We loved to hear them and she enjoyed relating them.
In order to understand them you, the reader, should have additional information.
Her father, Ogden Varney, had a farm at West Franklin on the Southside Road. Apparently he had come to the conclusion that his family would have more opportunities in the Elmira, NY area.
He had then purchased land in Elmira Heights and with team and wagon had hauled all the lumber for a house all the way from West Franklin.
After the house was constructed he used the team and a large iron scoop to dig cellars for new homes.
Now from 1890 to 1910 the bicycle was "King". Everyone wanted a bicycle. So little Violet kept coaxing and begging for a bicycle. Finally her father told her that a man on the Southside still owed him for having dug a cellar and that if Violet could collect on the bill she could buy a bicycle. She must have been convincing for she collected the bill and so had a new, shiny bicycle,perhaps a "Columbia."