xt step in the yearly round was haymaking.
Frequently, the grass was cut with scythes. In any event the work of
raking, curing, and stacking the hay, or the hauling it and pitching it
into the barns was heavy work. There was no hayfork operated by
machinery in those days. When not haying, the youth was usually put to
summer-fallowing or to breaking new ground, to fencing or splitting
rails,--all heavy work. No wonder that he always welcomed a rainy day!

=Harvesting.=--Then came the wheat-harvest time. Within the memory of
the author some of the grain was cut with cradles; later, simple reaping
machines of various kinds were used; but with them went the binding,
shocking, and stacking, all performed by hand and all arduous pieces of
work. These operations were interspersed with plowing and threshing.
Then came corn cutting, potato digging, and corn husking.

=Threshing.=--In those days most of the work around a threshing machine
was also done by hand. There was no self-feeding apparatus and no
band-cutting device; there was no straw-blower and no measuring and
weighing attachments. It usually required about a dozen "hands" to do
all the work. These men worked strenuously and usually in dusty places.
The only redeeming feature of the business was the opportunity given for
social intercourse which accompanied the work. Men, being social by
instinct, always work more willingly and more strenuously when others
are with them.

=Welcome Events.=--It is quite natural, as we have said, that under such
conditions as these the youth longed for a rainy day. A trip to the city
was always a delightful break in the monotony of his life, and a short
respite from severe toil. Sunday was usually the only social occasion in
rural life. It was always welcome, and the boys, even though tired
physically from work during the week, usually played ball, or went
swimming, or engaged in other sports on Sunday afternoons. Living in
isolation all the week and engaged in hard labor, they instinctively
craved companionship and society.

=Winter Work.=--When the fall work was done, winter came with its own
occupations. There were usually about four months of school in the rural
district, but even during this season there was much manual labor to be
done. Trees were to be cut down and wood was to be chopped, sawed, and
split for the coming summer. Land frequently had to be cleared to make
new fields; the breaking of colts and of steers constituted