The Nevada County picayune., 1910-08-23

 EEMS The road in front of US led
 w where our boat lay, and
 left-handed to the creek rtght-handed to the main part of the village, including the church and station. A hedge. just break ing into green, skirted the road, and over it's brim we could see a plowman guiding his team leisurely up and down a broad. flat field The man in his drab corduroys and the l picturesque group. They gave one, too the pleasant sense of restfulness an idler feels in watching other men work In the fitness of my content murmured something silly about the dignity of labor, which reused my companion from his comfortable si- Ience to retort: That's because you've never done any" l looked up to where a small, dark speck was rapidly rising in the windy April sky and flooding the air with joyous melody. Just listen to that lark singing" said Just listen to that signboard creaking. We shall have 1t down on our heads" retorted my practical minded friend; not without reason, for a strong breeze was briskly swinging of the night before had left dangling by a single rusty hook. The Flow and Anchor" muttered, as I eyed 1t and warily edged along the bench from under it. T wonder what came first at the beginning of things, and when the first furrow was turned?"
 That will be something for you to think about till get back" said Frampton benignly.
 That chap with the blow somehow takes me back to Algeria"
 My friend grinned with a good hu- mored sarcasm. Most things seem to do that" he said. But if you want 10 ruminate on blowing, here's something for start that takes one to the back of beyond As he spoke he detached coin from his watch chain and tossed it to me Next mo- meut he looked at his watch and rose hastily to his feet. "Joye!" he exclaimed, its ten to- must run for it. And swinging his coat across his shoulder. he picked up his bag and disappeared at trot round the bend of the road to the station.
 Frampton was right Numberless incidents of the most trifling kind suf- fced 10 carry my thoughts back to Algeria. Life in the desert. life in the towns. life in the Tell, each had i'm pressed me vividly with its strange and distinctive attraction. In the lat ter district particularly I had studied the process and progress of farming carried on there in way l should never have thought of doing at home. There was such glamour over it all i; over even the poverty and reckless ness of the fellah and his primitive methods of agriculture. Like farm CTS all the world over, what he did and what he left undone was the result not ot personal initiative. but of faithful
 
 the efforts of the French government to introduce innovations and improve ments the native cultivators of agra fian land blow, SOW and reap as men dld when the world was young To See an Arab steering yoke of oxen, one hand pressed upon the single stem of the blow and the other holding the long, slim goad, is to see a living il- lustration of how Elisha looked and moved when Elijah found him blowing and cast his cloak upon him in signifi- cant symbolism of his destiny. Only In some such insignificant details as the names of the months in the Kabyle dialect Is the stamp of Rome still wis lnle, and in the system of hiring labor n the Tell there survives a custom belonging to the early days of the Ro- man republic
 This is what happens. A farmer hnds himself in debt, or he wants a lump sum of money in order to marry and settle down. He forthwith bor- rows the required amount of richer heighbor and signs a contract by which he practically enslaves himself until lie Is able to pay off the loan. His master must provide him with blow and a pair of oxen, the seed for the crop and the necessaries of life. He also receives fixed allowance of oil, %seat any barley per month, besides yearly supply of clothes and foot wear, the price of them going to in- crease the original debt. In harvest time the khammes, as he Is called. is entitled to an assistant. but he often prefers to take small indemnity and set his wife and children to work in-