LEGAL DEPARTMENT. 599 



part of his wages, because the contract is entire and performance is a 

 condition precedent to a right of recovery. If a man agrees to work 

 a year for another for a specified price per month, and by the terms 

 of the agreement he is to be paid each month's wages at the end of 

 each month, he may sue for and recover his wages at the end of the 

 month. 



Abandoning Service for Cause. — While a laborer has the right to 

 abandon service for cause, if the cause is sufficient to render the con- 

 tract voidable, he can collect his pay, yet he should not leave for trivial 

 causes. 



If the employer is to furnish board and lodging to the laborer as a 

 part of his contract, and he is not furnished with sufficient or whole- 

 some food or suitable or comfortable lodgings, and the employer treats 

 him improperly by assaulting him, the laborer is justified in leaving. 

 If he is compelled to work on Sunday, other than to do the necessary 

 farm work, such as care of live animals, or the domestic servant in the 

 house to prepare the meals, and properly care for the milk, or any act 

 of the employer that is contrary to good morals, preventing reasonable 

 comfort, safety and health, or that would injure the reputation of the 

 laborer, would justify the employed to abandon the service. Harsh 

 language to the laborer and a difficulty with a co-laborer would not 

 justify the laborer in leaving. It is a question for the jury to decide 

 whether the laborer had a reasonable excuse for leaving the service, 

 and the burden of proof lays upon the laborer, who must establish the 

 fact. There are a great many instances in which the laborer is justi- 

 fied in leaving the employer, but they could not all be enumerated 

 here. In every case where there is a good cause the laborer may leave 

 and compel the farmer to pay for the time that he has actually worked. 



Farmer Liable on Laborer's Contract. — Any contract made by 

 the laborer in the course of his employment, about the farmer's busi- 

 ness, is binding upon the farmer, provided it is within the scope of the 

 authority conferred or implied from the employer's conduct. Thus: a 

 house-maid is engaged to work about the house, she is in the habit of 

 purchasing the family's supplies, and she buys such supplies in the 

 name of the farmer, the farmer is compelled to pay for them, and if the 

 laborer had no order to buy, or was in so buying defrauding her prin- 

 cipal, and obtaining goods for herself, provided this was or had been 

 the custom about the employer's place. But if a man is employed in 

 farm work, and is not connected with the household work and has 



