Farmer Boy Read Online Free PDF Page A

Almanzo did not know the best part of it till he listened to his father talking to Mr. Corse that night at supper.
    “The boys didn't throw you out, Royal tells me,” Father said.
    “No,” said Mr. Corse. “Thanks to your blacksnake whip.”
    Almanzo stopped eating. He sat and looked at Father. Father had known, all the time. It was Father's blacksnake whip that had bested Big Bill Ritchie. Almanzo was sure that Father was the smartest man in the world, as well as the biggest and strongest.
    Father was talking. He said that while the big boys were riding on Mr. Ritchie's bobsled they had told Mr. Ritchie that they were going to thrash the teacher that afternoon. Mr. Ritchie thought it was a good joke. He was so sure the boys would do it that he told everyone in town they had done it, and on his way home he had stopped to tell Father that Bill had thrashed Mr.
    Corse and broken up the school again.
    Almanzo thought how surprised Mr. Ritchie must have been when he got home and saw Bill.

BIRTHDAY
    Next morning while Almanzo was eating his oatmeal, Father said this was his birthday. Almanzo had forgotten it. He was nine years old, that cold winter morning.
    “There's something for you in the woodshed,”
    Father said.
    Almanzo wanted to see it right away. But Mother said if he did not eat his breakfast he was sick, and must take medicine. Then he ate as fast as he could, and she said:
    “Don't take such big mouthfuls.”
    Mothers always fuss about the way you eat. You can hardly eat any way that pleases them.
    But at last breakfast was over and Almanzo got to the woodshed. There was a little calf-yoke! Father had made it of red cedar, so it was strong and yet light. It was Almanzo's very own, and Father said:
    'Yes, son, you are old enough now to break the calves."
    Almanzo did not go to school that day. He did not have to go to school when there were more important things to do. He carried the little yoke to the barn, and Father went with him. Almanzo thought that if he handled the calves perfectly, perhaps Father might let him help with the colts next year.
    Star and Bright were in their warm stall in the South Barn. Their little red sides were sleek and silky from all the curryings Almanzo had given them. They crowded against him when he went into the stall, and licked at him with their wet, rough tongues. They thought he had brought them carrots. They did not know he was going to teach them how to behave like big oxen.
    Father showed him how to fit the yoke carefully to their soft necks. He must scrape its inside curves with a bit of broken glass, till the yoke fitted perfectly and the wood was silky-smooth.
    Then Almanzo let down the bars of the stall, and the wondering calves followed him into the dazzling, cold, snowy barnyard.
    Father held up one end of the yoke while Almanzo laid the other end on Bright's neck.
    Then Almanzo lifted up the bow under Bright's throat and pushed its ends through the holes made for them in the yoke. He slipped a wooden bow-pin through one end of the bow, above the yoke, and it held the bow in place.
    Bright kept twisting his head and trying to see the strange thing on his neck. But Almanzo had made him so gentle that he stood quietly, and Almanzo gave him a piece of carrot.
    Star heard him crunching it and came to get his share. Father pushed him around beside Bright, under the other end of the yoke, and Almanzo pushed the other bow up under his throat and fastened it with its bow-pin. There, already, he had his little yoke of oxen.
    Then Father tied a rope around Star's nubs of horns and Almanzo took the rope. He stood in front of the calves and shouted:
    “Giddap!”
    Star's neck stretched out longer and longer.
    Almanzo pulled, till finally Star stepped forward.
    Bright snorted and pulled back. The yoke twisted Star's head around and stopped him, and the two calves stood wondering what it was all about.
    Father helped Almanzo push them, till they stood properly side by side again.