"WE SHALL ALL EARN OUR SALT"
Raspberries and milk, with bread and butter and a cup of tea, made a
supper that we all relished, and then Merton and I started for the
boat-landing. I let the boy drive and deliver the crates to the freight
agent, for I wished him to relieve me of this task occasionally. On our
way to the landing I saw Rollins, who readily agreed to Bagley's wish,
on condition that I guaranteed payment for the chickens. Stopping at
the man's cottage further on, I told him this, and he, in his emphatic
way, declared: "I vow ter you, Mr. Durham, ye shan't lose a feather's
worth o' the chickens."
Returning home, poor Merton was so tired and drowsy that he nearly fell
off the seat. Before long I took the reins from his hands, and he was
asleep with his head on my shoulder. Winifred was dozing in her chair,
but brightened up as we came in. A little judicious praise and a bowl
of bread and milk strengthened the boy wonderfully. He saw the need of
especial effort at this time, and also saw that he was not being driven
unfeelingly.
As I sat alone with my wife, resting a few minutes before retiring, I
said: "Well, Winifred, it must be plain to you by this time that the
summer campaign will be a hard one. How are we going to stand it?"
"I'll tell you next fall," she replied, with a laugh. "No problems
to-night, thank you."
"I'm gathering a queer lot of helpers in my effort to live in the
country," I continued. "There's old Mr. Jacox, who is too aged to hold
his own in other harvest-fields. Bagley and his tribe--"
"And a city wife and a lot of city children," she added.
"And a city greenhorn of a man at the head of you all," I concluded.
"Well," she replied, rising with an odd little blending of laugh and
yawn, "I'm not afraid but that we shall all earn our salt."
Thus came to an end the long, eventful day, which prepared the way for
many others of similar character, and suggested many of the conditions
of our problem of country living.
Bagley appeared bright and early the following morning with his two
elder children, and I was now confronted with the task of managing them
and making them useful. Upon one thing I was certainly resolved--there
should be no quixotic sentiment in our relations, and no companionship
between his children and mine.
Therefore, I took him and his girl and boy aside, and said: "I'm going
to be simple and outspoken with you. Some of my neighbors think I'm a
fool because I give you work when I can get others. I shall prove that
I am not a fool, for the reason that I shall not permit any nonsense,
and you can show that I am not a fool by doing your work well and
quietly. Bagley, I want you to understand that your children do not
come here to play with mine. No matter whom I employed, I should keep
my children by themselves. Now, do you understand this?"
They nodded affirmatively.
"Are you all willing to take simple, straightforward directions, and do
your best? I'm not asking what is unreasonable, for I shall not be more
strict with you than with my own children."
"No use o' beatin' around the bush, Mr. Durham," said Bagley,
good-naturedly; "we've come here to 'arn our livin', and to do as you
say."
"I can get along with you, Bagley, but your children will find it hard
to follow my rules, because they are children, and are not used to
restraint. Yet they must do it, or there'll be trouble at once. They
must work quietly and steadily while they do work, and when I am
through with them, they must go straight home. They mustn't lounge
about the place. If they will obey, Mrs. Durham and I will be good
friends to them, and by fall we will fix them up so that they can go to
school."
The little arabs looked askance at me and made me think of two wild
animals that had been caught, and were intelligent enough to understand
that they must be tamed. They were submissive, but made no false
pretences of enjoying the prospect.
"I shall keep a gad handy," said their father, with a significant nod
at them.
"Well, youngsters," I concluded, laughing, "perhaps you'll need it
occasionally. I hope not, however. I shall keep no gad, but I shall
have an eye on you when you least expect it; and if you go through the
picking-season well, I shall have a nice present for you both. Now, you
are to receive so much a basket, if the baskets are properly filled,
and therefore it will depend on yourselves how much you earn. You shall
be paid every day. So now for a good start toward becoming a man and a
woman."
I led them to one side of the raspberry patch and put them under
Merton's charge saying, "You must pick exactly as he directs."
