| OCR Text |
Show Joy to Gather My Share 29 Annie invited Madelyn and Ruth and the younger children to hitch Old Bruce so they could take the buckboard wagon for the mail, take water to the men in the hayfield, or shop in the store in Woodland. There was bronco-busting Sunday afternoons, when young horses were broken to pull and to be ridden. Madelyn and her siblings sat on the corral log fence and watched these ranch rodeos. There were family bonfires where the four Stewart brothers, their wives and children, joined in singing and telling stories. This is where Madelyn first heard such folklore as Indian legends and stories of the Three Nephites, and participated in group singing. The one song they always sang with gusto was "The Farmer's Boy" -a song that continues to be sung every summer by descendants of the Stewarts. The song, too long to include here, is a ballad about a poor boy who came to a farmer's door seeking work, the farmer took him on, he worked hard, and eventually he married the farmer's daughter and inherited the farm. The refrain goes: "To plow, to sow, to reap, and to mow, or to be a farmer's boy." The origin of the song is unknown. Another song frequently sung was adapted by Madelyn from a popular tune of the Twenties. The song expresses how Madelyn (Ruth and others) felt about Pine Valley: I have a sneaky feeling round my heart that I want to take a lope I guess I'll braid my hair and catch my mare with a great long rope You can have your Oldsmobile, I want spurs on my heels With a good light saddle A well made bridle I'll be tickled to death To know that I can stay right And I'll 'llow my horse to prance I guess I'll say "good-bye" Go to the mountains high On that good old Stewart Ranch." |
