522 
Th*  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Pastoral  Parson  and  His  Country  Folks 
By  Rev.  George  B.  Gilbert 
afternoon  out  in  the  shop.  A  gallon  of 
yellow  paint  for  wagons  came  by  post, 
and  they  took  the  box  and  have  been 
having  a  great  time  fixing  it  up.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  a  box  to  put  goose  eggs 
in.  Clossie  has  made  a  great  lid  to  it — 
hinges  and  all.  He  has  also  put  on  a 
strap  handle,  and  when  last  seen  was 
looking  for  a  hook  to  hold  down  the  lid. 
They  have  access  to  all  the  tools,  and  do 
have  such  times  making  things.  On  the 
whole,  they  are  pretty  good  about  put¬ 
ting  things  away. 
The  Toboggan. — George  worked  down 
cellar  all  the  forenoon,  Ta  with  him, 
picking  over  potatoes.  He  sorted  them 
out  into  firsts  and  seconds,  and  we  will 
let  quite  a  lot  of  them  go.  We  have 
more  than  we  can  eat.  The  pipeless  fur¬ 
nace  makes  the  cellar  somewhat  warmer, 
and  we  have  not  yet  got  a  separate  place 
fixed  off.  Most  of  the  afternoon  George 
seems  to  have  been  working  on  a  won¬ 
derful  toboggan.  His  main  difficulty 
seems  to  be  in  getting  the  turn-up  part 
at  the  front  end.  Some  one  has  told  him 
that  a  cheese  box  case  will  solve  the 
problem,  and  the  Parson  must  get  one 
when  next  in  town.  Today  he  put  oil 
some  barrel  staves,  but  they  did  not  turn 
up  enough,  and  when  he  came  to  a  drift 
they  stuck  right  into  it.  How  much  better 
for  the  boy  to  make  one — or.  rather,  a 
half  dozen — even  if  none  of  them  works, 
is  writing  this  minute.  He  is  looking 
forward  to  next  Monday.  It  may  be 
quite  a  day  with  him,  as  he  expects  then 
to  take  bis  first  lesson  on  a  big  pipe 
organ.  He  has  had  a  piano  five  years 
now,  and  th_.t  ought  to  help  on  the  other. 
He  takes  a  lot  of  comfort  with  his  banjo 
and  lately  strung  up  his  mandolin  and 
has  been  picking  away  at  that. 
Another  Delight. — Mrs.  Parson  is 
still  as  much  delighted  with  that  covered 
garbage  pail  for  the  hens’  scraps  as  ever. 
It  certainly  is  the  handiest  thing,  and 
everything  covered  up — so  clean-looking. 
Now  the  Parson  has  made  her  another 
present — it  cost  just  50  cents,  too.  _  It 
is  a  similar  pail  to  put  potato  parings 
in.  These  generally  stand  round,  right 
in  the  dish  she  wants  to  use  all  the 
The  men  folks  ought  to  take  them 
and  if  you  remind  them  and  get 
over  they  forget  to  bring  back  the 
time. 
over, 
them 
dish. 
But  somehow  these  pails  always  seem  to 
come  back,  and  always  right  there  so 
handy  with  the  covers  on. 
The  Weather. — The  Parson  was  com¬ 
ing  up  from  down  county  the  other  Mon¬ 
day  morning.  He  had  been  down  for 
Sunday  and  stayed  all  night.  Nothing 
delights  the  Parson  more  than  to  go 
down  and  stay  all  night  with  his  people. 
“Why  don’t  you  go  in  the  car?  Other 
people  seem  to  get  round  in  a  car ;  why 
can’t  you?”  That  is  what  Mrs.  Parson 
says.  She  more  than  half  suspects  the 
truth.  The  Parson  likes  an  excuse  to 
stay  down  all  night.  Taking  Old  Jim 
makes  an  excuse,  for  it  is  a  long  round 
trip  for  one  day.  A  real  pastoral  call  is 
where  you  have  spent  the  evening  and 
the  night  and  gone  out  with  the  man  and 
visited  while  he  was  milking,  and  gone 
out  with  the  children  and  helped  while 
there  are  seven  readers  of 
rge  we  should  have  more 
Mr.  U.  T.  Zeller  of  Michigan  sends  this  picture.  Tie  says  th 
The  It.  N.-Y.  in  his  family.  If  all  our  families  were  as  larg^ 
than  a  million  and  a  half  of  readers.  At  any  rate,  here  is  the  youngest  of  this  family 
of  seven  feeding  the  White  Orpingtons.  He  is  17  months  old — may  he  live  to  be 
1700  months  old.  and  read  The  It.  N.-Y.  to  the  end. 
