550 RKADINGS IN RURAL l.CoXOMlCS 



that the buckboard had the habit of quietly divesting itself of its 

 wheels when it got well clogged with mud or dust. While I do 

 not consider that Mr. Thornrich was always happy in his me- 

 chanical devices, I should not go the length of subscribing to 

 the opinion which the blacksmith expressed one day when I had 

 the machine around to have a broken guide mended. I had told 

 him that Mr. Thornrich had said that if he had only had the 

 proper tools he could have fixed the break himself easily enough, 

 as all it needed was a substitute for the broken guide. " Substi- 

 tute, eh," said Vulcan, " substitute ! Now, yew tell old man Thorn- 

 rich that he 's kind of a durn substitute himself." I did not tell 

 Mr. Thornrich, but I told Charlie, who seemed mightily amused. 



Hut to return to the haying. After a sufficient amount of 

 grass had been cut and dried, I raked it. Then I hitched up 

 to the old hayrack and, accompanied by Charlie, went out for 

 a load of hay. I pitched on, and Charlie loaded. On arriving 

 at the barn, Charlie retired to the parlor and Mr. Thornrich 

 came out to stack while I pitched off ; easy enough work, when 

 you remember that a good part of our time was spent on the 

 half or three-quarters of a mile's road which intervened between 

 the hay field and the barn. Thus between the three of us we 

 got up a supply of hay for the winter. We were three now, be- 

 cause Mr. Thornrich had returned from his insurance venture. 

 That spring, beginning very wet, had turned off dry, so that 

 the ground soon became of the consistency of well-baked bricks. 

 And it was bricks without straw that year, so that the farmers 

 preferred to risk the ills to come rather than submit to the pres- 

 ent evil of paying insurance premiums. With the hay all in, my 

 experience as an employee ended for that summer, and I returned 

 to the quiet and leisurely life of a student in the Burlington 

 high school. 



I have, perhaps, so far taxed your patience with this rather 

 long preliminary that I may have to abbreviate the solider part 

 of my paper, but, as I stated at the beginning, it is necessary 

 nowadays to convince the reader of a paper of this sort that the 

 writer is equipped with a practical, first-hand knowledge of his 

 subject. As to qualifications, I claim two important points of 



