----Source: Greenwood Gleaner 28 FEB 1957 Smith H. Miller (LaConner, WA)

OUT OF THE PAST

Summer Work '95 Sequel

Letter to the Editor:

Dear Ed:

Guess I promised a sequel to that vacation job I had up on the SAWYER Farm near Longwood. This time it was on the WITHEE farm east of Longwood.

If I remember correctly there were five of us boys went there from Greenwood to help with the haying. They had a goodly number of cows on that farm too. They were all those big Holsteins and they gave a whale of a lot of milk and were the hardest cows to milk in the world. It was blue milk they gave, if you know what that means. Well, I have forgotten the name of the five boys but there was Bill OELIG, Bendigo HENDRICKSON, (I've forgotten his real first name), a chap by the name of George WISHING and myself. We slept in a large men's room where there were four double beds, one in each corner. Bill and Bendigo slept in one bed just opposite that of the hired man and George and I in the one in the corner just below that of Bill and Bendigo. This hired man was an emigrant from somewhere we could never figure out from what country he could have come from for he resembled no other emigrant we could think of. A great big man, short of stature, heavy set with the strength of two big oxen. His hair stood straight up and his neck was straight from the back of his head to his back indicating, as was usually considered, not much intelligence. Shaggy eyebrows and low forehead and squinty eyes not indicative of any friendliness. He was always coming to bed late and we usually were quite tired and it was not a pleasant thing to be awakened so soon after getting to sleep. So one day while resting at the end of a swath and leaning on the sythe snaths we concocted the idea of planting some large thistle bulbs under his bed sheet.

I can't remember now just how we figured this would hurry his bedtime but anyway we did it that evening. Of course that evening we didn't fall off to sleep at all..... and finally he came shuffling up the stairs with not too light a step and soon he was peeling off his clothes then he hit the bed right square on top of those thistles. If you have ever heard the commotion set up by about ten big bulls, this was a very good compliment of the same, and he just floated out of that bed and landed about ten feet away right beside Bill and Bendigo's bed. We thought he d tear into them but he didn't. He seemed to have some kind of a grudge against George Wishing and proceeded to mop-up on him. We heard him apparently messing around with his trousers and then he came over to our bed with his arms raised high and yelling down at us and said, George Wishington, I m going to kill you , and we could see a reflection of light from a kind harvest moon shining through the window onto a very large knife.

Our life span was at a very low ebb right then, when suddenly we heard something like a hammer hitting flesh and this man..... sagged at the knees and he was out like a doorknob. Of course we immediately relieved his clenched hand of that dirk and then looked to see what happened. Bill Oelig had heaved that big shoe of his at him and it hit him just behind the ear.....he didn't come to until he was immersed with some nice coldwater. He was then docile enough and took his blanket and went out and spent the night in the haymow and the last thing we saw of him was the next morning (not waiting for breakfast) trudging down the road toward Longwood and beyond.