700 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 26, 1924 
Hope Farm Notes 
“And just at the moment when Daniel 
Donkey opened his month to sing, Char¬ 
lie Crow, perched on the limb of the tree 
just above him, chopped a chicken bone 
right down Daniel’s throat! Up to that 
time Daniel had been the sweetest singer 
in the valley, but now that bone has 
grown into his throat, and every time he 
opens his mouth he lets out a cord of dis¬ 
cord. When Charlie dropped the bone 
Daniel let out such a roar that Cousin 
Woodchuck looked around and there was 
Judge Lynx just crawling-” 
My daughter had induced the baby to 
demand a story, and there is little use try¬ 
ing to dodge when this active, black-eyed 
little human model gets after you. She 
was curled up against me, a little fearful 
as to what was to happen to Cousin 
Woodchuck, and yet quite confident that 
he would escape, as usual. You see, 
Judge Lynx was determined to kill 
Cousin Woodchuck and have him for sup¬ 
per. I think myself that Mrs. Lynx was 
responsible for it. I think she egged her 
husband on, but our women folks deny 
that, and the baby is bound to agree with 
them. At any rate, the problem was to 
entice Woodchuck out of liis hole, and in 
order to do that Simon Snake had en¬ 
gaged Daniel Donkey to come and give a 
concert under the oak tree by the stone 
wall. You see, Daniel was the sweetest 
singer in the valley at that time, and, 
like many of these vain and stupid fel¬ 
lows, he would sing even if it killed his 
best friend. Woodchuck was very fond 
of music, and Judge Lynx figured that 
when Daniel Donkey began singing all 
ih-i animals would come running, just as 
folks did when I was a boy and the band 
began to practice at the Center. But 
Charlie Crow and Johnnie Bee saw 
through the scheme. They couldn’t make 
Daniel Donkey understand, so more forei- 
lle methods were needed, and, as I have 
said, when Daniel opened his mouth to 
sing “Fairy Moonlight,” Charlie Crow 
dropped that chicken bone right down his 
throat. Well, now, imagine a lot of fine 
folks you knew were sitting in this room 
with their eyes shut and mind wandering 
off into dreamland, expecting some great 
opera singer to start in with 
“Dearest Norma, kneeling here to thee!” 
Then, instead of what they expected, 
there came a sound like a cross between 
a tin horn and a pig with the knife at 
his throat! That room would be emptied 
in half a minute, and it was just so with 
those animals. Cousin Woodchuck got 
safely into his hole before Judge Lynx 
could get him! Oh, he got away, as he 
always does! 
* * * * * 
“Oh, goody ! goody! I’m so glad!” 
said the baby as she clapped her hands. 
And then I suddenly remembered that 
this was the fourth brood of children to 
whom I have told that story ! There was 
our first brood of four. When they got 
large enough to know that Cousin Wood¬ 
chuck, instead of being a hero, is a selfish 
and stupid beast, there came our second 
brood of six. After them came Rose and 
her group, and now here is the baby—the 
only one who considers Woodchuck a 
saint, while the older ones know him for 
a scamp. It gave me a curious feeling to 
think that I hiwe told these stories over 
and over to these succeeding broods of 
children and make them thrill as of old. 
You see, it was a dark night, with a 
threat of rain—just the night for a wolf 
or lynx story. We have been pruning 
an orchard on that new fann, and the 
brush piled up in the way. So I thought 
1 would go out after supper and burn a 
few piles. In the center of this orchai'd 
is a curious little island of rocks. It 
seems as if the red sandstone ledge below 
ground had grown tired of playing the 
mole down in the dark, so it had thrust 
a rocky finger up through the soil, and 
there it stands, with a little fringe of 
trees around it. To a good farmer it seems 
like a haii’y wart on the face of nature, 
but some day it will bring a great price as 
a location for a house. Several families 
of woodchucks have discovered what hu¬ 
mans have thus far failed to see, for there 
are at least three holes dug out from 
under the rocks. safe from Judge Lynx or 
Wolf-on-the-Hill. The baby owns one of 
these holes! She can imagine Woodchuck 
and his wife down in their kitchen, but 
they 'will not come up to see her by day¬ 
light. So when I talked about burning 
brush she wanted to go with the larger 
girl. 
