'The Ploughboy 



down while cutting the wheat. The fat folk 

 grew lean and the lean leaner, while the rosy- 

 cheeks brought from Scotland and other cool 

 countries across the sea faded to yellow like the 

 wheat. We were all made slaves through the 

 vice of over-industry. The same was in great 

 part true in making hay to keep the cattle and 

 horses through the long winters. We were 

 called in the morning at four o'clock and seldom 

 got to bed before nine, making a broiling, 

 seething day seventeen hours long loaded with 

 heavy work, while I was only a small stunted 

 boy; and a few years later my brothers David 

 and Daniel and my older sisters had to endure 

 about as much as I did. In the harvest dog- 

 days and dog-nights and dog-mornings, when 

 we arose from our clammy beds, our cotton 

 shirts clung to our backs as wet with sweat as 

 the bathing-suits of swimmers, and remained 

 so all the long, sweltering days. In mowing and 

 cradling, the most exhausting of all the farm 

 work, I made matters worse by foolish ambition 

 in keeping ahead of the hired men. Never a 

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