There are a number of things about this set of stories that I particularly like: the off-hand reference to his father’s powder horn, his efforts to avoid stepping in cow piles, and especially his casual remark about nearly getting killed: “The next incident was relatively unimportant, but just falls into the regular pattern of a boy’s life.”
About two years after the cow incident, we had had a Fourth of July celebration at our house. It was customary for the neighbors to gather at some home for the celebration. After the celebration, there were many burned out Roman candles lying around. My brother conceived the idea that we could continue the celebration by cutting the Roman candle shells in half, plugging one end, fill it with powder from father’s powder horn, and put a fire-cracker fuse in the other end. And then he said, “Come on Elmer and light them”.
The first one went off with a big bang and left quite a hole in the ground. The second one was balky, and would not light properly. I was huddled down over it blowing on it, when it went off in my face. I went rolling backwards down the hill. My whole face was torn and bleeding. For some unaccountable reason my eyes were closed when it exploded, otherwise it would have surely blinded me. I had grains of powder embedded in my eyelashes for years before they were finally absorbed. I had one big powder grain embedded in the tip of my nose. It persisted for many years. For some reason people ask me of late, “What is the matter with the tip of your nose”. It is only the remains of the powder grain. I do not know why it has not been noticed till recently.
In the fall of the year, we naturally had to rise long before daylight to do the chores. I judge that I was about 14 when my next mishap occurred. Our barn was composed of two parts. The front side of the barn had a row of stalls for the horses and the back side a row for the cows. Father cared for the horses and we boys milked the cows. Father had a lantern for his side of the barn, but was afraid to trust us with a lantern, so we had to do the best we could in milking the cows in the dark. I always had an exact place for my milk-stool, so I could find it in the dark. I always put my stool on top of the first cow to get the exact location of the cows, so to better judge where the cow piles were likely to be, so I could step around them.
On this particular morning, when I put my stool on top of the first cow, I went with a bang back against the back of the barn. My father called, “What’s the matter in there?”. I told him that the cow had kicked me. He said, “There are no cows in there. I turned the cows out last night and put horses in there”. I was laid up for a few days with the same hip that went bad after I had diphtheria. Needless to say that mother insisted that we have a lantern for our side of the barn.
The next incident was relatively unimportant, but just falls into the regular pattern of a boy’s life. I judge that I was about 17 when this incident occurred. We boys had largely taken over the responsibility of the work on the farm. Father seldom went to the field. Father promised we boys that if we would stay home and work until we were 21 and help him pay for the farms, that no one else would ever share in them. When we would get the farm work caught up and there was work available that would bring in cash, we could have whatever was earned that day.
It was on a hot afternoon that we were to drive teams for the road grader. We were getting our teams all hitched together tandem, and I was down behind my team getting them hitched up, when one horse gave a kick at another horse that was nosing her, and hit me in the head instead of the other horse. It knocked me senseless. I suppose father felt of my head to see if it was bashed in, and then carried me over and laid me in a wagon box that was beside the road. It was with a horror that I later awakened and saw the teams and grader far down the road. My $1.50 that I was to get for the work of the afternoon had vanished with the kick from Fanny. Later I was able to stand up, and a load of hay came along, I climbed up on the load and went home, and went to bed. The next morning, I was none the worse for the incident.
Tuples and Attributes 