ejlo- twenty. There had been too much spotty picking; there had been excessive skylarking. No distinction was made between the well-behaved and the skylarkers; perhaps our employer felt unequal to the task of keeping a record of individual conduct. Whatever the reason, we were all paid equally. In such cases, we consoled ourselves with the reflection that, after all, twenty cents wasn't so bad. To farm youngsters, twenty cents was a lot of money; if we finished the seagon with three or four dollars in hand, we bwore positively rolling in wealth. .

And, although we may have grunbled among ourselves about the pay, the frosty mornings, and the aching muscles, on no account would we have missed a single hour of it. We felt that, for a time at least, we had been of some importance to the community; that, without us, the community would have been in something of a quandary. Today's youngsters, under similar con-. ditiona, would. undoubtedly organize to demand higher wages, shorter working hours, Overtime pay, and a few fringe benefite. We, however, were quite unsophisticated. All things considered, who shall say that we weren't the

better for our naivete? : dette aes

Next in order of the year's farming operations was "pulling" turnips, and harvesting the other vegetables. Turnips, by the way, were never "dug" -~ they — always "pulled." Compared to potato-digging and threshing, which always provided elements of bucolic drama and comedy, these activi« ties aroused little interest. And, since school vacation was long since over, our participation was confined to after-school hours and Saturdays.

Harvesting of the root crops was followed by fall plowing. Plowing was the single farm project in which I never became proficient; in fact, I never attempted to master it. To plow a Straight and symmetrical furrow was one of the marks of an efficient amd experienced farmer. Achieving this expertise called for an amount of practice which my few years on the farm

would in no way have provided.