05/04/2026
Benton and his parents.
I became an admirer of Ada Mae because she could draw interesting pictures in the sand with a sharp stick. Roxie and I became friends because we shared an interest in her brood of bantam chickens that resided under her house. There were seven of them including the rooster and she had names for all of them. Once when I was there and we were playing outside, we heard one of them cackle in its small voice and she motioned for me to follow her. To my surprise, she led me into her house and then into the kitchen. There she dropped to her knees and flipped over a loose floor board to reveal a warm, freshly laid little egg. She plucked it from the nest of straw and oak leaves, put it in the dish with the other eggs, and then replaced the floorboard. Until this day, I have not seen a more efficient delivery system.
Before man harnessed the power of steam, he harnessed the power of large animals. I suppose someone knows who invented the horse collar, but whoever it was, his/her name did not make it into any of the history books I was forced to read. Considering the amount of farming one could do with pick and shovel versus with beasts of burden, this advancement had to be an important step toward modern farming. I have often pondered the amount of hard, physical labor a farmer must endure but I would not discount the labor of horses and mules. At that stage in my life, I had not yet seen a tractor, so watching a team pulling a flat bottomed turning plow fascinated me.
Unless you have actually experienced farming as a means of survival, you probably think that animals are just chunks of flesh that have no power to reason. Not being a Psychologist, I cannot properly define reason, but I can tell you that animals have different natures and some are good and loving, and some just want to kill or cripple you.
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