The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1903-12-17
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BY Charles Adams

Nn1m--u.lttH VIC huu uNuDtS "NO"s Nu'
ung Aown so much, for there were
only three of us to take care of it; but
the weather had cleared of bright and
windy that morning, after a thunder
shower in the night.
There are pretty sure to be three or
four days Of good, hard weather now"
said Napoleon, or Policy" as we called
him. Lets down with It"
And we did. There were six acres
Of 1t, ell stout grass, following clover
the summer before; two tons and a
half to the acre of long stalked herds
90 into the barn, is about as stiff and
hard to pitch and handle as so much
wire. Any country boy who has ever
moved away" knows what such grass
is when 1t is pitched off the cart to
him in big forkfuls.
The sun shone hot all that first day,
and heavy as the grass was it made
well. We raked It into windows with
the horse rake during the afternoon.
Father was away in the north part
Of the State, cruising" for pine and
spruce, in the employ Of a lumber
company, and Napoleon and had the
haying to do, with the assistance Of
one bird man.
The next morning, rs soon as the
dew was of, we turned the windows
There were about twenty rack-londs
Of the hay. We planned to haul in
ten loads that second day and ten the
next.
Seven or eight tons OF hay, as every
one knows. are about as much as three
men ought to handle In one afternoon.
1t has all to be pitched over twice
with forks and trodden down in the
haymow; and this latter part Of the
work, in the case of coarse herds
grass, is the worst, for the tramplng
has to be done in q hot, close barn,
amid choking dust.
Until noon Of the second day. when
we began hauling, the weather was
fair; but Immediately after 10 o'clock
n change was apparent A gray haze
appeared in the south, soon followed
by small shreds Of cloud, which in
creased in size In Maine we knew
those signs only too well during the
warm season. Such southern rains
come on suddenly,
1T will pour by 8 o'clock said Ma
poleon. And all this hay out! What's
to be done
The only thing we could do was to
swallow a hasty luncheon and begin
hauling as fast as possible.
We sent word Of our plight to our
next neighbors. the Whitcombs, and
as they had finished their haying a day
or two previously, they kindly sent
over their two hired men, with hay
rack and OK team, TO help us.
We had been saving what we called
the west bay Of the barn in which
to put this herds grass. The usual
cross Orders had been taken out OF
this bay, making one long haymow Of
it, fifty feet by twenty, and we knew
that the crop in the south field would
fill 1t to the great beams" Of the barn,
eighteen or twenty feet above the
barn floor.
p When we drove in with the first load
the hired man started to pitch 1t off
into the bay, and l undertook to stow
II. Napoleon had remained out in the
field to roll the wndrow up into "tum-
bles," ready to be pitched upon the
cart rs soon as 1t returned from the
barn.
The hired man was a large, strong
fellow. At every forkful he flung Off
about hundred-weight Of that coarse,
snarled hay, and l soon found that l
was going to have quite as much work
as could manage, for had to pull the
hay back into the long, deep bay,
tread 1t down in the dust and heat
and return to the front In time to take
the next tough, sparly forkfuls as they
came rolling down off the cart. 1 could
not do it; no one could. My weight,
indeed, was not sufficient to tread the
coarse stun down.
This first load was no sooner pitched
of and the cart backed out than in
drove the Whitcomb rack, piled high
with another load. One of the men
with this team had remained in the
field, rolling up tumbles; the driver
was ready to throw off the hay. and
they all seemed to think that l could
take care Of It.
Finding myself worsted, I ran into
the house to see If could not get some
of the women to help me tread the
hay down, but they had all gone
raspberrying.
As ran back to the barn, however,
Happened to see in the lane two three.
ycar-old colts that we were pasturInG