About  Sleds. — The  Parson  wonders  if 
people  who  come  to  church  have  suffi¬ 
cient  chance  to  have  their  say.  People 
like  to  talk  and  tell  what  they  know. 
And  isn’t  it  'true  that  many  people  have 
some  mighty  good  ideas  and  valuable  bits 
of  knowledge  they  have  picked  up?  Peo¬ 
ple  that  one  might  least  expect  would 
have  ideas  of  real  interest,  and  profit. 
Last  time  down  in  the  old  church  ’way 
down  country  we  had  a  fellow  who 
hadn’t  been  to  church  for  over  20  years. 
He  had  followed  the  sawmill  for  some 
40  years,  more  or  less,  and  around  the 
old  box  stove,  after  service,  while  the 
ladies  were  getting  a  good  lunch  ready 
for  us,  we  had  a  fine  talk  about  sawmill 
lore  and  the  knowledge  that  goes  with 
life  in  the  woods.  “Sleds  may  be  sleds, 
lie  went  on  to  say.  “but  there  is  a  great 
difference  in  the  way  they  run."  It  is 
a  long-runnered  sled  that  goes  the 
easiest.  It  does  less  cutting  than  when 
the  runner  is>  short.  Those  sleds  that 
have  just  one  crossbeam  right  under  the 
bolster  go  the  easiest,  the  front  and  heel 
of  the  runner  being  free  to  play  up  and 
down  and  ride  over  the  snow.  Itight 
under  the  center  of  weight  the  runner 
should  be  about  an  inch  thicker  than  at 
either  end.  This  helps  keep  the  front 
end  of  the  runner  from  digging,  as  it 
plays  lightly  up  and  down. 
White  Oak. — We  got  to  talking  about 
white  oak.  White  oak  is  a  great  wood 
around  here  for  making  sleds  and  wagon 
frames  and  parts,  such  as  bolsters,  etc. 
Shafts  and  'tongues  and  reaches  and 
spokes  are  all  best  made  from  white  oak. 
The  Parson  had  just  had  some  shafts 
made  for  one  of  the  lumber  wagons  from 
white  oak.  “Was  it  green?”  asked  the 
old-time  woodsman.  The  Parson  agreed 
that  it  probably  was.  “Did  you  paint 
it?”  he  asked  in  turn.  The  Parson  had 
rather  congratulated  himself  that  he 
painted  those  shafts  as  soon  as  they  were 
done  and  put  them  out  in  the  sun  to  dry. 
“Then,”  said  the  man,  “if  you  have 
painted  them  when  green,  unless  you 
scrape  off  the  paint,  at  least  on  one  side, 
they  will  go  back  on  you.  The  moisture 
within  cannot  get  out  on  account  of  your 
paint,  and  it  will  rot  them  at  the  heart ; 
it  will  make  them  dopey,  and  they  will 
break.”  Now  who  would  have  thought 
of  that?  Certainly  the  Parson  never 
would.  lie  is  going  out  tomorrow  to 
scrape  off  the  paint  on  the  lower  side  of 
those  shafts.  “Never  paint  green  white 
oak  till  it  is  thoroughly  dried  out.  cer¬ 
tainly  a  whole  year  after  it  is  cut,”  said 
he.  and  the  Parson  believes  he  is  right. 
Learning  Both  Ways. — The  Parson 
learned  more  from  him  than  he  did  from 
the  Pabson.  undoubtedly,  and,  above  all, 
he  went  away  from  the  church  that  after¬ 
noon  (for  we  were  all  there  all  day) 
feeling  that  he  had  been  a  part  of  the 
day’s  proceedings — as  he  had.  The  Par¬ 
son  held  forth  before  noon ;  he  held 
forth  most  of  the  time  after  noon.  He 
had  been  a  mighty  good  listener  to  the 
Parson,  had  responded  bravely  to  the 
Parson’s  attempts  at  humor  in  the  ser¬ 
mon.  and  the  Parson  was  a  most  appre¬ 
ciative  listener  'to  him  in  the  afternoon. 
