I90 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



done, they could not possibly do it A wheat rick was 

 threshed one day, and when it was finished in the after- 

 noon there were the sacks in a great heap about twenty 

 or thirty yards from the barn. So soon as the rick was 

 finished, the men asked for their money as usual, when 

 the farmer said he wanted them to carry the sacks into 

 the barn before they left. Oh no, they couldn't do that. 

 * Well, then,' said he, ' I can't pay you till you have done 

 it' No, they couldn't do it, couldn't be expected to 

 carry sacks of wheat across the rickyard and into the 

 barn like that, it was too much for any man to do ; why 

 couldn't he send for the cart ? The farmer replied that 

 the cart was two miles away, engaged in other labour ; 

 the night was coming on, and if it rained in the night 

 the wheat would be damaged. No, they couldn't do it. 

 The farmer would not pay them, and so the dispute 

 continued for a long time. At length the farmer said, 

 ' Well, if you won't do it, perhaps you will at least help 

 me as far as this : will you lift up a sack and place it on 

 another high enough for me to get it on my back, and I 

 will myself carry them to the barn ? ' So small a 

 favour they could not refuse, and having raised up a 

 sack for him in this manner, he took it on his back and 

 made off with it to the barn. He was anything but a 

 strong man — far less able to carry a sack of wheat than 

 the labourers — but determined not to be beaten. He 

 carried one sack, then another and another, till he had 

 got eight safely housed, when on coming back for the 

 ninth he met a labourer with a sack on his back, shamed 

 into giving assistance. After him a second man took a 

 sack, and one by one they all followed, till in about half 

 an hour all the wheat was in the barn. This is the spirit 

 in which they work if the least little difficulty occurs, 

 or they are asked to do anything that varies from what 



