0 ONE MONTH OUT OF MY LIFE; by "Sally Sod" (Mrs. Loretto Green); part 3 of 4; 1927

Home...supper...and all ready for bed. Then there were dresses to make. I'm mighty glad they don't make them as they did when I went to school, with a row of buttons down the back. I well remember how we used to turn each other around to count the buttons on the back of each other's dresses to see whether our mothers were lazy or not. The number of buttons decided that.

April 1927 Farmer's Wife Cover

"Haste makes waste." When I was trying my best to finish two dresses in one day I made a miserable blunder and sewed the front of the waist on the back of the skirt. It was then the truth of an old saying came to me: "As ye sew, so shall ye rip."

One day came a card from a city woman saying, "My boy has been sick so much and is so delicate I wish I could send him to your house in the country for a while to see if it would build him up." As usual I was in a grand rush so the next day I sent a card.

"Have Jerry ready Sunday and we will come to get him."

Who should we take with us and who leave at home? Our car does not accommodate twelve or thirteen people for a thirty mile trip. Then just as I was at my usual summer indoor sport, known as "swat and fly," I heard half a dozen voices.

"Ma, hurry...Run...Bleeding to death...Just awful."

When I got outside, there sat my Little Girl with a miserable big cut on the bottom of her foot. Blood...blood everywhere. And such screams. That meant more trips to the Doctor. But it decided who was to be left at home...with one more girl to look after her and the two big boys to cook for them.

Now a cut foot to take care of...dresses...berries. And on Saturday morning (and Saturday is my busy day always) "me gude mon" stepped in and said, "Busy?"

"Of course I'm busy. Do I look as though I were on a vacation?"

"Well, no. But I wondered if you could go to mill for me?"

"Of all things! What for?"

"So I can begin to plow."

"Well, then, I'll go if I can go right now."

"Sure, come right along and I'll start the car for you."

On the way I met a neighbor who said, "I don't, for the life of me, see how you think you have time to go to mill."

"I don't know that I have but I like to help out once in a while if I can," I answered.

Sunday morning...up at five o'clock. At seven, eight of us ready to start. We had a glorious day and brought the little sick boy back with us. Chores...little ones put to bed and then a lunch. We were all hungry except Jerry. Everything I offered him, he answered, "No, thank you. No. No."

Can you imagine a boy without an appetite? I told him to go to bed, intending to send him out to play so hard the next day that he would be starved.

Monday...first day of school. Four lunches to pack, four children to send to school. More work...More worry. The week before school started, had proved to be the most nerve wracking, ear splitting, back breaking one of the year.