Jack and Fritz were soon on the backs of their steeds, and thought it
fine fun to make them course round the floor and tread out the grain.
Ernest and I had each a long fork, with which we threw the corn at
their feet, so that all of it might be trod on. The ox on which Jack
sat put down his head and took a bunch of the ears in his mouth.

"Come," said Jack, "it is not put there for you to eat, off you go!"
and with that he gave it a lash with his whip.

"Nay," said I, "do you not know what God has said in his Word? We must
not bind up the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn. This brings
to my mind the fact that the means we now take to thresh our wheat were
those used by the Jews in the days of old."

To sort the chaff from the grain we threw it up with our spades while
the land or sea breeze blew strong. The draught which came in at the
door took the light chaff with it to one side of the room, while the
grain fell straight to the ground by its own weight.

The maize we left to dry in the sun, and then beat out the grain with
long skin thongs. By this means we got a store of the soft leaves of
this plant, which my wife made use of to stuff our beds.

When all the grain had been put in our store room, some in sacks and
the rest in dry casks, we took a walk one day to our fields, and found
that flocks of birds, most of which were quails, had come there to
feed. This gave us a fine day's sport with our guns, and the next year
we did not fail to look for them, so that the fields were made to yield
a stock of game as well as a crop of grain.