He  had  learned  a  lot  to  tell  the  boys  at 
supper  that  night  when  he  got  home. 
<  Might  not  everyone  who  goes  to  church 
have  a  chance  to  talk  before  they  go 
home?  After  another  mission  in  a  vil¬ 
lage  last  Sunday  more  than  half  the  con¬ 
gregation  stayed  after  the  service  to  talk 
over  the  Grant-Manning  affair  in  New 
York.  We  did  not  settle  the  whole  mat¬ 
ter  of  creed  interpretation,  but  everyone 
had  a  chance  to  air  'their  mind  on  the 
matter,  and  it  did  everyone  good.  We 
need  more  of  the  open  forum  idea  in  the 
churches. 
All  In  a  Day. — Here  it  is  Saturday, 
March  10.  We  had  counted  on  a  full 
day  today,  with  much  to  do  and  the  boys 
at  home.  But  before  breakfast  was  over 
it  began  to  blow  and  snow,  and  it  has 
rained  or  snowed  all  day  without  a  stop. 
The  Parson  has  worked  around  his  desk 
here  all  day,  and  got  it  fairly  well  cleaned 
up;  it  is  always  a  sight  at  best.  Besides 
the  other  matters,  letters  and  bills  to 
pay,  etc.,  he  must,  get  together  a  few 
ideas  for  tomorrow's  sermons.  This  ser¬ 
mon  business  is  really  far  from  a  joke — 
if  you  don’t  think  so,  try  to  work  up  a 
few  hundred.  lie  hag  a  few  ideas  which 
seem  to  him  fairly  decent,  but  that  is 
not  the  end  of  it.  IIow  are  you  going  to 
make  them  interesting?  How  give  them 
a  human  touch?  That  is  the  great  ques¬ 
tion.  No  use  getting  them  off  if  the  peo¬ 
ple  are  half  asleep.  It  makes  the  Par¬ 
son  think  of  those  green  tomatoes  he 
picked  one  day  for  Mrs.  Parson.  She 
announced  green  tomatoes  for  dinner. 
The  l ‘arson  was  sceptical— quite  so — but 
when  they  came  on  no  one  would  have 
recognized  them.  They  had  been  salted 
and  sugared  and  peppered  and  pork- 
fatted  and  browned  and  fried  till  they 
were  certainly  good.  Theology,  heavy  or 
light,  is  a  good  deal  like  green  tomatoes 
when  it  comes  to  being  served  up. 
Music  Lessons. — Clossie  and  Sit  went 
for  their  lessons  in  music  this  forenoon, 
even  in  the  storm.  It  is  only  about  10 
or  12  minutes’  walk  to  the  trolley.  Sit 
slept  all  the  forenoon,  as  we  were  all 
out  till  about  12  last  night  to  a  neighbor¬ 
hood  social  and  lecture  on  the  stars.  Ta 
and  Clossie  have  had  a  great  time  all  the 
than  to  have  one  bought  for  him.  George 
has  looked  after  the  chores,  the  Parson 
not  having  been  over  to  the  barn  all  day. 
We  bought  another  cow  the  first  of  the 
week.  We  had  to  have  something  to  tide 
us  over  for  a  few  weeks,  and  we  got  a 
heifer,  first  calf,  but  farrow,  for  $32.50. 
She  is  giving  about  seven  quarts  a  day. 
and  we  will  milk  her  till  along  middle  of 
June,  then  turn  her  off  the  pasture  and 
have  something  good  to  eat  in  the  Fall. 
By  selling  her  hide  and  half  her  meat 
we  ought  to  get  back  a  large  part  of 
what  we  paid  and  have  two  quarters  for 
ourselves. 
