HAPPY HOLLOW FARM 229 



There's that wheat stacking, for example. 

 Rushing it through bred dead weariness of 

 body and heaviness of spirit. It might have 

 been just as well to let the last of the job lie 

 over to another day and come at it then in bet- 

 ter temper. But we really ought to have the 

 peas planted without the loss of an hour, so 

 they'll use every drop of the moisture that's 

 in the soil. A stubble field will bake hard in 

 a hurry in this sun if it isn't turned and har- 

 rowed. There's no telling when we'll have an- 

 other rain. Tons of water will be sucked up 

 out of the ground on a hot June day. Those 

 tons of water will make a sight of difference in 

 the start our pea vines get, and a difference of 

 tons of hay in the fall. Nobody knows. The 

 safest way to play it was the hardest way, the 

 way that wouldn't make any compromise. It 

 took the sap out of the men and put them all 

 out of sorts with their taskmasters; but we've 

 gained a day at the height of the year. If we 

 can gain a few days more in the same way 

 before mid- July those days may easily settle 

 whether our mows and stacks are half empty 

 or full to bursting for the winter. 



What's that? It's a gamble, either way? 

 Are you right sure of that? That's what the 



