to drop apart, does not lie well on the rails of the rack. Such hay
farmers sometimes call "podgum."

Fully aware of the fact, the old Squire now said in an undertone to the
elder and to Jim that they had better make two loads of the thirty-three
tumbles. But grandmother Ruth overheard the remark and mistook it to
mean that the old Squire did not believe she could lay the load. It
mortified her.

"No, sir-ee!" she shouted down to the old Squire. "I hear your talk
about two loads, and it's because I'm on the cart! I won't have it so!
You give me that hay! I'll load it; see if I don't!"

"Bully for you, Gram!" shouted Halstead.

It was no use to try to dissuade her now, as the old Squire well knew
from long experience. When her pride was touched no arguments would move
her.

With the elder heaving up great forkfuls and grandmother Ruth valiantly
laying them at the front and at the back of the rack, they continued
loading the hay. Jim tried to place his forkfuls where they need not be
moved and where the girls could tread them down.

The load grew higher, for now that we were in the swales the hay could
not be laid out widely. It would be a big load, or at least a lofty one.
Grandmother Ruth began to fear lest the girls should fall off, and,
calling on Elder Witham to catch them, she bade them slide down
cautiously to the ground at the rear end of the cart. She then went on
laying the load alone. As a consequence it was not so firmly trodden and
became higher and higher until Jim and the elder could hardly heave
their forkfuls high enough for her to take them. But they got the last
tumble up to her and shouted, "All on!" to the old Squire, who now was
nearly invisible on his seat in front. Grandmother Ruth settled herself
midway on the load to ride it to the barn, thrusting her fork deep into
the hay so as to have something to hold on by. We could just see her sun
hat and her face over the hay; she looked very pink and triumphant.

Carefully avoiding stones and all the inequalities in the field, the old
Squire drove at a slow walk. I surmise that he had his fears. It was
certainly the highest load we had hauled to the barn that summer.

The rest of us followed after, glad indeed that the long task of haying
was now done, and that the last load would soon be in the barn. Halfway
to the farm buildings the cart road led through a gap in the stone wall
where two posts with bars separated the south field from the middl