JACK--HIRED MAN
It wasn't all fun, Jack assured her when, soon after dinner, he came
toiling up the grass path and mounted the porch steps wearily.
"I never was so tired in my life," he declared. "Gee, I thought I was
'hard' enough--I've been fishing lots since school closed and that
isn't a lazy man's work especially if you wade upstream. I've hiked
miles and I've worked in the garden at home; but at this minute I have
three hundred and ninety-eight muscles creaking in my machinery that I
never knew before existed."
Doctor Hugh tossed him an extra sofa cushion and Jack stuffed it behind
his back as he sat in one of the comfortable wicker chairs.
"Where's Richard and Warren?" demanded Sarah. "I want to tell them
about greasing the chickens. Jack, did you ever grease chickens?"
"Now look here, Sarah," protested Doctor Hugh hastily, "we've listened
to the unsavory details of that process once and not even for Jack's
sake can we go through it again. Besides, Jack has a recital of his
own; you come sit with me and we'll listen to an agricultural lecture."
Sarah and Shirley both rushed to accept the invitation and after some
skirmishing managed to squeeze into the one big chair.
"Warren and Richard have gone down to the brook," reported Jack. "Mr.
Hildreth thinks someone from town is gigging there nights and they want
to keep a watch. I haven't enough ambition to catch a worm, let alone
a gigger."
"What's gigging?" cried Sarah, twisting about so that she placed her
feet in Rosemary's lap.
"Gigging is fishing at night," said Jack briefly. "I'll show you
sometime--when I can bend my knees again."
Doctor Hugh adroitly shifted the wandering feet by turning Sarah back
to her original position.
"The first day is always the hardest," he said encouragingly. "You
will live through to-morrow, if that's any comfort, Jack."
"Well, of course, I'm not complaining," Jack declared. "I don't expect
to pick roses--ouch!--and I won't grunt. But that tomato field must be
twenty miles long!"
Rosemary played for him presently and Mrs. Willis brought out the drop
cakes she had "saved" for him, and before it was nine o'clock--his
self-imposed bed-time--Jack felt more cheerful in spirit if not in
muscle.
But the days that followed tested his spirit severely. It was, as
Doctor Hugh had said, an entirely new experience for him to work for
anyone else and to work straight through a hot summer day with a brief
noon hour and no free time planned. There were even a number of chores
to be done after supper. "Vacation" to Jack had hitherto meant long,
cloudless days with leisure to read lazily in the hammock, or go
swimming when he pleased and license to grumble when his father
suggested that a little weeding would do the garden no harm.
It had not occurred to Jack, when he so blithely decided to hire out to
Mr. Hildreth, that he was contracting to give six days of labor--and
part of the seventh--as a week's work; he had not thought much about
it, but somewhere in the back of his mind there had been a hazy scheme
of affairs that included a day or two off, when it should be convenient
for him--free days which he would spend fishing with Doctor Hugh and
"playing around" with Rosemary and Sarah and Shirley. He was surprised
to find that fishing and kindred sports had no place on Warren and
Richard's schedule; work was a serious thing to them and in their
experience money was not to be easily earned.
Jack said little, but an undercurrent of friction began to develop
between him and Warren though to do him justice Warren was more than
ordinarily thoughtful and ready to make every allowance for Jack's
inexperience. But naturally the issuing of orders fell to him and he
was made responsible for the volume of work accomplished each day. Mr.
Hildreth permitted no excuses for failure in tasks set and though
extremely just he had a shrewd and accurate knowledge of the time
required for each chore and the amount of finished work to be turned
out each hour.
Jack and Richard "hit it off together" very well, too well, in fact;
they began to "fool," to skylark and, insensibly, waste time. When
Warren interfered it was in the role of kill-joy, a character he did
not fancy. When, on his return from driving a load of tomatoes to the
cannery one afternoon, instead of finding filled crates ready for a
second trip, he discovered that neither boy had picked a tomato and
that they had broken several crates and mashed a quantity of ripe
tomatoes in good-natured tussling. Warren spoke sharply and to the
point. He sent Jack to one end of a row and Richard to the other and
kept them separated the remainder of the afternoon.
The team was another grievance. Jack was sure he could be trusted to
drive Solomon and his mate to the cannery and back and this hauling
afforded a welcome break in a monotonous day. But Mr. Hildreth flatly
refused to allow Jack to handle the horses and either he or Warren made
the twice a day trip to the Center.
"I'll quit to-morrow," said Jack desperately, night after night.
And in the morning he would decide to stick it out another day.
Twice he went to sleep in his chair on the porch of the little white
house, waking to find that Mrs. Hildreth and the girls had gone to bed
and left Doctor Hugh, reading quietly under the lamp, to keep him
company.
