A Busy Year at the Old Squires | Page 4

Accende lucernum, et fac ut luceat faculus. 6 Carry the lantern. We must water = Vulcanum in cornu geras. the horses. Equi aquatum agenda sunt. 7 It is a very hot day. = Dies est ingens ?stus. 8 Let's go to the barn. = Jam imus horreum. 9 Grind the axes. = Acuste ascias. 10 It is near twelve o'clock. = Instat hora duodecima. 11 It is time for dinner. = Prandenti tempus adest. 12 Please take dinner with us. = Quesso nobiscum hodie sumas prandiolum. 13 Make a good fire. = Instruas optimum focum. 14 This chimney smokes. = Male fumat hic caminus. 15 The wood is green. = Viride est hoc lignum. 16 Fetch kindling wood. = Affer fomitem. 17 Lay the table cloth. = Sterne mappam. 18 Dinner is ready. = Cibus est appositus. 19 Don't spoil it by delay. = Ne corrumpatur mora vestra. 20 Sit down. = Accumbe. 21 This is my place. = Hic mihi locus. 22 Let him sit next me. = Assideat mihi. 23 Say grace, or ask a blessing. = Recita consecrationem. 24 Give me brown bread. = Da mihi panem atrum. 25 I am going to school. = Eo ad scholam. 26 What time is it? = Quota est hora? 27 It is past seven. = Pr?teriit hora septima. 28 The bell has rung. = Sonuit tintinnabulum. 29 Go with me. = Vade mecum. 30 The master will soon be here. = Brevi pr?ceptor aderit. 31 I am very cold. = Valde frigeo. 32 My hands are numb. = Obtorpent manus. 33 Mend the fire. = Apta ignem.
I have copied out only a few of the shorter sentences. There were, as I have said, fully twenty pages of it, enough for quite a respectable "Universal Language," or at least the beginnings of one. Perhaps some ambitious linguist will yet take it up in earnest.
CHAPTER II
CUTTING ICE AT 14�� BELOW ZERO
Generally speaking, young folks are glad when school is done. But it wasn't so with us that winter in the old Squire's district, when Master Pierson was teacher. We were really sad, in fact quite melancholy, and some of the girls shed tears, when the last day of school came and "old Joel" tied up the melodeon, took down the wall maps, packed up his books and went back to his Class in College. He was sad himself--he had taken such interest in our progress.
"Now don't forget what you have learned!" he exclaimed. "Hang on to it. Knowledge is your best friend. You must go on with your Latin, evenings."
"You will surely come back next winter!" we shouted after him as he drove away.
"Maybe," he said, and would not trust himself to look back.
The old sitting-room seemed wholly deserted that Friday night after he went away. "We are like sheep without a shepherd," Theodora said. Catherine and Tom came over. We opened our Latin books and tried to study awhile; but 'twas dreary without "old Joel."
Other things, however, other duties and other work at the farm immediately occupied our attention. It was now mid-January and there was ice to be cut on the lake for our new creamery.
For three years the old Squire had been breeding a herd of Jerseys. There were sixteen of them: Jersey First, Canary, Jersey Second, Little Queen, Beauty, Buttercup, and all the rest. Each one had her own little book that hung from its nail on a beam of the tie-up behind her stall. In it were recorded her pedigree, dates, and the number of pounds of milk she gave at each milking. The scales for weighing the milk hung from the same beam. We weighed each milking, and jotted down the weight with the pencil tied to each little book. All this was to show which of the herd was most profitable, and which calves had better be kept for increase.
This was a new departure in Maine farming. Cream-separators were as yet undreamed of. A water-creamery with long cans and ice was then used for raising the cream; and that meant an ice-house and the cutting and hauling home of a year's stock of ice from the lake, nearly two miles distant.
We built a new ice-house near the east barn in November; and in December the old Squire drove to Portland and brought home a complete kit of tools--three ice-saws, an ice-plow or groover, ice-tongs, hooks, chisels, tackle and block.
Everything had to be bought new, but the old Squire had visions of great profits ahead from his growing herd of Jerseys. Grandmother, however, was less sanguine.
It was unusually cold in December that year, frequently ten degrees below zero, and there were many high winds. Consequently, the ice on the lake thickened early to twelve inches, and bade fair to go to two feet. For use