The  Meals. — Shelley  helped  well 
about  the  dishes,  and  the  Parson  got  all 
the  meals,  so  Mrs.  Parson  could  keep 
right  at  the  ironing  and  get  it  alL  done 
dp.  It  goes  into  the  wash  in  town  in 
the  Winter,  and  we  did  not  get  in  to 
bring  it  out  till  the  last  of  the  week 
Snow  is  still  so  deep  they  will  not  come 
for  it  as  they  do  generally.  The  Parson 
started  off  in  the  morning  on  the  meal 
racket  with  quite  a  flourish.  But  he  ran 
down  hill  all  day.  He  had  scrambled 
eggs  and  creamed  potatoes  for  breakfast, 
with  cocoa  for  the  children  and  coffee 
for  himself  and  Mrs.  Parson. 
Dinner  and  Supper. — For  dinner  we 
had  mashed  potatoes  with  a  lot  of  cream 
in.  What  a  difference  cream  makes  in 
anything — it's  like  money  in  a  suit  of 
clothes.  And  a  lot  of  salt  in.  too.  Most 
mashed  potatoes  are  not  salted  enough. 
Mrs.  P.  says  the  Parson’s  are  altogether 
too  salt.  Then  we  tried  fried  onions  and 
beets.  These  beets  were  put  down  in 
sand  in  a  'barrel  in  the  cellar,  and  came 
out  as  fresh  as  you  please.  But  for  the 
supper  the  Parson  quite  “run  emptin’s,” 
as  his  father  used  to  say  about  the  cider 
barrel.  But  why  not  have  an  easy  meal 
once  in  a  while?  When  you  are  just  by 
yourselves  you  can.  Ta  came  in  from 
the  shop  (the  goose  egg  box  having  been 
finished  I  and  he  and  the  Parson  popped 
corn.  Such  a  good  time  as  we  had.  and 
so  we  had  popped  corn  and  bread  and 
cheese  and  milk.  Enough  for  anybody, 
especially  on  a  stormy  day,  when  all 
hands  had  taken  it  easy.  All  the  dishes 
it  made  was  seven  cups  and  seven  spoons 
and  a  big  dish  for  the  popcorn.  Those 
went  into  the  electric  dishwasher  and 
will  stay  there  till  morning.  But  above 
and  over  all  else  there  has  been  music 
going  in  the  house  all  day.  What  a  fine 
thing  it  is  to  have  music  in  the  house! 
Shelley  is  playing  hymns  as  the  Parson 
they  were  getting  in  the  wood,  and  gone 
into  the  pantry  and  dried  the  dishes  with 
the  girls,  and  got  a  piece  of  left-over  pie 
as  a  reward.  It  was  after  such  a  call 
that  the  Parson  was  coming  home.  It 
had  stormed  some  on  Sunday,  and  now 
the  wind  had  shifted  to  the  northwest. 
The  sky  was  as  blue  and  clear  as  crystal. 
An  occasional  cloud  floated  down,  casting 
its  traveling  shadow  along  the  earth.  If 
you  could  ever  be  positively  sure  of  fair 
weather  you  could  such  a  day  as  that. 
But  here  is  a  man  who  has  just  moved 
out  into  the  country.  The  Parson  pulls 
up  for  a  greeting.  "Yes,”  says  the  man, 
“great  Winter  we  have  had.  I  think  it 
is  going  to  snow  now.”  It  made  the  Par¬ 
son  sad  as  he  drove  along.  Such  a  man 
as  a  farmer  is  absolutely  doomed  to 
complete  failure,  if  for  no  other  reason 
than  that  he  has  no  idea  of  the  weather. 
Spring  and  Geese.— (Here  it  is  a  week 
later,  and  the  Parson  must  get  this  let¬ 
ter  right  off.  Spring  is  here.  The  snow 
is  ’most  gone,  and  the  geese  are  laying, 
and  the  gander  is  so  ugly  that  it  will  not 
do  to  let  Ta  go  out  where  he  is.  In  the 
local  paper  the  other  night  there  were 
advertisements  to  sell  goose  eggs.  The 
first  one  was  for  35  cents  each,  the  next 
one  for  30,  and  the  next  for  25  cents 
each.  The  Parson  happened  to  know  the 
last  one,  and  found  that  he  has  sold  all 
he  had  ;  but  how’  about  the  others?  We 
keep  ours  down  cellar,  and  try  to  turn 
them  every  other  day  at  least.  None  of 
the  hens  have  shown  any  signs  of  being 
broody.  George  wants  to  go  into  the 
chicken  business  a  little  heavier  this 
year.  The  matter  is  talked  all  the  time 
up  to  school  in  his  class,  and  the  time  to 
let  a  boy  do  such  a  thing  is  when  he 
wants  to.  So  we  will  fix  up  the  little 
henhouse  for  a  brooder-house ;  will  have 
to  have  a  floor  put  in  it  and  quite  a  little 
done  to  it.  Then  we  will  buy  a  coal 
stove  brooder  and  perhaps  about  250 
chicks — probably  Rhode  Island  Reds. 
