58 FIVE ACRES TOO MUCH. 



deep hole they were making in the ground during 

 the intense heats of summer, wondering how soon 

 science would raise the lowest of men above the con 

 dition of beasts of burden, when one of them, glancing 

 up, perceived me, and inquired, &quot; Was I the boss ?&quot; I 

 answered in the affirmative, and he informed me that 

 it was customary for the boss to &quot;stand something&quot; 

 when he first came on the ground. Moved by my 

 sympathies, I stood a dollar apiece, explaining that 

 it must not be wasted in liquor, to wjiichlhey assent 

 ed with great hilarity. Alas for sympathy, and char 

 ity, and the milk of human kindness ! those wretch 

 ed men immediately clubbed their two dollars to 

 gether, and, converting them into gin, knocked off 

 work and proceeded to get drunk. They remained 

 incoherent, as the term goes that is applied to their 

 betters, all the next day. As it was essential that the 

 well should be finished as rapidly as possible, my 

 feelings changed, my sympathy died a premature 

 death, and I never stood any thing of the kind again. 

 What with drunken Irishmen and injured work 

 men, murdered villagers and fighting firemen, the 

 country house progressed slowly toward completion. 

 The walls, it is true, arose like mushrooms those de 

 licious vegetables, which I must pause to compliment 

 in a night ; the roof climbed into place, partitions 



