134 Old Bays on the Farm 



scamps would hide about and wait for events to 

 shape themselves and when some old chap, on re- 

 turning to work, would fall into the hole and, as it 

 were, pull the hole in after him, in the shape of a 

 big heap of loose straw, the joy of the boys would 

 be full and complete. You see a fall of a few feet 

 into loose straw was not likely to hurt any one, 

 the trick, therefore, was not frowned upon and it 

 added greatly to juvenile happiness. 



The old strawstack made a great playhouse for 

 children. They'd dig caves and grottoes into it 

 and slide down its sloping sides like an alpine 

 climber making a descent across a snow-field. 



THEESHING DAY — A SOCIAL EVENT 



The day's threshing over, I recall that the men 

 lingered after supper and often a social evening 

 would be spent at the farmhouse. Some of the 

 young women of the neighbourhood who had been 

 assisting in feeding the ** hungry horde" would 

 be there. There would be games — perhaps, an 

 impromptu dance when the boys would shake all 

 the chaff out of their hair. **01d Zip Coon" and 

 other classics would be butchered on the fiddle or 

 there might be a quiet game of euchre if the old 

 folks had not too great a horror of **the devil's 

 pasteboards." To-day, I am informed, all the 

 men hurry home after supper and that the modern 

 threshing is not the social event it once was and 

 it is to be regretted that it is so. 



