The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1886-10-08
PULLING FODDER.
Bill Apps sketch of n Country Seen

Dill Arp's sketch OF Country scene.
Pulling fodder looks like hard bust
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 dew
drops 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 a
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 tic 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 eyes, 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
cd-swcat that is no curse. | couldn
pull fodder if | was willing, but | am
not willing. If had step-laddcr and
q boy to tote it along from stock to
stock and there was no dew and the sun
was behind cloud, | might venture a
short row. Being willing is the great
thing about labor. Being willingis the
secret of success in anything. l heard
an old man say that amy 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 disagrceable.
but the farmers mind has been 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 VIII to
the tension of our condition, our necessl-
ties. 1t is like turning Il screw on vio-
lin to get the strings up to the chord.
When they slacken they won play IN
harmony and we must tighten the
tension again. Dr. FELTON, lives two
miles from town, and | live five,
and my nabor Wecms lives ten.
The doctors road is just as long
to him as mine is to me, or as the ten
miles is to Nabor Wccms. We have all
cot used to the task, the journey, and
screwed our iiddles up to that tension,
but would get awful tired if had to go
as far rs Weems and Dr. FELTON,
wouldn't live where DO for anything.
The doctor is sorry for me, and am
sorry for Wccms. and he is sorry for
somebody beyond him, but our sympa-
thv is wasted. There is lots of sympa-
thy wasted in this world, but it shows
a 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
II it don't get wet and spoil in the
curing. Contentment is what we all
want. and the poor man can be as con-
tented rs the rich one ii his labor is re-
warded-a reasonable reward. Then it
is willing labor. The Waterman goes
on duty willingly at midnight. The
doctor hears the door-bell ring willingly
when deep sleep has possessed him ON
a cold and stormy night. The night
editor of the daily paper is Il willing
slave to the lamp. Every true man
will screw his courage up to the sticking
point if the reward is in sight