Story #25 in the Harry Forbes Remembers Series
It would have been about late fall 1923, no snow, sun shining, warm days like summer. I was six years old, my sister Agnes was five. We had heard folks talking about kids running away from home. Those days men were walking down the road looking for work. They would tie a bundle of their clothing on the end of a stick, would put the stick over their shoulders, then hold the empty end with their hand for balance while walking.
We got a couple of bundles of our clothing tied on a couple of sticks and on this nice evening, crawled through a barbed wire fence, got hung up and got loose. We were running west, away from home. We got about a 1/2 mile from home, the sun was sinking, a shower of rain hit us, we got soaking wet and and it didn’t feel very good. It was soon going to get dark and scary, so we turned around and headed back home.
When we got back home, our parents asked us why we came back. Well, we said it rained and we got wet and cold and it was going to get dark and we had no place to sleep and no place to get any breakfast, so we were going to wait till morning and leave after breakfast.
Of course our parents had been taking this all in, but just let us do our thing. Next morning our father was driving with team and wagon 3 1/2 miles west to Kincorth for the mail. He said he would give us a ride so we would not have to walk that far and we could leave from there. But next morning we did not even want to talk about it. We had a pretty good place to stay, a good breakfast, a warm, dry place to sleep and eat. Besides, Christmas was coming and we did not want to miss Christmas. Running away had not turned out exciting at all.
Mothers Care for Their Young (in Harry’s words)
Most all mothers have a natural instinct to claim and care for her young. The young, when born, have an inclination to seek that means of survival (except I heard of the turtle; the young when born, must seek water to survive.) I saw a mother snake, whom I must have surprised. Protecting her young, she opened her mouth wide and these little two-inch snakes were escaping to safety down her throat. When the coast was clear, her mouth would open by some instinct, and out they would come again.
