CHAPTER XLIV 



DEEP WATERS 



FOR sharp contrasts give me the dull country. 

 The unexpected is the usual in small and in 

 great things alike as they happen on a farm, and 

 I make no apology to the reader for entering 

 them in my narrative. I only ask him, if he be 

 a city man, to take my word for the truth as 

 to the general facts. To some elaboration and 

 embellishment I plead guilty, but the ground- 

 work is truth, and the facts stated are as real 

 as the foundations of my buildings or the cows 

 in my stalls. If the fortunate reader be a coun- 

 try man, he will need no assurance from me, for 

 his eyes have seen and his ears have heard the 

 strange and startling episodes with which the 

 quiet country-side is filled. I do not dare record 

 all the adventures which clustered around us at 

 Four Oaks. People who know only the monoto- 

 nous life of cities would not believe the half if 

 told, and I do not wish to invite discredit upon 

 my story of the making of the factory farm. 



The incidents I have given of the strike at 

 Gordon's mine are substantially correct, and I 

 would love to follow them to their sequel, the 



