340 THE FAT OF THE LAND 



rule and the evidences of conspicuous waste, 

 which have grown so rampant as to overshadow 

 the helpful hand and to threaten, not the stabil- 

 ity of society for in the background I see six 

 million conservative sons of the soil who will 

 look to the stability of things when the time 

 comes but the unions themselves. 



I remember my first summer on a farm. It 

 lasted from the first day of April to the thirty- 

 first day of October, and on the evening of that 

 day I carried to my father $28, the full wage for 

 seven months. I could not have spent one cent 

 during that time, for I carried the whole sum 

 home ; but I do not remember that I was con- 

 scious of any want. The hours on the farm 

 were not short ; an eight-hour day would have 

 been considered but a half-day. We worked 

 from sun to sun, and I grew and knew no sor- 

 row or oppression. The next year I received 

 the munificent wage of $6 a month, and the 

 following year, $8. 



In after years, in brick-yards, sawmills, lum- 

 ber woods, or harvest fields, there was no arbi- 

 trary limit put upon the amount of work to be 

 done. If I chose to do the work of a man and 

 a half, I got 11.50 for doing it, and it would 

 have been a bold and sturdy delegate who tried 

 to hold me from it. I felt no need of help from 

 outside. I was fit to care for myself, and I 

 minded not the long hours, the hard work, or 

 the hard bed. This life was preliminary to a 



