THE GRANGE 85 



come to his house the next morning, prepared to 

 begin work at his usual hour and work all day 

 with him in the corn-field without "blenching 

 from the helm," he would recommend my ad- 

 mission, and after complimenting me on the ex- 

 cellency of my garden patch, satirically remark- 

 ing that we were "goin' t' hev a powerful crap 

 er pigweed," he went his way. 



The next morning I was up at three o'clock, fed 

 Polly, put on a suit of brown overalls with jersey, 

 a pair of stout shoes, and an old felt hat. At half- 

 past three I had fed and saddled that animal, and 

 with hoe in hand prepared to mount. 



Now, Polly is an extremely nervous animal and 

 somewhat aristocratic in her taste, and she 

 strongly objected to being mounted by any one 

 dressed as I was. She was also deeply apprehen- 

 sive that I was intending to give her a " bat" with 

 that hoe; consequently when I approached to 

 mount her she backed away, wheeled, and despite 

 my utmost efforts, would not remain still long 

 enough for me to get foot in the stirrup. Finally, 

 after leaning the hoe up against a tree and back- 

 ing her into a corner I managed to mount. I then 

 approached the tree by devious ways, and not 

 without great difficulty succeeded in getting near 

 enough to grasp the hoe, when she bolted. 



Down Front Street she went like lightning, 

 narrowly escaping shipwreck in rounding a cor- 



