse, N. Y. 
11th and York Sts., Philadelphia, Pa. 
910 River Avenue, Pittsburgh. Pa. 
413 Huron Road, Cleveland. Ohio 
129 Government Square. Cincinnati, Ohio 
