the reputation of
being an "easy man to work for." For several years he had employed the
same help.

On this bright Monday morning of July, the hay-fields smiled, luxuriant,
blooming with clover, herdsgrass, buttercup, daisy and timothy. There
was the house field, the west field, the south field, the middle field
and the east field, besides the young orchard, the old orchard, the Aunt
Hannah lot and the Aunt Hannah meadow, which was left till the last,
sixty-five acres or more, altogether. What an expanse it looked to me!
It was my first experience, but Addison and Halse had forewarned me that
we would have it hot in haying. I had already grown a little inured to
the sun during June, however; and in point of fact, I never afterwards
suffered so much from the sun rays as during those first attempts to
hoe corn at the old farm in June.

One of the hired men was no less a personage than Elder Witham, who
preached at the Chapel every second week, and who, like the great
apostle of the Gentiles, was not above working with his hands, to piece
out his small salary. He came Sunday evening, and I did not suppose that
he had come to work with us till the next morning, when, after prayers,
he quietly fetched his scythe and snath down from the wagon-house
chamber, and called on Halstead to turn the grindstone for him. I then
learned that he had worked at haying for us three summers. The Elder was
fifty years old or more, and, though well-tanned, had yet a
semi-clerical appearance. He was austere in religious matters, and the
hired men were very careful what they said before him.

The other two men, who came after breakfast, were brothers, named James
and Asa Doane, or Jim and Ase, as they were familiarly addressed.

I was reckoned too young to mow with a scythe, though Halse and Addison
mowed for an hour or two in the forenoon. I had plenty to do, however,
raking, spreading, and stowing the hay in the barn.

In haying time we boys were called at half-past four o'clock every
morning, with the hired men. It was our business to milk and do the barn
chores before breakfast. Often, too, there would be a load of hay, drawn
in the previous evening, to stow away, in addition to the chores.

Mowing machines and horse-rakes had not then come into general use. All
the mowing was done with scythes, and the raking with hand rakes and
"loafer" rakes. Generally, all hands would be busy for three hours every
bright afternoon, raking the gra