Those Who Live in the Country 23 



human hand had been laid with kindness on their 

 proud necks and, just naturally, they bowed their 

 maned shoulders to the yoke, when they were 

 forced. After various gyratory movements about 

 the barnyard the "critters" were roped by the 

 horns to fence-posts and the big wooden yoke 

 secured on their necks. The old ''long" sleigh 

 with its deep wooden box was brought forward 

 and the log-chain made fast to the yoke and sleigh. 

 Then all hands tumbled into the pea-straw on 

 the bottom of the sleighbox and the lines were 

 cast off. That's a nautical expression, "the lines 

 were cast off," but it goes in this case, because 

 there we were embarking on an overland voyage 

 without bearings and no port in sight. 



One of the poets has set down some verses, one 

 of which runs: 



''Where lies the land to which the ship would got 

 Far, far ahead is all her seamen know, 

 And where the land she travels from? Away 

 Far, far behind, is all that they can say." 



If I'd been old enough to have become ac- 

 quainted with verse at that time when those oxen 

 were turned loose, I'd likely have thought that 

 these lines fitted our case exactly, but I'd had 

 to have done some quick thinking, as I recall that 

 my time was mostly taken up with trying to hang 

 on to the young folks about me in the bottom of 

 that sleigh. 



Let me explain that our farm had on it, at that 