Winnie and Bobsey were to pick in another part of the field, Mousie
aiding until the sun grew too warm for the delicate child. Bagley was
to divide his time between hoeing in the garden and spreading the grass
after the scythe of old Mr. Jacox. From my ladder against a
cherry-tree, I was able to keep a general outlook over my motley
forces, and we all made good progress till dinner, which, like the help
we employed, we now had at twelve o'clock. Bagley and his children sat
down to their lunch under the shade of an apple-tree at some distance,
yet in plain view through our open door. Their repast must have been
meagre, judging from the time in which it was despatched, and my wife
said, "Can't I send them something?"
"Certainly; what have you to send?"
"Well, I've made a cherry pudding; I don't suppose there is much more
than enough for us, though."
"Children," I cried, "let's take a vote. Shall we share our cherry
pudding with the Bagleys?"
"Yes," came the unanimous reply, although Bobsey's voice was rather
faint.
Merton carried the delicacy to the group under the tree, and it was
gratefully and speedily devoured.
"That is the way to the hearts of those children," said my wife, at the
same time slyly slipping her portion of the pudding upon Bobsey's plate.
I appeared very blind, but asked her to get me something from the
kitchen. While she was gone, I exchanged my plate of pudding, untouched
as yet, for hers, and gave the children a wink. We all had a great
laugh over mamma's well-assumed surprise and perplexity. How a little
fun will freshen up children, especially when, from necessity, their
tasks are long and heavy!
We were startled from the table by a low mutter of thunder. Hastening
out, I saw an ominous cloud in the west. My first thought was that all
should go to the raspberries and pick till the rain drove us in; but
Bagley now proved a useful friend, for he shambled up and said: "If I
was you, I'd have those cherries picked fust. You'll find that a
thunder-shower'll rot 'em in one night. The wet won't hurt the berries
much."
His words reminded me of what I had seen when a boy--a tree full of
split, half-decayed cherries--and I told him to go to picking at once.
I also sent his eldest boy and Merton into the trees. Old Jacox was
told to get the grass he had cut into as good shape as possible before
the shower. My wife and Mousie left the table standing, and, hastening
to the raspberry field, helped Winnie and Bobsey and the other Bagley
child to pick the ripest berries. We all worked like beavers till the
vivid flashes and great drops drove us to shelter.
Fortunately, the shower came up slowly, and we nearly stripped the
cherry-trees, carrying the fruit into the house, there to be arranged
for market in the neat peck-baskets with coarse bagging covers which
Mr. Bogart had sent me. The little baskets of raspberries almost
covered the barn floor by the time the rain began, but they were safe.
At first, the children were almost terrified by the vivid lightning,
but this phase of the storm soon passed, and the clouds seemed to
settle down for a steady rain.
"'Tisn't goin' to let up," said Bagley, after a while. "We might as
well jog home now as any time."
"But you'll get wet," I objected.
"It won't be the fust time," answered Bagley. "The children don't mind
it any more'n ducks."
"Well, let's settle, then," I said. "You need some money to buy food at
once."
"I reckon I do," was the earnest reply.
"There's a dollar for your day's work, and here is what your children
have earned. Are you satisfied?" I asked.
"I be, and I thank you, sir. I'll go down to the store this evenin',"
he added.
"And buy food only," I said, with a meaning look.
"Flour and pork only, sir. I've given you my hand on't;" and away they
all jogged through the thick-falling drops.
We packed our fruit for market, and looked vainly for clearing skies in
the west.
"There's no help for it," I said. "The sooner I start for the landing
the better, so that I can return before it becomes very dark."
My wife exclaimed against this, but I added: "Think a moment, my dear.
By good management we have here, safe and in good order, thirty
dollars' worth of fruit, at least. Shall I lose it because I am afraid
of a summer shower? Facing the weather is a part of my business; and
I'd face a storm any day in the year if I could make thirty dollars."
Merton wished to go also, but I said, "No; there must be no risks of
illness that can possibly be avoided."
I did not find it a dreary expedition, after all, for I solaced myself
with thoughts like these, "Thirty dollars, under my wife's good
management, will go far toward providing warm winter clothing, or
paying the interest, or something else."
Then the rain was just what was needed to increase and prolong the
yield of the raspberry bushes, on which there were still myriads of
immature berries and even blossoms. Abundant moisture would perfect
these into plump fruit; and upon this crop rested our main hope.