them without mercy, and all because they now and then pulled a little
corn, forgetting or not knowing of the grubs and worms they pulled and
the grasshoppers they ate. But all this is changed and now our sable
friends and the high-soaring hawks are seldom molested. The fool with a
rifle is very apt to shoot an eagle if the chance comes to him, but he
has to be very sly about it.

The buttercups and the daisies would be blooming when we were working
the road, and the timothy grass about ready to do so--pointing to the
near approach of the great event of the season, the one major task
toward which so many other things pointed--"haying;" the gathering of
our hundred or more tons of meadow hay. This was always a hard-fought
campaign. Our weapons were gotten ready in due time, new scythes and new
snaths, new rakes and new forks, the hay riggings repaired or built
anew, etc. Shortly after the Fourth of July the first assault upon the
legions of timothy would be made in the lodged grass below the barn. Our
scythes would turn up great swaths that nearly covered the ground and
that put our strength to a severe test. When noon came we would go to
the house with shaking knees.

The first day of haying meant nearly a whole day with the scythe, and
was the most trying of all. After that a half day mowing, when the
weather was good, meant work in curing and hauling each afternoon. From
the first day in early July till the end of August we lived for the
hayfield. No respite except on rainy days and Sundays, and no change
except from one meadow to another. No eight-hour days then, rather
twelve and fourteen, including the milking. No horse rakes, no mowing
machines or hay tedders or loading or pitching devices then. The scythe,
the hand rake, the pitchfork in the calloused hands of men and boys did
the work, occasionally the women even taking a turn with the rake or in