McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-03-19
The Old Time Harvest.

wheat is ripe, he takes his self-bindel
and two shockers and goes out to har
vest 1t without the ostentation of form
er years. The harvest of the present is 0
tame and formal affair. compared with
the harvest of thirty years since.
In the old days. the husbandman
snapped work. John Smiths wheat
happened to ripen a little earlier than
that of his neighbors. and they brought
their cradles on a fine summer morn
ing. and their boys came with rakes
and strong arms, and all aided John
Smith in getting in his wheat and
emptying his jug of old rye. John
Smith, in his turn, helped each of
those who assisted him, to harvest his
grain and drink his whisky. Every
body had hand in the old time har-
vest. The women got up a feast; the
small boys carried drinking water to
the men, walking across the field with
a jug and a tin cup and providing
each sturdy laborer with one drink
from the whisky jug to three from the
jug of water. The boys occasionally
rested from their further duty of
gathering the sheaves for shocking,
and SAT- in the shade and mixed water
and whisky with great freedom, drink
ing it until there was nobody left with
nerves steady enough to carry the
drinks around the field.
| remember on one occasion being
employed to "tote" water for one of
my fathers neighbours harvesters.
There were three of us about the same
age, and we passed the jugs in very
able-bodied and satisfactory manner
until about eleven o'clock in the fore
of a wheat shock and made some half
and-half. We drank several rounds,
when l observed that my companions
looked little indisposed. One of
them tried to drink from the handle of
the jug, and the other gazed pensively
into the vacant depths of the tin cup
and remarked that he was the best
man on that prairie. A little later l
felt that the world was very unstable.
The trees about us began to dance,
and the COWS that roamed Ovel the adj
jacentpasture seemed to rise up and
float about in the air like huge, I'M
calmly bats. AS time wore on, /
noticed that the men were swinging
their cradles over their heads, and
the wheat shocks were playing tag
with each other all around me. My
fellow drawers of water and hewers
of whisky were trying to settle the
yexed question as to which was the
proprietor of the universe, while /,
content with being left alone with the
frowning jugs, gradually saw more
and more of the Instability of worldly
things, and began to wonder whether
[ was merely myself or the president
Of the United States travelling incog-
nitO. [ have faint recollection of
hearing the proprietor of the close call
for water, and making reply to the
effect that l was above serving in such
mental sphere as that of bearing
meat and drink to common laborers.
My companions had ceased to wrangle
about their title to all creation and
were sleeping peacefully, each ap-
parently satisfied to be regarded as
owner of an undivided half interest in
it. [ was trying to induce the water
Jug to resume friendly relations with
5he whisky jug and to restore order
among the belligerent sheaves, each
Of which seemed bent on usurping the
place of the other, when the proprie-
tor of the harvest came toward me,
and [ arose to receive him as became
The dignity of one so high up in the
councils of the nation.
"Welcome, sir; thrice welcome to
he presence of the king" l exclaim-
ed, waving my hand imperiously, and
suddenly sitting down on my head
and shoulders.
"Why in blazes don't you boys bring
The water around % he inquired.
''Ho there, guard! exclaimed, hold
ing on the jug for support. Take
his saucy wretch hence and chop off
ais offending head" The guards re-
piled with significant snores, and L
again rose to my feet and commanded
my employer to hence. He seemed re-
iuctant to obey, and noticing that he
lid not hence, | roared the command
again, falling over the whisky jug and
striking my head heavily on the water
Jug. The man extended his hand to
catch me, and just then my father,who
was working some distance away,
looked up and saw me fall-saw my
pick me up-saw the blood
On my cheek. He came toward me
with the speed of the wind, and first
noticing the blood, he asked my en-
ployer why he struck me. He replied
that he had not struck me, but my
father said he saw him do it, and then
I saw them dancing around and having
a most hilarious time of it, and my
fathers neighbor fell across my stom-
ach, and | became SO deathly sick l
could not for a moment make the mis-
take of supposing myself anything bet
ter than badly assassinated president,
and [ was carried home and put to
bed, and my wound was dressed, and
my father made certain inquiries of
me the next morning, which induced
him to call on his neighbor and apollo
yize, and felt weary and Inundated
:or several days, and in due time. we
but the whisky jug was kept
along with the men and 1 carried only
water. Oh, yes! The vile clatter of
he modern self-binder hath no charms
ike the melodious gurgle of the jugs
If thirty years ago. - BLOOMINGTON
Through Mail.