his youth on the farm does not recall them! The high-piled thunder heads
of the retreating storm above the eastern mountains, the moist fresh
smell of the hay and the fields, the red puddles in the road, the robins
singing from the tree tops, the washed and cooler air and the welcomed
feeling of relaxation which they brought. It was a good time now to weed
the garden, to grind the scythes, and do other odd jobs. When the
haying was finished, usually late in August, in my time, there was
usually a let-up for a few days.

I was the seventh child in a family of ten children: Hiram, Olly Ann,
Wilson, Curtis, Edmond, and Jane came before me; Eden, Abigail, and
Eveline came after me. All were as unlike me in those mental qualities
by which I am known to the world as you can well conceive, but all were
like me in their more fundamental family traits. We all had the same
infirmities of character: we were all tenderfeet--lacking in grit, will
power, self-assertion, and the ability to deal with men. We were easily
crowded to the wall, easily cheated, always ready to take a back seat,
timid, complying, undecided, obstinate but not combative, selfish but
not self-asserting, always the easy victims of pushing, coarse-grained,
designing men. As with Father, the word came easy but the blow was slow
to follow. Only a year or two ago a lightning-rod man made my brother
Curtis and his son John have his rods put upon their barn against their
wills. They did not want his rods but could not say "No" with enough
force. He simply held them up and made them take his rods, willy nilly.
Curtis had maps, books, washing machines, etc., forced upon him in the
same way. I am able to resist the tree men, book agents, etc., and the
lightning-rod man, for a wonder, found me a decided non-conductor; but I
can see how my weaker brothers failed. I have settled a lawsuit rather
than fight it out when I knew law and justice were on my side. My wife
has often said that I never knew when I was imposed upon. I may know it