The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-12-11

AlAAA We AdA lhoNNA all TIC
In AzI grass I'm the south field"
Nall Eai We had doubts about cut.
ung uown 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 "Poiey," as we called
him. Let's down with itr
And we did. There were six acres
Of It, all stout grass, following clover
the summer before; two tons and a
half to the acre Of long stalked herds
grass, which, when dry and ready to
go 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 IL into windows with
the horse rake during the afternoon.
Father was away I'm the north part
Of the State, Cruising" for pine and
spruce, in the employ Of a lumber
company, and Napoleon and had the
haylng to do with the assistance Of
one bird man. TT
y, The next morning, as soon as the
dew was off, we turned the windows.
There were about twenty rack-loads
Of the hay We planned to haul in
ten loads that second day and ten the
next.
y Seven or eight tons of hay, as every
one knows, are about as much as three
men ought to handle in one afternoon.
It 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 tramping
has to be done in a hot, close barn.
amid choking dust.
Until noon Of the second day, when
we began hauling, the weather was
fair; but Immediately after u O'clock
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 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 it to the great beams" of the barn
eighteen or twenty feet above the
barn floor.
When we drove in with the first loat
the hired man started to pitch it of
into the bay, and 1 undertook to stow
it. Napoleon had remained out in thu
field to roll the windrow up into "tum
bles," ready to be pitched upon TIT
cart as soon as it returned from th,
barn.
The hired man was a large, stron3
fellow. At every forl1ful he flung of
about a hundred-weight of that coarse
: snarled hay, and l soon found that
was going to have quite as much worl
as l could manage for had to pull tn
hay back into the long, deep bay
tread it down in the dust and heat
and return to the front in time to TAX
the next tough, snarly forkfuls as the
came rolling down off the cart. I coul
not do it; no one could. My weight
indeed, was not sufficient to tread tn
coarse stuff down.
This first load was no sooner pitche
off and the cart backed out than
drove the Whitcomb rack piled hig
with another load. One of the me
with this team had remained in til
field, rolling UP tumbles; the drive
was ready to throw off the hay. an
they all seemed to think that I coul
take care of it.
Finding myself worsted, I ran int
the house to see if ! could not get som
OF the women to help me tread til
hay down, but they had all gon