THE BATTALION
11
-gi-eat bend of one of the numerous creeks, composed of many
glistening white houses, with a dark back ground of orchards
and fields, while here and there a great high roof building or
,a small and unportentious steeple gave one a suggestion as to
the character of the inhabitants. You thread your way along
the lane, across a bridge over the little creek and then into a
lane more dusty than ever, and approach the place. The
buildings apparently scatter out to give way to your approach,
the village looks smaller and more scattered and appears dull
and uninteresting. At last you are on the square, you saunter
-over to a two-story building that bears the sign “HOTEL,”
there you are offered a seat on the portico and casually take
in the situation. All around the square are stores that dis
play on their fronts in huge letters the name of the proprietor
and his wares, casting your eyes under the awning in front
you may catch a glimpse of the proprietor himself, dreamily
leaning back in his chair, waiting for a customer, or else sur
rounded by a knot of men asparently engaged in animated
•conversation. If you were to ask any passing denizen of the
nature of the conversation, he would invariably reply, “I
guess it’s politics or religion,” and nine times out of ten he
would be right. Maybe near by you would see a great farm
wagon loaded with wheat, and the owner perched thereon sur
rounded by a number of buyers. A group of boys near by en
tertain your ears with cries of “venture dubs,” “venture
rounds,” “kicks,” “flat knucks,” etc., which shows you that
evidently marbles are “all the go.”
In fact, the village or “town” as everybody calls it,
plays no small part in the life of this country. The farmer
comes here “to do his tradin’” or “to get some blacksmithing
done,” and then, on rainy days he comes down, gets his
weekly papers, sits down under the awnings, argues politics
or religion and discusses the topics of the da\'. He winds up
with a discourse on the state of crops and a prediction as to
when it will next rain, or maybe, he engaged in a game of
checkers or chess; and so, whiles away the dull, gloomy day.
The same scene is enacted on extremely hot days in summer,
or cold days in winter. At night the store is the resort of