“Going to rain?” repeated Carl, in surprise, as he looked up at the nearly cloudless sky.
“Yes. It don’t look like it, I know, but old Job Hagar say it’ll rain before night, and what he don’t know about the weather ain’t worth knowin’. I want to get the hay on this meadow into the barn, and then I’ll feel safe, rain or shine.”
“And you want me to help you?”
“Yes; you look strong and hardy.”
“Yes, I am pretty strong,” said Carl, complacently.
“Well, what do you say?”
“All right. I’ll help you.”
Carl gave a spring and cleared the fence, landing in the hay field, having first thrown his valise over.
“You’re pretty spry,” said the farmer. “I couldn’t do that.”
“No, you’re too heavy,” said Carl, smiling, as he noted the clumsy figure of his employer. “Now, what shall I do?”
“Take that rake and rake up the hay. Then we’ll go over to the barn and get the hay wagon.”
“Where is your barn?”
The farmer pointed across the fields to a story-and-a-half farmhouse, and standing near it a good-sized barn, brown from want of paint and exposure to sun and rain. The buildings were perhaps twenty-five rods distant.
“Are you used to hayin’?” asked the farmer.
“Well, no, not exactly; though I’ve handled a rake before.”
Carl’s experience, however, had been very limited. He had, to be sure, had a rake in his hand, but probably he had not worked more than ten minutes at it. However, raking is easily learned, and his want of experience was not detected. He started off with great enthusiasm, but after a while thought it best to adopt the more leisurely movements of the farmer. After two hours his hands began to blister, but still he kept on.
“I have got to make my living by hard work,” he said to himself, “and it won’t do to let such a little thing as a blister interfere.”
When he had been working a couple of hours, he began to feel hungry. His walk, and the work he had been doing, sharpened his appetite till he really felt uncomfortable. It was at this time–just twelve o’clock–that the farmer’s wife came to the front door and blew a fish horn so vigorously that it could probably have been heard half a mile.
“The old woman’s got dinner ready,” said the farmer. “If you don’t mind takin’ your pay in victuals, you can go along home with me, and take a bite.”
“I think I could take two or three, sir.”
“Ho, ho! that’s a good joke! Money’s scarce, and I’d rather pay in victuals, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Do you generally find people willing to work for their board?” asked Carl, who knew that he was being imposed upon.
“Well, I might pay a leetle more. You work for me till sundown, and I’ll give you dinner and supper, and–fifteen cents.”
Carl wanted to laugh. At this rate of compensation he felt that it would take a long time to make a fortune, but he was so hungry that he would have accepted board alone if it had been necessary.
“I agree,” he said. “Shall I leave my rake here?”
“Yes; it’ll be all right.”
“I’ll take along my valise, for I can’t afford to run any risk of losing it.”
“Jest as you say.”
Five minutes brought them to the farmhouse.
“Can I wash my hands?” asked Carl.
“Yes, you can go right to the sink and wash in the tin basin. There’s a roll towel behind the door. Mis’ Perkins”–that was the way he addressed his wife–“this is a young chap that I’ve hired to help me hayin’. You can set a chair for him at the table.”
“All right, Silas. He don’t look very old, though.”
“No, ma’am. I ain’t twenty-one yet,” answered Carl, who was really sixteen.
“I shouldn’t say you was. You ain’t no signs of a mustache.”
“I keep it short, ma’am, in warm weather,” said Carl.
“It don’t dull a razor any to cut it in cold weather, does it?” asked the farmer, chuckling at his joke.
“Well, no, sir; I can’t say it does.”