Day-old  chicks,  shipped  from  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  are  sold  in  a  store  here,  and  some¬ 
thing  like  a  thousand  a  day  are  disposed 
of.  They  are  certainly  fine  spunky-look- 
ing  chicks.  They  get  20  cents  each  for 
any  kind  of  breed  they  carry.  On  most 
days  they  have  three  different  kinds. 
Church  and  Popcorn. — Yes.  church 
and  popcorn.  Whoever  heard  of  such  a 
thing?  But  why  not?  Don’t  you  want 
a  church  to  be  homelike?  What  sounds 
more  of  home  and  happy  fireside  than 
the  popping  of  corn?  So  down  in  the' old 
March  31,  192-3 
church  yesterday,  after  the  dinner,  we 
sat  around  the  old  box  stove  and  popped 
corn.  It  wasn’t  so  bad.  To  be  sure,  a 
lot  of  it  got  on  the  floor.  But  the  people 
who  popped  it  and  ate  it  swept  it  all  up  ; 
afterwards,  and  the  floor  was  a  good  deal 
cleaner  than  it  w’as  before. 
A  Few  New  Games 
A  recent  letter  of  your  Pastoral  Parson 
described  a  game  for  entertaining  a 
crowd,  and  promised  others  soon.  As  a 
master  of  a  live  Grange  of  over  300 
members,  the  writer  has  a  weather  eye 
for  such  new  games,  and  as  your  Parson 
has  undoubtedly  a  similar  eye,  will  de¬ 
scribe  for  his  benefit  a  game  of  mine 
which  has  proved  popular,  and  a  couple 
of  others. 
1.  Nursery  rhymes,  operated  similar 
to  choosing  sides  and  spelling  down.  Two 
leaders  are  chosen,  who  choose  sides,  be¬ 
ginning  with  the  leader  who  gives  any 
nursery  rhyme,  then  alternate  down  the 
line  and  repeat.  No  rhyme  is  used  twice. 
If  unable  to  think  of  a  rhyme  prompt¬ 
ly  you  are  declared  out,  and  of  course 
the  first  side  downed  completely  is  the 
loser.  In  order  to  make  more  variety, 
little  comic  rhymes  and  parodies  are  ac¬ 
cepted.  It  sometimes  happens  that  some 
are  apt  at  rhymes  and  can  stay  in  for  a 
time  on  their  wits. 
2.  Menagerie  is  like  the  above,  except 
names  of  animals  and  birds  are  used  in¬ 
stead  of  rhymes.  The  name  of  every 
animal  named,  after  the  first  one,  must 
begin  with  the  last  letter  of  the  animal 
named  just  before  it.  To  illustrate: 
First,  rat  ;  T,  tiger ;  R.  raccoon,  etc. 
3.  Through  the  Circle— Prepare  two 
circles,  a  yard  of  rubber  tape  in  each, 
choose  side;  at  a  given  word  the  race 
begins.  The  leaders  place  the  circle  over 
their  heads  and  go  through  it ;  as  they 
step  out  the  next  in  line  grabs  it  and 
does  likewise,  and  so  on  down  the  line, 
three  times,  starting  at  the  word  each 
time.  The  best  two  out  of  three  wins. 
In  case  of  accident,  such  as  getting 
cftiijcbt  on  8.  vest  button  mid  breaking, 
the  manager  shall  yell  “Time,’  and  the 
other  side  must  stop  until  repairs  are 
mac}e<  a.  e.  holmes. 
