Part 16 (1/2)

As we all know, dogs have a keen sense of hearing They can hear sounds that we humans can't hear And as we also know, 12-year- old boys like to see dogs fight Show me one who doesn't and I'll help you try to find out what is wrong with the boy I was 12 at that ti I ever saw to sic onto anything he wanted to get onto And he usually wanted to get onto any dog that happened to be close when one of us boys said, ”Sic 'e lived such a lonely life Of course, he had us hus about the place to accept any of the commands to sic 'em So he had to be alert at all times and do all the dirty work himself He was so accustoer, he was off and away before the full as spoken He didn't wait to hear the ”'em” part of the word, he didn't even need the ”c” part, but only the ”si” sound, and he only needed to hear that part in a whisper

Now, that was all I said that day-just an alh my upper front teeth And I remember, Old Scotch looked up at me as if to ask, ”Did I hear what I hope I heard?”

I looked at him and winked one eye and barely noddedand smiled and very quietly-almost silently- -repeated, ”Si-,” and in a split second he was all over the other dog like a crow on a Junebug

After Papa had stopped the fight, Old Scotch looked at me with a question-mark expression on his face I smiled back at him just to let him know he had not misunderstood ave freely

No one had heard the ”si-” except the dog and me It would be our little secret I certainly wouldn't tell, and he couldn't tell I gave hied his tail-the only way he kne to say, ”Thank you, it was fun while it lasted” Then he went back to investigating and

CHAPTER 12

MY INVENTIONS AND HIGH SCHOOL DAYS

In the ot into the trucking business The truck replaced the horse in our lives and after a few years we sold our horses Then Papa began to wonder if a truck would pull a trailer He had a good wagon he didn't need, so he thought to hion?” He tried it and it worked He cut the tongue off short, hooked it behind his truck and hauled cottonseed to the oil ins in s with new innovations, I was doing soot electricity in our home, I had learned that the telephone co away dozens of old batteries from ti, but a few of theh live ones together, I had enough current to light flashlight bulbs

I had brought back hundreds of feet of s caps at Gorh our house and had little night lights in all our roohts were sht to prevent most of the skinned shi+ns which were usually caused by vicious chairs that jumped out and tackled a fellow as he htly journeys to the outhouse

I also had an Erector Set which had a little motor that ran off the old batteries It came in handy in a lot of my experi heater I didn't like to get up and build a fire on a cold , ”Why not ed the thing up before I went to bed The nextwhen the alarm went off, it started the hted the kindling that lighted the wood that heated the room

Well, did it work? Sure it worked, cross my heart But it wasn't practical I didn't expect it to be It was ht before, than it was to build a fire nextand jump back into bed while the room warmed up I just wanted to see if I could do it, and I could

Once I hooked a bunch of those old dry cells to an auto horn and it really sounded loud in the house Then one night while Joel ay from home, I made a pressure switch and put it under his ot into bed it would honk the horn under his bed He was out with his girl and I knew he'd come in after ere all in bed, and hts about my little sche waked up in the ht by ould see its horn And I knew they would frown onbefore Joel got hohts in their hoed The windcharger was a wind-driven generator The more the wind blew the ed In 1921, when I was fifteen years old, I made the first wind-driven electric plant I ever saw or had ever heard of I took ain the inside so it would put out an alternating current instead of a juht a flashlight bulb when the wind blew I mounted the plant on top of our house above ht switched on all the tihtness of the light was a good indication of how fast the as blowing

After we got city current I did further experi and learned et a little shock now and then from the city current And I learned that I could touch the tires just a wee bit with the tips of le One day I tied two et a better hold and enjoy even rip on the handles would give er shock But what I didn't knoas that when the shock reached a certain degree of intensity, it would cause rip even harder, and I found myself unable to open my hands to free ht fixture hanging in the center of the room I couldn't open my hands, but I dropped to the floor and pulled the wires loose fro lad when he decided to sell it to me That was another one of my drea Thethat orth the most to the family was the fly- chaser I made out of it

In those days we Johnsons still didn't have screens on our s and doors We just barely had s and doors Anyway, I took the electricup Then I fastened a stick to the e would float three inches above the food on the dining table When I placed this monster in the middle of Mama's table, she was not at all pleased

You see, Maets, one of which had blown up all over her kitchen stove, cabinet, walls and floor So Nevertheless, by the ti table on this particular day-the day of the fly-chaser-I had the ed cloth round and round, shooing all the flies away It proved to be a lifesaver No fly ever lighted within its ic circle Mama could place all the food on the table and feel sure that no fly would ever light on any of it

After Maot back on speaking terht be happy in the thought that her little ugly duckling ht just make his mark in the world after all

Oh yes, I mentioned the blow-up in Maotten this toy steaine for Christht the alcohol burner under it, and then wait tenThen about two minutes later the boiler was dry of water and the whole operation had to be done over That a to suit er boiler wouldn't have to be filled so often, and there would be more action each time I heated it So I put a valve steallon syrup bucket And I ran a small rubber hose from the valve steine Next I filled the bucket ater and placed it on Mama's wood cookstove and waited-and waited and waited

And that's when it happened It blew up The lid hit the ceiling, and water hit the four walls and everything in the kitchen I was glad Mah to scare her half out of herin a hurry And now let us have a ine what Mama said to ht never be the saain And I was sorry to have scared her But mostly I was afraid she wouldn't let ain

After the steam cleared out of the kitchen, Mah to re” to my own room Then I found that the little rubber tube was stopped up Steah it