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<DIV>Oregon Pioneers never joked >?<BR> I spose they never laughed
either ?</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Not true Dan,</DIV>
<DIV>A few nights before we went away, a party of neighbor boys came over
to bid us good bye. Mother set out buttermilk and johnny cakes. Two or
three of the boys slipped out and after a while came in carrying a bee gum. They
had held it over a shovel full of hot coals and tobacco till the bees were
all dead, so the gum was opened in safety and the clear flakes of honey
were passed around. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> The frontier boys, to whom sweets were a rare delicacy,
ate it and laughed and laughed at the joke on Mr. Collins, who then owned
our bees. He was said to be rather over careful of what belonged to him,
so they thought it was a great lark. I remember that Father seemed to
enjoy the joke even more than they did. He ate the honey and chuckled to
himself, but Mother refused to touch it, though she gave no reason at the
time. Mother was very pious. Most anyone at all would have known that by
first looking at her. I guess Father was to, for the matter of that, but
one would never in the world have suspected it by just seeing him or hearing him
laugh. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Later, when the company had gone, Mother looked very
severe and frowning at Father, said: "Daniel, I am surprised at you for
allowing those boys to take Mr. Collins' honey. You even ate it and
laughed with the rest of them." Then Father laughed even louder than before.
He laughed till the tears came and said: "why Polly, the boys did not know
it, but that was not Mr. Collins' bee gum. It was the one that I had kept
for ourselves." That was my Fathers sense of delicacy. The boys probably
chuckled for a long time over the joke they played on Mr. Collins I am
quite sure they never learned from Father that they had sat by our own fireside
and had eaten the honey that we were to take with us. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><B>Walt
Davies<BR>Cooper Hollow Farm<BR>Monmouth, OR 97361<BR>503 623-0460 <BR></B><IMG SRC="cid:X.MA1.1086716432@aol.com" height=93 width=72 border=0 DATASIZE="2892" ID="MA1.1086716432" ></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>