File:Boy life on the prairie (1899) (14757821606).jpg

Identifier: boylifeonprairie00ingarl (find matches)
Title: Boy life on the prairie
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940 American Popular Literature Collection
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Publisher: New York London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Northern Illinois University
Digitizing Sponsor: CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

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eeable bustle for a few days, and human intercourselightened the toil. In the midst of the dull, slow prog-ress of the falls ploughing, the gathering of the thresh-ing crew was a most dramatic event. There had been great changes in the methods ofthreshing since Mr. Stewart had begun to farm, but ithad not yet reached the point where steam displaced thehorse-power. In the old days in Wisconsin, the grain,after being stacked round the barn ready to be threshed,was allowed to remain until late in the fall before call-ing in the machine. Of course, some farmers got at it earlier, for all couldnot thresh at the same time, and a good part of the fallslabor consisted in changing works with the neigh-bors, thus laying up a stock of unpaid labor ready forthe home job. Day after day, therefore, Mr. Stewartand the hired man shouldered their forks in the crispand early dawn and went to help their neighbors,while Lincoln ploughed the stubble-land. All through the months of October and November,194
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The Old-fashioned Threshing 195 the ceaseless ringing hum and the boiv-ouiu^ omu-iuoo boo-oo-oofti of the great balance wheels of the threshing-ma-chine and the deep bass hum of the whirling cylinder, asits motion rose and fell, could be heard on every sidelike the singing of some sullen and gigantic autumnalinsect. For weeks Lincoln had looked forward to the com-ing of the threshers with the greatest eagerness, andduring the whole of the day appointed Owen and hehung on the gate and gazed down the road to see if themachine were not coming. It did not come during theafternoon — still they could not give it up, and atthe falling of dusk still hoped to hear the rattle of itsmachinery. They moved about restlessly in momentary expecta-tion of a shout, notwithstanding the hired man said,Theyre probably stuck in the mud. A score oftimes Owen ran to the window to see if he could notcatch a glimpse of it or hear the shouts of the men totheir horses. It was not uncommon for the men who atten

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