| I had to furnish all of the good
things for her to cook. When I would be very busy with the crops, I
could not go to the market, but she was very good at fixing a good
meal out of almost nothing. Whenever she would come out to where I was
working, wiping her hands on her apron, I would know what was wrong.
She would say, "This is it. If you expect any dinner on the
table today, you had just as well hook your team to the wagon and go
to the market. I am out of everything. I have shifted my last. I have
told you my last time." I would go to the market and bring
home a load of food. The children would say when I was unloading the
wagon, "I'll bet Papa was hungry while at the store."
I usually brought home to much.
TIMBER CUTTING IN 1912 In 1912, there was a large timber works going on close to me. In fact, the timber came to my horse lot just over the fence, and for three to six miles north and south of me. I pitched my crop as I always did---though it was hard for me to stay out of those timber woods. There were two men who came to our place looking for a place to stay while they cut timber. Since we lived so close we took them in and boarded them for the summer. One of them was about fifty, the other was in his thirties. The younger man was a six footer weighing about one hundred and eighty pounds. His name was Tom White. I will never forget him. He had a large family down in South Arkansas. The timber was good. He said that he had to make some money, as he could not stay on the job and pay me one dollar and fifty cents a week. Can you imagine getting your room and board for that price now? Tom White had trouble keeping himself a buddy. He worked so hard that he would burn out every man who would come on the job. Every week or so he would have to lose time from work to go hunt for another man to pull the old crosscut saw with him. Another man had left Mr. White, and on a Friday morning he said to me, "Mr. Dacus, I've got to go down around Harrisburg, to try and find a man to cut timber with me. This man can't take it. I have to work hard." I told Mr. White that I was through with my crop and that I would be 46 |