“Now, why -do you want to take that 
little thing out into this dark night?” 
said Mother,- wiping dishes by the table. 
“Well, just look at her!” said I, point¬ 
ing to the little dancing thing, her black 
eyes snapping and her small hands wav¬ 
ing. I am afraid that Ma, in her many 
public and private duties, has forgotten 
the human side of Cousin Woodchuck. 
She remembers him only as the thief who 
came to our garden and stole the choicest 
vegetables! She has small thought for 
his domestic affairs, down under that 
rock, but there was no resisting the baby, 
so after dressing her warmly and deliver¬ 
ing admonitions to me (which I did not 
near), we trudged off into the blackness. 
That condition did not last long, for we 
soon had a blazing pile which lighted up 
the dark shadows for 50 ft. around us. 
It was just the time for a Woodchuck 
story. Just the place, too, where you 
could sit on the rock beside the roaring 
fire and see little sparkles in the dark¬ 
ness around you and imagine it waff 
Judge Lynx or Wolf-on-the-IIill come to 
spy out the ground. There in the firelight 
t e baby’s eyes were big and bright. She 
was not frightened, just interested in 
what imagination was picturing to her. I 
had seen something like that before on a 
woman’s face. More than 40 years ago 
we were camping at timber line far up 
on the Rocky Mountains. There was a 
big roaring fire, for, though it was Au¬ 
gust, there were thick drifts of snow all 
around us. There were about 10 of us 
scattered around the fire, wrapped in 
blankets. It was about midnight when 
the guide startt 1 up suddenly, caught up 
his pistol and pointed it at what seemed 
to me a wall of blackness. 
“Hands up!” he ordered. “Come up 
into the light!” 
A woman sat up in her blanket and 
gazed out into the dark. She did not 
seem to be frightened—just curious, like 
one who does not fear to meet her fate, 
blit just wants to know what shape it 
will take! And out of the darkness came 
a tall man with a long gray beard and 
the sad, melancholy eyes so characteristic 
of mountain people. He was as harmless 
as a deer. His horses had run away and 
he was hunting them. In 10 minutes he 
had curled up in a blanket by the fire 
and we were asleep once more. Well, it 
is a great gift to be able to face suspense 
or the freaks of imagination with a shrug 
and a smile. 
We sat on the rock, and only a few feet 
below us Woodchuck and his wife were 
no doubt discussing us like most other 
married folks would. I could imagine 
Mr. Woodchuck saying: 
“If I hear much more from those folks 
I’ll go out and fix them. I’ll order them 
right off the place. It will be a bad job 
for them if they wait for me to get start¬ 
ed after them.” 
“Oh, but William, you must be care¬ 
ful,” said his wife. “I know how brave 
and terrible you are, but don’t hurt them, 
and, oh, for the sake of your wife and 
children, do keep out of danger!” 
“Well, Ma, for your sake I’ll keep in 
the hole, but it’s an awful temptation to 
show these folks where they get off.” 
You see, I know something about the 
ordinary home drama. There are many 
bluff heroes in the world. So we sat 
there until we thought of the greeting we 
might get at home. 
“1 Yhy did you keep that child out so 
late ?”—and back we went through the 
darkness, home. 
