HOW FALSE CHARGES WERE MADE 



method simply depends upon the force of the suction 

 draught. 



Sometimes that force, men say, was sufficient 

 to blow a pocket bunch of keys from the open 

 palm of a man's hand, held in the air stream. 

 It was here, doubtless, that some of the miss- 

 ing wheat disappeared; for we must not 

 forget that it was on the weight after this 

 process that the farmer was paid. The whole 

 thing savors much of medieval practices, I 

 admit, but there is uncontrovertible proof 

 that it was at least as common in North 

 Dakota in the year 1915, for instance, as was 

 a similar but much less poetic practice in the 

 days of Chaucer. According to that truth- 

 ful chronicler of the manners of the four- 

 teenth century, the miller maintained a rule 

 that he would steal enough wheat from his 

 customer to make a good cake. At least, 

 Chaucer called it stealing; if he had lived 

 in these days he would have called it, maybe, 

 dockage; which has a much nicer sound, as 

 all must agree. We may also be reminded 

 of the farmer's boy of about the same period 

 that made a comment still embedded in Irish 

 folklore. For the first time in his life he 

 went to the neighboring grist-mill, and when 

 he came back, being asked what he saw that 

 most impressed him, remarked that the 

 miller's pigs were most amazingly fat. 



73 