A  Fairy  Tale  in  Real  Life 
The  New  York  Times  tells  the  story  of 
little  Jov  Louise  Leeds.  It  truly  reads  like 
a  fairv  'tale,  or  one  of  the  old  romances 
in  which  humble  people  are  suddenly 
raised  to  power  and  wealth.  Mrs.  M  arner 
M.  Leeds  recently  died,  leaving  a  great 
fortune  to  the  little  girl  who  was  adopted 
as  a  baby  nine  years  ago :  . 
“Once  ‘a  waif  in  a  children  s  hospital, 
with  no  prospects  except  those  of  that 
status,  she  attracted  the  attention  of 
Mrs.  Leeds,  was  made  her  daughter  by 
formal  process  of  law,  and  ever  since 
has  had  the  sort  of  care  and  the  abun¬ 
dance  of  ‘advantages’  which  can  be  at¬ 
tained  only  by  the  offspring  of  the  very 
rich.  She  also  evidently  has  had  more 
than  that — a  love  indistinguishable  from 
parental— and  now  the  continuance  of 
all  except  the  maternal  affection  has 
been  assured  for  the  child  by  the  pro¬ 
visions  of  Mrs.  Leeds’  will. 
“For  her  upbringing  a  definite  sum  of 
$250,000  is  set  aside  from  the  estate,  to 
be  held  in  trust  for  her  till  she  is 
and  afterward  she  becomes  the  resid 
uary  legatee  of  a  great  fortune.  She  is 
to  be  educated  ‘in  an  atmosphere  of  cul¬ 
ture  and  among  people  of  refinement,’ 
and  ‘she  is  to  get  the  best  of  instruction 
in  those  accomplishments  for  which  she 
manifests  aptitude  and  interest,  including 
such  sports  as  befit  her  age  and  position.’ 
“There  will  not  be  many  to  question 
that  the  Katherine  Kennedy  who  became 
Jov  Louise  Leeds  is  among  the  very 
luckiest  of  little  girls,  and  though  some 
may  ask  why  so  much  should  be  spent  on 
the' upbringing  of  a  single  child,  when  to 
so  many  a  fair  chance  in  life  could  be 
given  by  the  division  among  them  of 
$250,000,  that  is  an  inquiry  which  ig¬ 
nores.  in  all  probability,  the  way  in  which 
35, 
and  at  her  for  whom  she  did  it. 
“In  adopting  the  Kennedy  child,  what 
Mrs,  Leeds  sought,  presumably,  was  a 
daughter,  not  a  chance  to  raise  a  child 
from  the  uncertainties  of  poverty  to 
whatever  of  certainty  there  is  in  wealth. 
And  she  sought  even  more.  That  is 
shown  by  the  passage  of  the  will  in  which 
the  testator  defines  her  strongest  desire. 
It  is  not  that  a  plentitude  of  money  shall 
be  assured  for  life  to  the  object  of  her 
affection,  but  that  ‘her  mind  be  directed 
toward  the  conditions  and  needs  of  the 
human  family — that  she  may  be  interested 
and  trained  intelligently  in  the  beneficent 
work  to  an  extent  such  as  the  means 
which  I  am  leaving  her  will  place  her  in 
a  position  to  do.’ 
“In  other  words,  the  adoptive  mother 
hoped  and  expected  that  the  adopted 
daughter  would  use  her  wealth  as  its 
former  possessor  did— as  a  trustee  and 
agent  rather  than  as  an  owner.  T1  e 
realization  of  this  hope  and  this  expec¬ 
tation  depends  on  more  than  the  com¬ 
mand  of  money;  it  depends  on  the  tem¬ 
perament  and  quality  of  the  legatee  and 
on  the  wisdom  of  the  training  which  she. 
as  a  very  rich  girl,  destined  if  she  lives 
to  be  still  richer,  is  going  to  receive. 
“But  at  least  there  is  a  chance  that 
the  use  of  the  money  will  be  in  accord 
with  the  testator’s  desire;  and  how  much 
better  was  her  lavishing  of  her  affection 
on  a  child  she  deemed  worthy  of  it  than 
would  have  been  the  endless  fondling  of 
a  little  dog  or  the  wasting  of  energies  on 
the  so-called  social  activities.” 
