Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

-je ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
to run up the tree and hang on by his hind legs and bark
at us, nor would he come down until we showed him a nut to
eat; then he would come with a bound. Perhaps you think
I may not remember Neddie's tragic and ignoble end, but I do:
he departed this life because of a spirit of investigation which
prompted him to eat a poisoned rat-wafer, and he died greatly
lamented.
We even entertained beneath the walnut tree. As I sit
here alone, after most of the people who met in its large shade
are gone beyond recall and the actors in the drama of our youth
seek its green carpet no more, I see again some of the scenes
enacted there. I recall a red-letter day when the Farmers'
Lyceum came over from Cheviot and out from Farmers'
College for their monthly meeting, which took the form on
this occasion of a picnic beneath our walnut tree. Long tables
were spread in its generous shade, and all seemed to enjoy the
outing. The president of the College spoke to the members
that day. All sorts of questions concerning agriculture were
discussed by the Lyceum, and the desire for improved methods
was always evident. This organization would be called a
club nowadays, I suppose. It was a spot of real culture in
our rural life.
Among other duties our dairy made work, and we were
very busy before market days, which were Tuesdays and Fridays
as I remember. We girls churned and mother worked
the butter out into pound rolls, usually as many as forty, and
wrapped each in a clean white cloth. In order to be in market
early, father and mother would be up and off by two o'clock
in the morning, having had breakfast in the night. Should
the morning be stormy it was a dark and dismal ride to Cincinnati,
down the long hill by Spring Grove Cemetery and
across Mill Creek and on to the city. When they reached the
place of marketing they backed the spring wagon up to the
curbstone, where they found many early birds ready to buy
their butter and boxes of fresh eggs, as well as cottage cheese
and bunches of flowers I had gathered from our garden and
arranged. Mother was to use the money for which she sold
the bouquets to buy plants for our flower beds, such as ver-