I had an old friend that was raised dirt poor. His mother died when he was just a couple years old. His dad was a drunk but did work, still things were bad. He was just passed from family to family and neighbors to neighbors. When he was 14 he was going to a one room school to an old bachelor teacher that really didn't like kids. My friend noticed a pattern about the old teachers behavior. Each Saturday morning the old man would hitch his team and go to town to get his groceries.
The people my friend was staying with at the time had even younger kids of their own to feed. My friend had become an excellent shot and would bring in rabbits, squirrels, frogs or anything edible. Well he reasoned that since the old teacher went to town each Sat morning that he would go to his place where there was an old growed up hog lot that had 4 big hickory trees in it and it was nut cutting time. Well he got there and can't see the house because of the tall horse weeds. So he worms his was thru the weeds to the nearest tree and up there sat a big red squirrel cutting on a nut. His little 22 scout cracked and the squirrel fell right in the thickest weeds. Well he was down on his hands and knees looking for the squirrel when he hears someone clearing his throat. Oh no, it was the old school teacher and for some reason he hadn't went to town and caught him red handed. Well lets just say my friend wasn't the teachers favorite student after that. If there was erasers and black board to clean he had to do it , floors to sweep he had to do it. Carried water from the well. He was the devil in the old mans eyes.
Things go along until a few cold snaps. The old man also farmed a little besides teaching. He had 20 acres of standing corn a 1/2 mile north of the house. On the coldest night yet someone went in the old guys corn field down on the creek and cut a bee tree. The tree fell across the creek and in a few days after that it came a 4 inch rain and all the fallen leaves that was up stream of the tree washed down and got hung in the tree and caused it to dam up and washed down most of the old guys standing corn.
Well the old man reasoned it must have been my friend that cut the bee tree, after all he had caught him in his lot squirrel hunting, made good logic didn't it?
Until spring my friend had to work like a dog carrying wood, scooping snow and carrying water. Along about spring my friend was getting wore out and started asking other kids if anyone knew who cut the bee tree. Finally a girl told him that 2 brothers and their dad had cut the tree. It was just too funny that they got my friend in trouble not to brag about it to the girls.
So one hot Saturday afternoon my friend saddled up a old borrowed sorrel horse and went to the teachers house to tell him who cut the bee tree. The house was down a lane going east and as he turned the corner there sitting in the shade on the porch on the east side of the house was the old man drinking a beer with the guy that cut the bee tree and they seemed to be enjoying themselves. When my friend saw the two together drinking their beer, he just turned the sorrel around and went back up the lane and never looked back. He thought to himself, why break a friendship like that!
