22 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
April, 1912 
what moment he would come into our workshop and send mind of a single person on the place that you mean to have 
out some apples in my boxes that would break up the work of every wormy apple thrown away, that you will not ship a 
a season. When I was on guard the thing wouldn’t happen; defective one, that to gather it is a waste of time—and you 
besides, mv services were needed at the sorting bench, will find the bovs will help you out. 
As the days went by and the pick¬ 
ers saw our persistent rejection of 
bruised apples, the certainty with 
which they found their way to the 
cider pile, they began to improve. Oc¬ 
casionally we had one of them to help 
us in the packing house. Our choice 
always fell on the most careful worker. 
Rivalry for this distinction began 
among them. Apples were no longer 
spilled into the barrels. The baskets 
were lowered and the contents poured 
with care. After dinner the packing 
house force met the pickers at games. 
An esprit de corps came into existence. 
One day we closed up work in the 
packing house for an afternoon to help 
in the orchard. The friendly rivalry 
was on hand. The old hands thought 
that the fellows from the packing house 
were not to be seriously considered as 
pickers. Later they changed their minds, 
for we steadily filled more barrels than 
they did, filled them with cleaner picked, 
better apples. But they can never know 
the walloping that we really gave them. 
Only Andrews and Mann and I know 
that. With the regular run of apples 
coming to the sorting bench, Alann and 
I had hard work to keep Andrews 
supplied with apples for his boxes. 
\\ hen the barrels which we had picked 
that afternoon came to us, 1 kept them both on the jump all 
da}’, Andrews packing boxes and Mann facing and packing 
barrels. With our work in the orchard, one sorter could keep 
two packers busy. Under the old style, two sorters were kept 
busy grading for one 
box packer! Figure 
out for yourself the 
saving in that one 
item. And a saving i? 
utterly without taking 
account of the larg'er 
one of better quality 
fruit to ship. 
Next year this 
higher ideal can be 
enforced from start 
to finish. i\Ir. West's 
presence on the place 
forbade it this sea¬ 
son. He thought that 
he was in favor of it. 
He thought that if 
he told the boys to 
pick only perfect ap¬ 
ples and didn’t let 
them see him pick 
up windfalls and 
drop them into the baskets that they would fulfil his spoken 
words instead of his secret wishes. And right here lies 
the secret of the whole matter. Have the wish for it in your 
heart and show it by word and deed. Let no doubt exist in the 
Lone trees scattered about on the rocky hills 
defied the summer winds and storms 
The pastures stretched away to the eastward, hundreds of acres of rolling, sunny open where 
we breathed deep the spirit of the out-of-doors 
Fvery evening the packing house was 
swept out and left clean for the next 
day’s work. Apart from its immediate 
effect, this one action had a far-reaching 
one. The boys cleaned their shoes be¬ 
fore they came into our workshop, they 
learned to expectorate outside, instead of 
inside, their language improved and there 
was a distinct moral improvement in 
every one of them. One was literally 
guyed oft the place because of a moral 
lapse. And all this came from mere 
hints, from an example that did nothing 
more than suggest it. How I did wish 
to scrub that floor! But I just couldn’t 
do it this year. It would have come too 
close home to Mr. West, and that I 
couldn’t do. 
iMaybe you think that this has little to 
do with packing and selling apples. It 
has everything to do with it. One day 
the local banker came to the place. I 
didn’t know who he was, nor that his 
friend was the representative of a big 
mercantile agency. They watched us 
and saw the standards that we kept up 
to. saw us throw away, throw away 
apples that failed in some slight par¬ 
ticular to come up to the standard which 
we had set for ourselves. I told you 
earlier that I had orders to ship apples 
abroad. This is one of the reasons 
that gave rise to that demand. 
Do you find anything in your city life that is half as good 
as this? I worked sixteen hours a day. Before the boys were 
up in the morning I was at the packing house getting things 
in order so that the 
work could go on 
smoothly. After the 
others had gone to 
, . < bed I was banging 
away at the keys of 
my tipewriter, keep¬ 
ing up the corre¬ 
spondence that was 
hecoming a decided 
item in my day’s 
work. But at the 
end of the season I 
had a grip on that 
business. I had 
learned how to pick, 
to pack and to sell. 
I had learned that I 
could inspire every 
man on the place and 
turn him to my ways. 
Applications for next 
year began, because 
the boys wanted to work on a farm that was jumping ahead as 
this one had done in a single season. There was no one to thwart 
me in my wish to work, in my wish to do the very best that I 
knew how. And that is why hope and faith came back to me. 
