CHAPTER XLIV 
DEEP WATERS 
For sharp contrasts give me the dull country. 
The unexpected is the usual in small and in 
great things alike as they happen on a farm, and 
I make no apology to the reader for entering 
them in my narrative. I only ask him, if he be 
a city man, to take my word for the truth as 
to the general facts. To some elaboration and 
embellishment I plead guilty, but the ground- 
work is truth, and the facts stated are as real 
as the foundations of my buildings or the cows 
in my stalls. If the fortunate reader be a coun- 
try man, he will need no assurance from me, for 
his eyes have seen and his ears have heard the 
strange and startling episodes with which the 
quiet country-side is filled. I do not dare record 
all the adventures which clustered around us at 
Four Oaks. People who know only the monoto- 
nous life of cities would not believe the half if 
told, and I do not wish to invite discredit upon 
my story of the making of the factory farm. 
The incidents I have given of the strike at 
Gordon’s mine are substantially correct, and I 
would love to follow them to their sequel, — the 
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