OLD HOMESTEAD 



was made Sunday. There were fences to be strengthened and 

 repaired against the dry season, which makes cattle hunt the 

 holes or weak spots in the pasture fence; buildings, barns and 

 stables required repairs and arrangement for the fall and winter, 

 before haying; slab-wood to be drawn to the sugar-bush and 

 house; post-holes to be dug, and new fences, gates and barways 

 built; lumber to be stuck up; old rocks, against which there 

 were standing orders for destruction and removal, were attacked 

 and destroyed; great stone heaps hauled from the meadows to 

 where they would be needed for wall; stone was quarried from 

 the flat rock beds in or near the creek, which at other seasons 

 were too deeply submerged to be got out; ash and spruce trees 

 were to be got out of swamps not traversable at other seasons; 

 hoop timber and hoop-poles to be cut and backed out of the 

 woods and swamps, and hoops to be racked for future use; 

 flower-beds to build and cultivate, and garden and horticultural 

 work to do, for which time could not be spared at other seasons; 

 the repairs on the milldam and ditch, and the cleaning out of 

 the stone and gravel from the mill tail-race and flume. There 

 was underbrush to be cut, and bushes and weeds in fence-corners 

 to be mowed; lumber to be drawn, haying and harvesting im- 

 plements to be overhauled and put in order. If a visit had to 

 be made, this time was usually selected as most convenient for 

 the same. In short, this was the time to do anything and 

 everything that had no other special time for its performance, 

 or had till then been neglected. These and various other 

 things filled the time between hoeing and haying, so that it did 

 not hang heavily on our hands, and was our summer vacation. 



The eight-hour law had not then been proposed. There 

 were no half-holidays, and no one watched the clock or calen- 

 dar. The sun as it came over Fox's woods told us when to 



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