Chapter 2 of Tales I Can Remember, by Elsie Swagerty Burton
One spring morning, I had my first lesson in the seeming cruelty that can accompany farm life. The rains had been plentiful that winter and the fields around our house were abundant with gorgeous wild flowers, especially poppies. Their beauty had been pointed out to me and a deep appreciation in them had been engendered. On this particular morning I arose to the sight of my gentle, loving grandfather plowing the glorious flowers under. I wanted to rush out and ask, even plead with him to stop, after all I seldom had a wish that was not granted. But mother persuaded me that it would be useless and that I should not even request it. Now it had been explained to me all this time that God had made those flowers for us to appreciate and enjoy and here grandfather was destroying them. I was sure he was disobeying God. I was so distraught by this whole affair that I avoided my grandfather for days.
The next incident I remember occurred when we went to the “Toe-hills” (foothills) one summer. Father had a harvester and hired his equipment and crew out to harvest farmer’s wheat crops. Our temporary home was a structure on sleds ( a cookhouse). Within it was a stove and the rest of the space was more or less wall to wall beds for there were four youngsters to accommodate by this time: my brothers Clem and Floyd and baby Darrell and me.
The structure was located on a stream and we children delighted in watching frogs during the day but did not much like the loud croaking they made at night. Occasionally, we were frightened by loud human-like screams during the night. Our parents glossed it over as nothing at all. In my Dad’s crew were an older nephew or two who were with the family sometimes after working hours. One was overheard talking about the painful cries of the unwary frogs who were being eaten by the water snakes at night. Thus I learned another lesson in nature. I had so liked to watch the frogs hopping about by day. It was a hard pill to swallow to realize that could happen to them and that no one was going to even try to do anything about it.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 