THE FARM SUNDAY 79 



lower pasture, there kept repeating themselves 

 over and over in my head the lines : 



&quot;The sergeant pushed and the corporal pulled, 

 And the three they wagged along.&quot; 



But I did not quote these to Jonathan until 

 afterwards. There was something else, too, 

 that I did not quote until afterwards. This 

 was the remark of a sailor uncle of mine: &quot;A 

 man never tackled a job yet that he did n t 

 have to have a woman to hold on to the 

 slack.&quot; 



So much for Sunday business. But it 

 should not for a moment be supposed that 

 Sunday is full of these incidents. It is only 

 for a little while in the morning. After the 

 church hour, about eleven o clock or earlier, 

 the farm settles down. The &quot;critters&quot; are 

 all attended to, the chicks are stowed, the 

 cat has disappeared, the hens have finished 

 all their important business and are lying 

 on their sides in their favorite dirt -holes en 

 joying their dust-baths, so still, yet so dis 

 heveled that I used to think they were dead, 

 and poke them to see with what cacklings 

 and flutterings resulting may be imagined. 



