A Bad Growing Season

By: Shane Ruley

One warm, summer day on July 10th, 1777. Tyler, his father, and

Mr. Garson were farming outside their Rhode Island homes. Sud-

denly, the air started to get extremely hot. Tyler began to sweat.

The fertile soil started to harden. Tyler kept planting. It was begin-

ning to get dark. “Tyler, we need to go inside,” his father shouted

across the field. “Ok, he yelled back. Bye Mr. Garson.” Tyler ran to

his house.

Tyler had trouble sleeping that night. He was way

too hot. The next morning, the sun was even hotter. The crops

they had planted yesterday had withered! Tyler and his father

started to tear out the withered crops and replant new ones. Mr.

Garson had still not come out at that point. “I’ll go get Jim, you

keep planting,” Tyler’s father told him. Then he started to walk

over to Mr. Garson's house.

His fa-

ther came walking back with Mr. Garson. Tyler’s father and Mr.

Garson then started to help Tyler plant. By the end of the day,

they had filled the whole field with new crops. At the end of the

day, Mr. Garson invited Tyler and his father over for dinner. They

had biscuits and gravy. When Tyler and his father got home, Ty-

ler’s mother asked where they were. “We were at the Garson’s.

Mr. Garson invited us for dinner. Tyler slept well that night be-

cause he had adapted to the heat.

Mr. Garson was the first one to the field the next morning. He

stood there in awe. Every single crop they replanted the day be-

fore had withered. Tyler and his father came walking outside to

see Mr. Garson tearing out withered crops. Tyler exclaimed,

“Why do the crops keep withering!” “The heat is to unbearable.

The soil is hard and the crops can’t grow,” Mr. Garson replied. Ty-

ler thought for a moment. “Hey, he started to say. Why don’t we

give the crops extra water.” “That might work,” said his father.

That day, they watered the crops twice as much.

Once again, the crops were withered the next

morning. Tyler, his father, and Mr. Garson all set out to find a

cooler area to plant their crops. Everywhere they went was

scorching hot. By the end of the day, they made no progress. The

first day of search was unsuccessful.

The next day, they found a small woodland area

over a hill. In it was a lake with shady trees making the air cool

with a small hole in the roof of leaves for afternoon sun. They

went back home to get their tools and started planting around

the lake and prayed the crops would grow, because with no

crops the food was scarce means no food. They planted all day.

When they went back first thing in the morning, they found

the crops growing! Mr. Garson told his wife and Tyler told his

mother that they would be planting there. They continued to do

That. Tyler had a wife and 3 kids 20 years later. He lived in a

house he built right by the lake. He lived to be 86 years old. He

never moved out of that house.