this day of need. And in such fashion we whiled
away the time and talked for the edification of our
neighbors. We quite won the sympathy of the
pole-puller, a young country yokel, who now and
again emptied a few picked blossoms into our bin,
it being part of his business to gather up the stray
clusters torn off in the process of pulling.

With him we discussed how much we could
sub, and were informed that while we were being
paid a shilling for seven bushels, we could only
sub, or have advanced to us, a shilling for every
twelve bushels. Which is to say that the pay for
five out of every twelve bushels was withheld a
method of the grower to hold the hopper to his
work whether the crop runs good or bad, and espe
cially if it runs bad.

After all, it was pleasant sitting there in the
bright sunshine, the golden pollen showering from
our hands, the pungent, aromatic odor of the hops
biting our nostrils, and the while remembering
dimly the sounding cities whence these people
came. Poor street people ! Poor gutter folk !
Even they grow earth-hungry, and yearn vaguely
for the soil from which they have been driven, and
for the free life in the open, and the wind and rain
and sun all imdefiled by city-smirches. As the sea
calls to the sailor, so calls the land to them; and,
deep down in their aborted and decaying carcasses,

[[176]]

p175 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p176w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p177

v?