Prairie Folks

Prairie Folks, by Hamlin
Garland

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Title: Prairie Folks
Author: Hamlin Garland
Release Date: February 27, 2007 [EBook #20697]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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FOLKS ***

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PRAIRIE FOLKS
By HAMLIN GARLAND, AUTHOR OF "MAIN-TRAVELED
ROADS," "A MEMBER OF THE THIRD HOUSE," "A SPOIL OF

OFFICE," ETC., ETC.
F. J. SCHULTE & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS CHICAGO. M DCCC XCIII
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Copyright, 1892, by HAMLIN GARLAND.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Prairie Folks.
Pioneers.
They rise to mastery of wind and snow; They go like soldiers grimly
into strife, To colonize the plain; they plow and sow, And fertilize the
sod with their own life As did the Indian and the buffalo.
Settlers.
Above them soars a dazzling sky, In winter blue and clear as steel, In
summer like an Arctic sea Wherein vast icebergs drift and reel And
melt like sudden sorcery.
Beneath them plains stretch far and fair, Rich with sunlight and with
rain; Vast harvests ripen with their care And fill with overplus of grain
Their square, great bins.
Yet still they strive! I see them rise At dawn-light, going forth to toil:
The same salt sweat has filled my eyes, My feet have trod the self-same
soil Behind the snarling plow.
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CONTENTS

UNCLE ETHAN'S SPECULATION 11
THE TEST OF ELDER PILL 33
WILLIAM BACON'S HIRED MAN 73
SIM BURNS'S WIFE 101
SATURDAY NIGHT ON THE FARM 143
VILLAGE CRONIES 169
DRIFTING CRANE 187
OLD DADDY DEERING 201
THE SOCIABLE AT DUDLEY'S 227
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PART I.
UNCLE ETHAN'S SPECULATION IN PATENT MEDICINES
A certain guileless trust in human kind Too often leads them into nets
Spread by some wandering trader, Smooth, and deft, and sure.
UNCLE ETHAN RIPLEY.
Uncle Ethan had a theory that a man's character could be told by the
way he sat in a wagon seat.
"A mean man sets right plumb in the middle o' the seat, as much as to
say, 'Walk, gol darn yeh, who cares?' But a man that sets in one corner
o' the seat, much as to say, 'Jump in--cheaper t' ride 'n to walk,' you can

jest tie to."
Uncle Ripley was prejudiced in favor of the stranger, therefore, before
he came opposite the potato patch, where the old man was "bugging his
vines." The stranger drove a jaded-looking pair of calico ponies,
hitched to a clattering democrat wagon, and he sat on the extreme end
of the seat, with the lines in his right hand, while his left rested on his
thigh, with his little finger gracefully crooked and his elbows akimbo.
He wore a blue shirt, with gay-colored armlets just above the elbows,
and his vest hung unbuttoned down his lank ribs. It was plain he was
well pleased with himself.
As he pulled up and threw one leg over the end of the seat, Uncle Ethan
observed that the left spring was much more worn than the other, which
proved that it was not accidental, but that it was the driver's habit to sit
on that end of the seat.
"Good afternoon," said the stranger, pleasantly.
"Good afternoon, sir."
"Bugs purty plenty?"
"Plenty enough, I gol! I don't see where they all come fum."
"Early Rose?" inquired the man, as if referring to the bugs.
"No; Peachblows an' Carter Reds. My Early Rose is over near the
house. The old woman wants 'em near. See the darned things!" he
pursued, rapping savagely on the edge of the pan to rattle the bugs
back.
"How do yeh kill 'em--scald 'em?"
"Mostly. Sometimes I"----
"Good piece of oats," yawned the stranger, listlessly.
"That's barley."

"So 'tis. Didn't notice."
Uncle Ethan was wondering what the man was. He had some pots of
black paint in the wagon, and two or three square boxes.
"What do yeh think o' Cleveland's chances for a second term?"
continued the man, as if they had been talking politics all the while.
Uncle Ripley scratched his head. "Waal--I dunno--bein' a Republican--I
think "----
"That's so--it's a purty scaly outlook. I don't believe in second terms
myself," the man hastened to say.
"Is that your new barn acrost there?" pointing with his whip.
"Yes, sir, it is," replied the old man, proudly. After years of planning
and hard work he had managed to erect a little wooden barn, costing
possibly three hundred dollars. It was plain to be seen he took