16

15.

the education they can get, for the more training a person has, the
easier it is to get work. Who wants an ignorant person working for
'em these days?"

The daughter-in-law went out muttering about getting the
clothes on the line, but she had been gone only a few minutes when
a baby began to cry somewhere in the rear of the house. The woman
hurried back in the house and soon passed through the room where we
sat. In her arms she carried her infant, and it was as light in
color as was its mother. Fred said a few affectionate words to
the child. "It's so hot at our house," the woman said, "that I have
to bring him over here to find a place cool enough for him to sleep."
Her remarks did not seem to be addressed to anyone in particular, so
I made no reply. "Babies are a lot of trouble," Fred said with a
smile when the mother and child had gone, "and now-a-days when they
grow up they don't try to make up to their parents for all the trouble
they've been. They just keep on looking to their parents for help and
support. I hope none of these young folks of mine will have more
than two children, for they couldn't do the right thing by any more.
I think two children are enough for any couple to undertake to raise.
A boy and a girl are all the children needed in one home in these
times, for a couple can't take proper care of more.

"I have a beautiful vegetable garden that I want you to
see before you go. I also raise my meat and keep a cow, but my
meat won't last much longer now, for whenever any of my children
want a piece of meat to cook they come to me for it. The two hogs
I killed last year weighed four hundred pounds apiece, and they cost
me lots of money buying feed for 'em.

1873