The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-01-08

-" "AN . "
Grafton vas ''haying." There
was a perfect frenzy Of haying, for it
was the Monday after the Fourth, the
precise date in July when the Maine
farmer said soOdby to repose and
''hayed" desperately and INCREASINGLY
until every spear of green in his sec
ton was moved down and safely un-
der cover.
If IL man had grass Of his own he
cut it, and if he had none he assisted
in cutting that Of some other man. for
Ito hay although an unconventional
verb. was. and still is, a very active
one and in common circulation, al
though not used by the grammarians.
Whatever your trade and whatever
your profession. it counted as naught
in good weather. The fish man stop
ped selling fish. the meat man ceased
to bring meat. the cobbler as well as
the judge forsOOk the bench, and even
the doctor made fewer visits than
usual. The wage for work in the hay
fields was Il high one. and every man,
boy and horse in a village was pressed
into service.
When Ivory Boynton had finished
with his WI small crop he commonly
vent at Once to Lawyer Wilson. who
had the largest acreage of hay land in
the township. Ivory was always in
great demand, for he was a mighty
worker in the field and a very giant at
.Sn3fohinu -" hn3nr Oh1n fn ninl IN q
fair sized haycock at stroke of
the fork and fling it On to the cart as
If it were a feather.
Lawyer Wilson always tool a hand
himself If signs Of rain appeared. and
Mark occasionally visited the scene of
action when Il crowd in the field made
a general jollifcation or when there
was an impending thunderstorm.
In such cases even women and girls
Joined the workers and all hands bent
together to the task of getting a load
into the barn and covering the lest.
Deacon Baxter was won't to call
Mark Wilson a worthless. whey faced,
lily handed whelp," but the descrip-
ton. though picturesque. was decided
" exaggerated. Mark disliked manual
labor: but, having imbibed enough
knowledge of law in his fathers Office
to be an excellent clerk. he much pre-
ferred ira veling about, settling the de-
tails of small cases, collecting rents
and bad bills, to any form of work on
q farm. This sort Of life, on stage
coaches and railway trains or on long
driving trips with his own fast "trOt-
ter" suited his adventurous DISPOSE
ton and gave him a sense of impOr-
lance that was very necessary to his
intimate with Ivory Boynton. who
studied law with his father during all
vacations and in every available hour
OF leisure during term time. as did
many another young New England
schoolmaster.
Marks fathers praise of Ivory's
legal ability was q little too warm to
please his son, as was the commenda.
ton Of one of the county court judges
on Ivory's preparation of a brief in q
certain case in the Wilson Office
Ivory had drawn it up at Mr.. Wilson's
request merely to show how far he I'M
derstood the books and cases he was
studying, and he had no idea that i,
differed In any way from the work Of
any other student. All the same
Marks own efforts in a like direction
had never received any special men
ton.
When he was in the bayfield, he also
kept as far as possible from Ivory, be
u there, too, he felt a superiority
that made him for the moment q tri6(
disconnected. 1t was no particular
pleasure for him to see Ivory plunge
his fork deep into the heart Of a hay