In a certain bustling New England city, there was a young married woman who retained a very considerable regard for the “hired man” who had lived in her family from her earliest recollections, even until the present. It was her great desire to have “Uncle Harvey” come down to her city home and let her show him around. As he had scarcely ever left the town in which he was born and had passed his lifetime, this lady could see great possibilities of entertainment for herself as well as for Uncle Harvey. Making her annual summer visit at the old homestead, she repeated her invitation with such earnestness that Uncle Harvey was finally, but with evident reluctance, induced to promise to visit her without fail that fall.
Every time she wrote home she sent reminders that she had the old man’s positive promise and that he must not fail her. Finally he decided he had to go.
Uncle Harvey had had very little experience in railroad travel and it was quite a good many miles from the farm to the city home where he was to be entertained. After considerable discussion as to whether he should take a very early train that stopped at all stations, or go on a later express train, he was finally induced to take his chances on the fast train, although if left to his own choice he would have preferred the slower train as probably being more safe to travel on.
With a new traveling bag, especially purchased for the occasion, carefully packed for him, Uncle Harvey, in a stunning new suit complete, was carried to the railroad station, assisted to buy his ticket and escorted onto the train. His excitement was manifest, although with pretended calmness he tried to keep it hidden. His escort shook the old man’s hand warmly and reminded him that he had promised to write a postal card as soon as he reached his destination.
The train moved out of the station and Uncle Harvey was lost to sight, but true to his promise he sent the postal card which arrived at the farm the very next day. It was as follows:
“Dear Folks:
I am here safe and sound. Ethel met me at the station. I am having a fine time.
P. S. I arrived in a great hurry about three o’clock.
Uncle Harvey.”
It is one of the delightful tributes to our present civilization that it is perfectly possible for an intelligent woman to live an entire lifetime and still be so shielded from the sordid things in life as to be hardly aware of their existence.
In the cheery kitchen of an old but beautiful New England farmhouse, an elderly woman was busily engaged in preparing the evening meal. She was a woman of education and broad sympathies, prominent in the church and in all good works. Her kindly solicitude for the household took into account even the most transient laborer temporarily employed on the farm.
One of the hands who had lived at the farm for several years was taking a short vacation. It had vaguely come to the ears of the kind lady that this man had been known to indulge a little too freely in stimulants. It seemed to her, however, that there must be some mistake about these rumors, in view of the never-failing good behavior, respectful manner and general capability of the man in his relations with the family and the farm.
Sad to say on this occasion above mentioned, there was disillusionment in store for this friendly lady.
The kitchen door opened and the man who had been on vacation entered. The cheery welcome with which she was about to greet him was checked on her lips. Somehow he looked strange——different.
Standing in the entrance to the room and swaying slightly on his feet, the man, whose hat was tilted a little to one side, inquired in tones of solemn gravity:
“Where’s Hadlock?”
The woman looked at him in utter bewilderment. He smiled a silly smile and again asked the question:
“Shay, where’s Hadlock?”
And now it dawned upon this estimable old lady that those stories which had come to her in the past must have had some foundation. For the man who was asking this question was Hadlock himself.
Many tales have been told of the French-Canadian “habitant” which would imply that he is a very conservative person. It would appear, however, that when he becomes transplanted on a farm in “the States,” he is quite capable of getting up to date.
A wide awake “Canuck” who was branching out as a progressive farmer in a New England state, became much interested in a proposed employers’ liability bill which was up for discussion in the legislature. Some of his friends, being a little skeptical, he proceeded to make the matter clear to them——how successfully the reader may judge from the following:
“All dose farmer mans be protect so when hees ole mare kick himself up, broke it the harness, kill de wagon and de hire mans; or if the mow machine run away from de span hoss and kill the whole beesness, hire man, machine and horse,——What for that farmer mans hees be blame in dis bill? No, sir; I guess not!”