Camping in a

Farmhouse
1916

Margaret M Cramer
 Camping in a Farmhouse
1916
written by Margaret Marvin Cramer (1907—1992)
as an assignment for Children’s Lit.
while living at 22 Garfield Street
Cortland,NY
"
’Board!" shouted the conductor.
Margaret sank back with a happy sigh against the red
plush seat on the "Old Gee Whiz” railroad car as it was
leaving Cortland, NY.
"Well,” she exclaimed to her brother Ted who was
sharing the seat, "at last the long wait between trains is
over, and we’re on our way again. It’s fun to leave
Syracuse behind, but it’s a long time to wait for this train
to start for Cincinnatus."
"Huh!"replied Ted, who was almost two years older than
Margaret’s nine, "You’ll just be a sissy when we finally do
get out in the country. Girls don’t know how to have fun.
They’re scared!"
"I wish you’d stop picking on me. It’s not fun to be
the only girl with four brothers, and to be left out of
things."
Ma was holding the baby on her lap.
Francis was only
two years old, so they didn’t have to pay any fare for him.
Joe was five, so he and Ted and Margaret could ride for half
fare. But Keith was almost a ’teenager now, for in August
he’d be thirteen. That meant Pa had to pay for a whole
ticket for him.
"Look," said Margaret importantly. "There’s some
Indian paintbrush and buttercups and daisies ————— whole great
big fields of them."
Keith smiled at her and agreed. "They sure look
prettier than the hot sidewalks in the city,“ he said.
Just then the conductor called out, "Station—stop; East
Freetown, East Freetown." They heard a clank of milk cans
on the platform outside as the train jerked to a stop.

After it started up again, Joe asked sleepily, "Ma,

who’s that man in the back of the car? What’s he doing?"
Ted exclaimed, "Don’t you know? That’s a mailman.
He’s sorting out the mail."
 "That’s right," said Keith. ”This car is almost half
filled with our family, and the other half is the mail car.
The rest of the train carries farmers’ milk."
"I hope Ma’s letter to Aunt Retta went up the Brackel
Road after yesterday’s train got in," chimed in Margaret,
the little worrier. "If it didn’t, maybe Uncle Arva won’t
be at the station to meet us."
"Oh, you sure got it bad. Don’t you ever expect
MY,
anything to work right?" grumbled Ted impatiently.
The train rumbled on in rhythm, but every time before a
railroad crossing, the engine whistle sounded a warning, and
they went merrily on and on. Finally, a sign on a building
loomed outside the windows: CINCINNATUS-——DEPOT.

Margaret gave a happy sigh. "Look, look. There’s

Uncle Arva with his double wagon and horses waiting for us!"
She was the first out of the train, helped by the
conductor to step down carefully onto the little step—stool
he placed there for her.

Everyone went over to where Uncle Arva was holding the

horses and smiling his welcome.
Mother held the baby, and all the others climbed in,
with Pa sitting up front with Uncle Arva. Ted wiggled
around until he squeezed in between the two men in front.
”Please, can I drive the horses?" he asked.
"If you’ll just hang to the lines looselyknow
and let the
horses go." He winked at Pa. "Really, they their way
home, anyway," he said with Ted.
a smile at
The road stretched ahead of them, the horses’ feet
dirt
went cloppety-clop, and the children watched with wide eyes
as they went past farmhouses and barns, a little red
schoolhouse, then a little white church. and on and on, til
finally the baby fell asleep.
Just then, said, "There’s the old Corning place.
Pa
See, the house there on the left and the barn across the
road. That’s where we’re going to camp this summer."
The children looked with wide eyes, because they
thought camping meant in a tent.
"Where are we going to sleep?" asked Margaret, looking
around.
 the three boys were just running through the house
But
excitedly.
Ma
said, "Margaret, if you will help me unpack this
suitcase, we’ll discover where we are all going to sleep."
Sure enough, there were four big strawticks, looking
like empty mattresses. PaKeith and Joe took one, and Ted and
Margaret took one, and showed them where the straw was
out in the barn.
They
stuffed each tick full until it was rounded up
like a mountain.
Pa carried them into the house. The other
two ticks were filled in no time, and the boys carried them
in.
"Ma, can
sleep alone on one?" Margaret asked timidly.
I