* $ 4c * * 
Now I have been thinking about that 
record of telling the same stories to four 
succeeding broods of children. On the 
whole, I think I would like to live to tell 
it to several more, though the way things 
are going now in education there will not 
be any Woodchuck children a few years 
hence.' Is it a good thing or not for 
people to hold to their youth, or should 
they take the suggestion of the Apostle 
Paul? “When I became a man I put 
away childish things!” And yet 450 
years ago Ileywood wrote, “Children and 
fools cannot lie.” It is my observation 
that the wisest and most useful people I 
know of are those who can most securely 
retain their youth and flavor their experi¬ 
ence with the confidence and hope of 
childhood. I thought of this as the baby 
trudged off to bed, and the damp darkness 
stretched its arms about our house. I 
picked up the first book at hand, and 
found it to be “Lead, the Precious Met¬ 
al.” You would think such a title would 
fall like lead upon any such sentimental 
ideas as I had in mind, yet I found a 
description of the difference between iron 
and lead which seems to confirm my 
thought. Iron and steel are wonderful 
metals, but they cannot endure, because 
oxygen is determined to “get” them. The 
oxides from iron rust will sooner or later 
eat into the iron and destroy it. Layer 
by layer the rust dissolves the iron, until 
in time there is no iron left. You will 
find nothing but a heap of iron oxide; 
that is, iron rust. All form and shape of 
the original iron disappear from the 
sword of the conqueror down to the 
child’s iron soldier toy, the iron column 
which upholds the church, the great 
death-dealing cannon, the plow, the hoe, 
the nails which hold the home together. 
The oxygen in the teeth of the iron rust 
will, in time, gnaw them to red dust 
which a child may scatter with its breath. 
But it is different with lead. That, too, 
is attacked by oxygen, but the result is 
different. A film of rust 'will be formed 
over the lead, but then comes an end to 
the action. This film may be too thin to 
measure, yet it gives full protection to 
the lead. The iron rust works in and in 
until all is destroyed, but the thin film of 
lead rust or tarnish protects it for all 
time against destruction or oxidation. 
Lead pipes have been found in Italian 
ruins which were laid 2.000 years ago, 
yet the lettering on them can easily be 
read, and the pipes would still carry 
water. Iron pipes laid at much the same 
time are now merely a little pile of dust. 
McCORMICK-DEERING 
CORN CULTIVATORS 
"Money-making farms are those on which most work is 
done in least time, with least labor. Try to increase your 
yield per acre, cut down your labor cost, diversify, cultivate 
more rows. Modern equipment, well handled, is the key to 
most profitable farming and makes farming pleasanter, too.’* 
The Two-Row Cultivator Is 
Your Answer 
Never before has the value of the two-row cultivator been so evident. 
This year every short cut must be used, yet the farming job must be 
done better than ever. You can do this with a two-row cultivator. If 
you wish, you can go over the corn an extra time or two, yet your labor 
cost will be considerably less than your usual cultivation with a one- 
row cultivator. 
In fact, the points in favor of two-row cultivation are so numerous 
that you will surely wish to talk to your local McCormick-Deering dealer 
about the light-running, easy-to-handle McCormick-Deering two-row 
cultivator. Ask him also about a new International or C B & Q corn 
planter. Planting and cultivating must be done unusually well this year. 
Let the tools in the McCormick-Deering line help you. 
International harvester Company 
OF AMERICA 
606 So. Michigan ave. mncomoratcq) Chicago* Ili*« 
CHEAP FEED 
from your own land 
T HE most economical cattle feed is that raised on your farm provid¬ 
ing you get good yields per acre. One ton of alfalfa or clover is worth 
two tons of common hay as a milk producer. When preparing fields for 
grain, harrow in one to two tons per acre of SOLVAY and sow alfalfa or 
clover. The feed bills you save will pay for the SOLV AY many times over. 
“BROOKLYN 
BRAND” 
SULPHUR 
COMMERCIAL FLOUR SULPHUR, 99pure, for spraying and 
insecticide purposes. 
SUPERFINE COMMERCIAL FLOUR SULPHUR, 99^4% pure) f or dusting 
FLOWERS OF SULPHUR, 100% pure.j purposes 
“NIAGARA BRAND” 
AMERICAN CRUDE SALTPETRE 
for Better, Bigger and More Fruit. Also Crude Nitrate Soda. 
BATTELLE & RENWICK, 80 Maiden Lane, New York 
Dept. “B” . Write for Prices and Booklet 
