340 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
rule and the evidences of conspicuous waste, 
which have grown so rampant as to overshadow 
the helpful hand and to threaten, not the stabil- 
ity of society —for in the background I see six 
million conservative sons of the soil who will 
look to the stability of things when the time 
comes — but the unions themselves. 
I remember my first summer on a farm. It 
lasted from the first day of April to the thirty- 
first day of October, and on the evening of that 
day I carried to my father $28, the full wage for 
seven months. I could not have spent one cent 
during that time, for I carried the whole sum — 
home; but I do not remember that I was con- 
scious of any want. The hours on the farm 
were not short; an eight-hour day would have 
been considered but a half-day. We worked 
from sun to sun, and I grew and knew no sor- 
row or oppression. The next year I received 
the munificent wage of $6 a month, and the 
following year, $8. 
In after years, in brick-yards, sawmills, lum- 
ber woods, or harvest fields, there was no arbi- 
trary limit put upon the amount of work to be 
done. If I chose to do the work of a man and 
a half, I got $1.50 for doing it, and it would 
have been a bold and sturdy delegate who tried 
to hold me from it. I felt no need of help from 
outside. I was fit to care for myself, and I 
minded not the long hours, the hard work, or 
the hard bed. This life was preliminary to a 
