Hearne History - Page 506

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hand, waiting for my pay. To have an Irishman take me task for speaking plain English, made me ire-ish. He apologized, but I was firm ; he paid what was due me, and said: "Young man you're a little fool, but I like your pluck; and if ever you want work, come to me." I walked out the Market St. road, filled with as much van- itv as though I had conquered an army of Irishmen.

At Rock Springs a farmer permitted me to ride with him, and at dusk we had reached Manchester, where he left the "pike," I walked on to Baldwin, and staid at the hotel that night. Sunday afternoon, looking west, I saw, some two miles distant, a large, well-improved farm. The matter of obtaining work lwras uppermost in lily mind, and I deliberately walked across to that farm and asked a pleasant-looking young man for a job. He propounded the usual questions, and, when I explained the cause of my sudden departure from St. Louis, said: "I'll just try you; for if there is not too much impudence with your courage, you'll do." The next morning I milked nine cows. "The Highland Farm Creamery" was in its infancy. One, two, and three cows at a time were added to the number as they could be purchased, and three months later I was milking more than thirty cows twice a day. At first the work was tiresome, painful even, but I became so accustomed to it that it did not tire: but a helper was deemed advisable, and the cows afterward spent more time in the pasture. Later I was placed in the dairy and my wages increased. Two days each week I went to St. Louis (twenty-two miles) with butter, which was sold to private families. I soon learned the city well, and the "butter man" came to be well, if not "favorably known." When spring came, I had, in addition to the butter, the prdducts of a forty-acre orchard to market, and received, in addition to my wages, a per cent for all fruit sold.

My employer was cultured to a high degree, young, handsome, and unmarried. His attitude toward me was that of a brother, rather than a taskmaster, and it was at his instance I returned to Ill. and attended school the next fall and winter, It is needless to say that I studied hard. During the winter I determined to learn the machinist's trade, and, as I couldn't enter the shops I desired to before the next fall, I planted a crop with a young farmer. Oct. 1874, I entered the employ of Blakeslee & Brother at Duquoin, Ill., and luckily secured room and board at the home of the president of

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Copyright (c) 1999, 2007 Brian Cragun.