"Nothing to be ashamed of," said the doctor when Jack stammered his
apology. "After a day of honest toil, Nature's going to exact her
toll. You'll be as hard as nails, Jack, if you keep this up."
The girls soon accepted the idea that Jack was not free to go about
with them and made their plans without including him. Rosemary went
nearly every day to see Miss Clinton, on some pretext or other, and
Shirley often accompanied her. Rosemary was rapidly learning to knit
the blocks for a bedspread with which she intended to surprise her
mother. Sarah gave most of her time and attention to Bony, but she
also visited the Gays though, in the excitement and pleasure of having
Doctor Hugh at their beck and call, it is to be regretted that the Gay
family were left more to themselves than Rosemary or her sisters
intended.
Jack's irritation culminated in the second week of his contract. True
to her promise, Mrs. Willis had asked the three boys to Sunday dinner
and, under the mellowing influence of Winnie's best cooking and the
friendly atmosphere of the little white house, the tension had relaxed
and the afternoon spent on the porch had been restful for at least
three of the group and happy for all.
"I'm going fishing to-morrow," announced Doctor Hugh, a night or two
later. "The alarm clock is set for four and I'm coming home when the
last nibble plays me false."
"Care if I go along?" said Jack impulsively. "I haven't had a bit of
fishing since I've been here. I brought my rod and tackle in case I
had a chance, but I haven't unpacked them yet."
The creak of the swing ceased suddenly. Warren had been swaying back
and forth gently in the darkness.
"Why--no--come along, if it's all right," said the doctor, after a
moment's hesitation.
"I'll meet you at the barn," promised Jack. "Gee, it will seem good to
take a day off."
Still Warren said nothing. The three boys had said good night and
walked almost to bungalow before he spoke.
"Are you really planning to go fishing tomorrow, Jack?" he asked
quietly.
"Of course," said Jack shortly.
"What about the work?"
"One day out won't wreck the crops," hazarded Jack.
"Don't stand here arguing all night," urged Richard. "Come on--I'm
going to bed."
Warren paid no attention and continued to address Jack.
"If you don't turn out in the morning I'll know you've quit," he said.
"I'm not fired till Mr. Hildreth says so," angrily retorted Jack.
"You work to-morrow, or you're through," declared Warren, a steel edge
to his voice. "I'm bossing this job and it doesn't happen to be one
that can wait anyone's personal convenience."
They tramped upstairs to their rooms, Jack inwardly seething. He took
off one shoe and hurled it across the bed as a relief to his feelings.
He'd show Warren Baker! It was a pity if a fellow had to ask him every
time he wanted a few hours to himself--he didn't have to have money,
anyway--he'd let the old job slide. He had come up voluntarily to
"hire out" and he didn't intend to be treated like a day laborer.
The other shoe followed the first.
Richard had said he wouldn't "stick it out" for two weeks. Perhaps he
ought not to quit with the time so nearly gone. Mr. Hildreth would, of
course, uphold Warren. He would hate to be left short-handed in such
beautiful picking weather, but he would not condone a fishing trip.
And there was his record--Jack was secretly rather proud of that; he
and Richard were keeping count of the number of crates each picked
daily and Jack had high hopes of outdistancing Richard before the end
of the week. Maybe he might stay his week out--just to show Richard!
Doctor Hugh waited twenty minutes for Jack the next morning, then
rightly concluded that he had changed his mind. Warren, meeting Jack
in the barn at the usual hour, said "good morning" pleasantly, but Jack
merely gave a curt nod. He might be working, but there was no reason
why he should pretend to like it, he said to himself childishly.
He went about his chores jerkily, still "sore" as Richard described it
and, as industrial statistics demonstrate, ill temper lowers our guard;
another time Jack might have been more careful, but this morning he
caught his finger on a nail in the harness room and tore an ugly gash
down its brown length.
He said nothing about the accident, washed the cut as well as he could
and went doggedly to work after breakfast at the interminable rows of
tomatoes.
Doctor Hugh and his car returned with a most respectable "catch" about
four o'clock that afternoon and the lucky fisherman suggested that
company be asked to dinner to enjoy the fish.
"I never saw such acting boys--never!" scolded Rosemary, who had
volunteered to be the messenger. "They won't any of them come! Warren
said he was too tired to talk to anyone and Jack said 'No'--just like
that--he is too cross for words! And then Richard said if they were
going to act like ninnies he wasn't going to come and make excuses for
them, so he said 'No thank you,' too."
"Jack has a sore finger," said Sarah wisely. "I heard Richard tell him
he ought to take care of it and Jack told him to mind his own affairs."
"Well, it's been a warm day and perhaps they're entitled to be cross,"
said Doctor Hugh pacifically. "We'll send Mrs. Hildreth three of the
fish and if she fries them as well as Winnie does, there may be a peace
treaty signed."