kitchen and eat a slice of pork, and hurry about it,
and then you would curry off the horses, and help hitch the team to a
reaper; and just as it was getting light enough to see things, you would
go out to a wheat field, and, after the old man had cut two or three
swaths around the field, several of you would turn in to bind up the
bundles. They would show you how, and then they would see that you did
your share of work.

"You would hustle for about four hours, and you would be so hungry it
wouldn't be safe for a dog to come around you, and you would drink warm
water out of a jug till your stomach ached, and you would wonder if it
was not almost supper time, and if you looked at your watch you would
find it was only about 9 o'clock in the morning, with three more solid
hours of work before dinner time. When the horn blew for dinner you
would just be able to climb on one of the horses to ride to the house,
and the harness would take the skin off your elbows. When you got to
the house you would want to lay down and die, but you would have to pull
water up in buckets to water the horses, and go up in the hay mow and
throw down hay and carry oats to them, and when you went in to dinner
you would feel as though you could eat a ten course banquet, but you
would find that it was washing day, and they didn't do any cooking, and
you would eat a bowl of bread and milk, and chew about a bushel of young
onions, and when you were filled up and wanted to lie down and go to
sleep, and die, the old man would tell you to hustle out and hitch up
that team, and you would be so lame you couldn't ride on top of a hard
farm harness, and you would walk to the field, your heavy shoes wearing
the skin off your ankles, and the old machine would begin to stutter and
rattle, and you would go to work binding bundles at 1 o'clock and work
till dark, because it looked as though it was going to rain, and when
you got the chores done, milked the cows, bedded down the horses,
carried in wood to the kitchen and a few things like that, and they told
you supper was ready, you would say you would rather go to bed than eat,
and you would go up in the attic and fall on the bed, and go to sleep
and dream of your Uncle Ike. Do you know where I would find you next?
You would come into town on an early freight train Tuesday morning, and
show up about breakfast time, and you would hunt the bathtub, and if
any man ever talked farming to you again, you would be sassy