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Idylls of the Skillet Fork

Chapter 7: V Laury at the ’Phone
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About This Book

A lively sequence of rural poems and sketches portrays daily life in a small farming community, blending comic dialect pieces and affectionate nature scenes. Recurring voices such as Bill and Laury relay homespun observations on chores, animals, local gossip, bootlegging, hunts, seasonal change, and wartime worries, while bird songs and landscape detail evoke both springtime abundance and drought. The collection alternates playful mischief with quieter melancholy, offering short vignettes that balance folksy humor, communal rituals, and reflective notes on labor and loss.

V
Laury at the ’Phone

Will’s drove ter Keene’s fer ’nockerlated seed;
Queer, ain’t it, ’bout thet nitrigin—Down Rover!
Will sez we git mos’ twict ez much o’ feed
Fer growin’ them thar teeny warts on clover....
Uh huh.... We’re limin’ tew; Will sez the sile
Hez soured bad an’ needs a “alkali”....
I do’ know what ’tis—never heerd it—I’ll
Ax him; on sich like words I’m kind o’ shy....
Malviny? Reely? Throwed anuther fit?
Yew better call, I reckon, Docter Mott;
Seems like she’s gittin’ old enuff ter quit—
Will sez he ’lows it’s jes’ plain fits she’s got.
Our Duroc “Iphijeny” ’s littered ... eight....
Jes’ walkin’ cherries! My, but how they’ll grow!
Will’s figg’rin’ now on what’ll be the’r weight
Come Fall; he sez our corn’s a-runnin’ low....
D’yew say it’s yaller? Prob’ly got “damp feet”;
Will sez alfalfy’ll do thet when’t’s tew wet....
The way it gits ter rain is hard ter beat;
But then, Will sez it ain’t no use ter fret....
No, couldn’t go las’ night—set up fer Nell;
Vern Rowell druv ’er out—seemed like all night;
’Twas nine afore they come.... He means reel well,
But Will he sez the Rowells ain’t quite right....
She was? She’s led the singin’ awful good;
I never tho’t she’d be baptized; Will sez—
O Willie! Git right off!—He’s clum the wood
Pile; that ’ar’ way he’ll fall—Lan’ sakes, he hez!

Four Mile
Creek