ON THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A HIRED MAN 549 



an older relative for a term, if they would have full opportunity 

 of studying all phases of their subject. 



After my brother's hay was all in, the Thornrich farm was 

 once more in need of a hand, so I hired out again, this time at 

 the advanced wages of seventy-five cents a day, during the hay- 

 ing season. This advance was given me, first because I was now 

 skilled labor, and secondly because of the theory that haying is 

 harder than ordinary farm work an economic fiction in this 

 case, for quite the reverse was true. For, since I had to perform 

 the whole round of haying duties myself, I had plenty of variety, 

 and lighter work than that of the man who pitches on the load 

 and on the stack all day. My first duty was to mow a small 

 tract, which included taking the machine to a neighboring black- 

 smith for its bi-weekly treatment. 



Here I will mention an apparent anomaly (but in truth the 

 rule), or, as I should say, since I am writing a sociological paper, 

 a broad generalization. The more inventive the farmer, the more 

 decrepit the tools on his farm. Now, Mr. Thornrich was some- 

 thing of an inventor. He had devised a method of setting tires 

 which was a great improvement on the common method. Ordi- 

 narily, in accomplishing this end you shorten the tire ; by Mr. 

 Thornrich's method you enlarged the wheel. This was accom- 

 plished in the following manner. By means of a lever placed 

 on the hub of the wheel, you lifted what, to avoid technical 

 terms, I will call the wooden rim just inside the metallic tire, 

 and inserted a washer at the end of the spoke to hold it in 

 place. This you repeated in turn on all the spokes of the wheel, 

 until your vehicle rattled no more. It is true that you might 

 square the circle of the wheel, or at least make a polygon of it, 

 but you tightened the tire. Not only did Mr. Thornrich possess 

 mechanical skill in himself, but he had transmitted a goodly 

 portion of it to his son. Charlie had constructed a buckboard 

 himself, using for this purpose, if I remember rightly, the cast-off 

 wheels of a cultivator. This vehicle was properly constructed in 

 all its parts, and might have lasted out its hundred years but 

 for the minor defect of having the nuts at the hub screw on in 

 a direction opposite to that of the movement of the wheel, so 



