The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-11-18
Pulling Fodder.

Pulling fodder looks like hard busi-
ness, writes Bill Arp to the Atlanta
Constitution. My tenants get to the
field early while the grass and the weeds
and the morning glory vines are all wet
! with dew. and the ground is sticky with
moisture. They are soon wet up to their
knees, and their pants flop around their
ankles and the dewdrops fall in their
sleeves. but they don't seem to- mind it.
BY and by as the sun mounts up over
them the dew disappears, and the sultry
heat comes down and there is no chance
for breeze in the low ground corn, but
still they pull away, and talk and laugh
as merry as if they were having frolic.
Then he has to tie it up and carry it
through long rows to the end of the
field. and the big pile of twenty or thirty
bundles is all over his head and his
shoulders, and he goes humping along
the cornstalks and gets the trash all
down his neck and in his ewes. but still
he don't mind it, and brags how many
bundles he carried and never dropped
nary one.
There is something mighty cheerful
about willing labor, toll that is content
ed-sweat that is no curse. | couldn't
pull fodder if was willing. but / am
not willing. If had step-ladder and
a boy to tote it along from stock to
stock and there was no dew and sun
was behind cloud. l might venture a
short row. Being willing is the great
thing about labor Being willin. is
the secret of success in anything.
heard an old man say that any man
could quit drinking whisky or chewing
tobacco if he was willing. He must get
his own consent the first thing, and
then it is easy to do.
1t is mans nature to work up ex-
actly to his tension. His task must be
done. Pulling fodder is disasreeable.
but the farmers mind has peen worked
up to that for years and SO it is all right
1t is part of his business. We all string
up our nerves and our will to the ten
sion of our condition, our necessities 1t
IS like turning the screw on violin to
get the strings up to the chord. When
they slacken they won't play in har-
mony and we must tighten the tension
again. DR.. FELTON, lives two miles from
town, and L live five, and my nabor
WeemS lives ten. The doctors road is
just as long to him as mine is to me, or
as the ten miles is to Nabor Weems
We have all got used to the task, the
journey, and screwed our fiddles up to
that tension, but l would get awful tired
if had to go as far as Weems and Dr.
FELTON, wouldn't live where | do for any,
thing. The doctor is sorry for me, and
am sorry for Weems, and be is sorry
for somebody beyond him, but our SYM
pathy is wasted. There is lots of SYM
pathy wasted in this world, but it shows
good heart to have it AS the burden
is, SO the strength shall be. If labor is
rewarded it is all right Rowland says
he don't mind pulling fodder at all if it
don't get wet and spoil in the curing.
Contentment is what we ali want, and
the poor man can be as contented as
the rich one if his labor is rewarded-a
reasonable reward. Then it is willing
labor. The watchman goes on duty
willingly at midnight. The doctor hears
the doorDall rim. willingly when deep
sleep has possessed him on cold and
stormy night, The night editor of the
daily paper is a willing slave to the
lamp. Every true man will screw his
courage up to the sticking point if the
reward is IN sight.