IT WOULD seem very strange to the people now to see the “pioneer boy” going to the “horse mill” long before daylight for fear some one would get in ahead of him. Then when he gets home he has to go around the field and scare the squirrels out; then go away down in the valley and shake down the wild plums for the hogs to eat; then carry water and put it in the ash-hopper to make the soap; then pick wool while he rests; then go and see if the deer-skins are ready to be taken out of the trough and rubbed dry; then help to put the “chain” through the “harness” to make the cloth; then go and look where is the best place to cut prairie hay; then carry up some pumpkins to dry. But the “pioneer boy” was a happy, rollicking lad; he had just what he expected, and he knew he was a good shot with the rifle, and was handy with the ox-whip, and had a good “coon dog”, and that was enough for him.
[The Third Boy.]
SIXTY-THREE years ago there was a school going on four miles East of us, and we went all winter. There were five boys of us, and I was the smallest; the two largest boys would get on one horse and the three smaller boys on the “other horse”, that placed me “third boy” on the “other horse” right on his hips; and they would go in a swift gallop all the way, and when we would get there I was almost done for. And I only learned one thing that winter. I learned that to be “third boy” on the “other horse” and on a keen jump for a four-mile dash is a hard seat for a small boy. I lived over it, but I have not got rested yet.