Part 27 (1/2)

I told hi him into the trailer just as I would any horse He was al chute when he decided to retreat In fact, he retreated all the way back down the chute and out into the corral Then I said to hio ahead and back”

I backed him across the lot until his tail hit the fence on the other side of the lot By this ti” of it and didn't see the fence all the way around to the loading chute, then up through the chute and into the trailer, and closed the tailgate The entire operation didn't take more than a couple of , hard journey on foot I really believe he enjoyed the ride, though he never mentioned it to me

It seems like I mentioned before, that I had never lost a penny on a bad debt However, there ht have been a ti, and not while I was in business

Yes, this happened at Royston Hobb Reed and Hester Hammitt each owed me two dollars Hobb had proot out his first bale of cotton Well, he got out his first bale, then his second bale, and still hadn'tme So one day, in the store, back by the post office, I asked hi to pay you until Hester pays you”

I asked hirocery bill until everyone else paid him?” Then I added, ”And besides, you proot out your first bale of cotton, and you didn't”

Hobb asked, ”Johnson, are you calling me a liar?”

I said, ”Call it whatever you like, you promised to pay me and you didn't”

Then he told me, ”Johnson, come outside here, I'll just whip you”

And I said, ”Okay, but remember, after you whip me, you still owe ain as he said, ”Coister, I'll just pay you”

Thank goodness we didn't go outside while he was in a bad ht have half killed me

While we lived at Royston, Papa had an old Chevrolet car that he was through with and he wanted to give it to Dennis It was an old, old car, just had a seat and a pick-up bed, no cab at all, tires not worth 50 cents each, all leaking, radiator leaking, using oil, dripping oil, and no license plates And besides all that, Dennis didn't have a driver's license I didn't want Dennis to own the old car But I saw later that I hadback, I can see why I should have allowed Dennis to own the old car But at the time, I reasoned: Dennis couldn't repair a flat, I would have to do it With no license, he could only drive it out in the pasture Thorns would puncture his tires We had no money to waste on the old car We had a car and two pick-ups, and Dennis had not shown any inclination toward repairing nor hbor boy had an old car like that, and one day he was driving down the road and the , the front end of the round

But who knows, this old carto spark Dennis' enthusiasreasy hands and skinned knuckles And it ret very much that I didn't allow him to own the old car and play with it Soether, cruel to the boy They convinced e had been done, never to be undone

Years later, after I had , and had repented for hter of one of those same kinfolks wanted to own a saddle horse in the city where they lived And there was a ti battle with herthe horse in town Thea look at a situation sio, but fro her own pocketbook instead of hter as I had been to Dennis I told her, ”By all ardless of the cost” The girl got the horse all right, but he cost a fortune in trouble,those last years we lived at Royston, Calvin Carriker built a new house at his River Far in the fireplace But he was unable to find an artificial log that would burn butane, they all burned natural gas He searched everywhere, and finally brought hoe it over to burn butane I worked on it in my spare time for several days, as well as soot parts that I had to drill and shape and alter until they would do what I wanted the pretty good Calvin stopped by the shop one day and left his wife, Nell, sitting in the car Then, when he saell the log was burning, he called her to come and see it She ca you bought at Rotan?”

He told her it was, and she said, ”Calvin, didn't you tell Clarence that the factorythat would burn butane successfully?”

Calvin said, ”No, if I had told hiht not have fixed it He didn't know it couldn't be done”

I reh the fence and into the pasture west of his barn He saddled a horse and went into the neighbor's pasture after hi Max andto kill it with He wanted the three of us to go hunt the snake and kill it Max took a 22 rifle and Calvin and I each took a hoe

It was early spring and the snakes had begun to corass was short but we took no chances We walked side by side, very slowly, and watched closely We soon found our first snake, lying at the ht have dug We stopped and stoodplans of e should do-or at least try to do We decided that Max was to shoot the snake, and in case he missed, Calvin and I would cut him to pieces with our hoes Our idea was to hurry and try to keep hiot all set, Max slowly raised his gun, aimed, and fired

We still don't knohether or not Max hit the snake We do knoever, that the snake went into the hole, along with four or five or six others Who kno many? It all happened so fast We just stood there-frozen in our tracks, tre, scared and surprised We had not seen any except the one snake lying near the opening of the den We quickly looked down around our feet to see whether there ht be others that we had not seen If there happened to be one behind et into that hole, I sure wanted to juo by

It was soained our composure We ell aware that we must be more cautious and watch more closely than we had been Then alked forward,over each other We walked about 100 yards,back the same 100 yards-and killed 27 rattlesnakes There were others, to be sure, but we had had enough for one day And so as it had been an hour before We planned to go back soet around to it

All my life I have seen cattle round-ups, but people always sees the hard way And that wasn't for me A cattle round-up at our Royston farm was unlike any other round-up in the world, so far as I know We had saddle horses but we hardly needed the into the feed- lot to eat bundled feed By siate behind them, the round-up was ended The e had to do next would take a littleup did But it was easier and faster than any system I have ever seen

At least once each year, we had to brand all the new calves, those we had bought as well as those we had raised We had to reduce the little bull calves to steers, vaccinate all young cattle against blackleg, both young and old had to be vaccinated against sootten what it was called, and I'll bet a quarter we farmers didn't call it by the same name that veterinarians called it And finally, all calves that had not been dehorned had to have their horns cut off I ree bull, and 55 calves to work That meant 135 vaccine shots, 30 to be branded, about 20 to be dehorned, and maybe 15 little bull calves to be worked on