"Yes, you can sleep right here near our room," said Ma.
"Keith and Ted will sleep on one side of this other room,
and Joe and Francis on the other side."
"We’re all going to be snug as a bug in a rug!" said
Pa.
Margaret wondered how many bugs would be in her bed,
but for once she didn’t say it aloud.
_
"Oh! Here come Aunt Dooley and Elizabeth.” called
Keith, and sure enough, they had brought baskets of food to
welcome them.
Soon everyone full
was tiredand and sound asleep on
the tick beds made up with home-made quilts loaned by all
the aunts who lived nearby.
is,
Everyone, that except Margaret. She had been
sound. It
went "tick, tick, tick, tick" very fast.little
nearly asleep when she heard a strange
Then she heard a whirring sound, and she quickly buried
her head down under the quilts. "Pa, oh, Pa! There’s an
animal in here. It’s after me. I’m scared!” she yelled.
Pa came running, waving a broom in the air. "Don’t be
afraid. It’s only aBIG BROWN BAT. I’ll
make her go away."
He opened the doors and windows. and out flew the bat.
Now Ted could be heard laughing, but Margaret didn’t
think it was so funny.
 The next morning, Keith showed her something very
interesting. A window in her room had been broken, and
outside the window, but inside the shutter that kept out the
weather when closed, were two little Big Brown baby bats,
hanging head down, clinging to the inside of the shutter
slats.
"You
see," said Keith, "that was a mother bat which we
frightened last night. She hides her babies here and goes
out to find insects to eat. She helps the farmer by getting
rid of a lot of insects that would otherwise eat the farm
crops."
Margaret understood, but she wished the babies would
soon be able to fly away somewhere else, and she was happy
when Pa put in a new window glass to keep out the bats.
The days flew by.Margaret forgot her fears as she
roamed around under the apple trees, played in the little
brook with her brothers, and helped Ma by showing little
Francis how to make mud pies.
She also liked to watch the Harvey men, who owned the
farm, when they came over to do the haying. Joe had heard
Ma sing the song
"Sing about the farmer
Planting corn and beans.
Sing about the harvest.
I know what
that means."
One day he sang it too, only he changed the words a
bit. "Sing about the Harveys
Planting corn and beans...."
Five-year-old Joe the funny little boy.¥
was always
The newspapers from the city, reaching Cincinnatus by
train and Rural Free Delivery mailman, brought news of a
dangerous war. The boys ran around the fields playing
soldiers. sheBut Margaret hadwetno wish where
to take part in this.
Instead, discovered a place the soil was a
clear, smooth clay. She found that she could fashion all
kinds of little animals and even little, tiny dishes to play
with. Little Francis liked patting away with the clay, too.
 Every time one of the uncles drove past, on the way to
town for groceries or to get new shoes on the horses, Pa
sent for some frankfurters. Ma baked homemade
bread, and Pa
showed them how to cut straight branches from
trees with a
y-fork on the end. Then he built a fire and they roasted
the hot dogs on the ends of the sticks.
slices of Ma’s
Fat fresh bread, wrapped around these
frankfurters, tasted "yummy," and Margaret forgot to be
afraid.
heads
The very birds in the trees must have cocked their
in
wonderment as everyone shouted in glee.
Pa had money to buy groceries, because he was asked to
paint the little white church nearby.
Sundays, the whole family went trudging down the
On
road, rain or shine,
When
it was warm and dry, the dust in the road was fun
to scuff through. When it was rainy, the children walked
carefully in the middle of the road to keep out of the wagon
ruts.
Cousin Nora played the organ. She had to pump very
hard on the foot pedals to make music come out.
When
it came time for Sunday
church pew with all her cousins.
School, Margaret sat in a
An aunt was always the
teacher. From the open windows sometimes came the sound of
horses whinnying, impatient to start home.
Just as summer was coming to an end, there came bad
news from the
causing many
city. A
terrible sickness called polio was
of the children to be very ill, and some were
crippled so they might never walk again.
At that time, no one had discovered the vaccine to help
prevent polio, so the Syracuse schools decided not to open
after Labor Day as they were used to, and all parents were
asked to keep their children out of crowds.
Now school was always
very important to Pa and Ma.
"The most important thing in the world," said Pa. So, no
more free summertime for their children. It was off to the
little boys
older
red schoolhouse for them.
went there all
Margaret and the three
through September.
It was a big change, because in the city, hundreds of
children went to each school, with many, many rooms. But
out in rural America, schoolhouses had only one room and a
woodshed to store the wood for the stove, and an outdoor
toilet.
 Besides that, it was a long, long walk, barefoot,
through the dust and mud, to the Upper Brackel School so
they’d be with their cousins. Some mornings, very early, it
was so cold and frosty it nipped fingers and toes. But
shoes had to be saved for Syracuse.

The children sat in double seats, at double desks.

Margaret shared her When
cousin Thelma’s seat, because they were
in the same grade. the teacher rang the bell, the
class called would march up front and sit in a special row
for their recitation. Of course, all the other children
could hear them, too.
At lunch time, they ate lunches out of their lunch
pails and then played games like "Steal Wood" and ”An’ty-
An’ty Over," which was forming teams to throw balls over the
woodshed.
In September, cold nights came along, and they went to
bed early, to huddle together for awhile, to keep warm. It
was very cozy under the quilts, while read stories to
Ma
them out of some old copies of "Youth’s Companion" and
Sunday School papers.
In October, the polio scare was nearly over, and they
then——oh, joy of joys——Margaret clapped her hands!train,
all went back to Syracuse by horse and wagon, by and
For Pa
a shiny black taxi pulled
hired home by four white horses to take
them from the station in Syracuse, to keep them safe
from crowds.
Not one of them ever caught polio!

*Uncle Joe Marvin had a wonderful Welsh tenor voice. You

may read about him in one of Uncle Keith’s books. He also,
at times, wore tea cozies on his head. JRC 1995

-Some of the accompanying photos have come from Uncle Keith

Marvin’s Silvernail and Marvin books. You may find more of
them there, or ask this editor, JRC. 1995