Green thought it was folly and fussiness.
I got the hay which had been dried put in the barn, which is much better than stacking it, when no one knows how, but I could only do that because the ground is too wet to run the mowing machine; thus I could use the team to haul in the hay. One of the renters came up and paid his money quite voluntarily, which is so unusual that it put me in good spirits for the day.
October 3.
To-day is too beautiful for words. As I went into the sun-swept piazza this morning I felt, like the mocking-birds, an ecstasy of gratitude for so much beauty. I did wish so I could take a day off and sit in the piazza and just bask in the beauty of everything and breathe the crisp freshness of the first fall weather and sew.
I am making a suit of white flannel woven from the wool of my own sheep. I have embroidered the revers and cuffs of the jacket and nearly finished it, and want it to wear these delightfully cool mornings, but I cannot stay to-day.
I must get through my home duties as quickly as possible and make my daily visit to the bedside of my saintly friend, who, having begun her life in wealth and having in middle age been reduced to poverty, has passed fourscore and eight years, a beautiful example of woman, wife, and mother, and is now slowly passing through the valley of the shadow. This is my greatest pleasure and privilege, and whatever other duty is hurried over, to this I give full time.
To hold daily converse with one who, after lying three months in hourly pain, is serene and calm, nay, joyous with gratitude for His many mercies (which some might need a microscope to discover), is a rare opportunity of seeing a true follower of the Blessed One, and I come away always feeling as though I had quenched my thirst at a living stream, refreshed and strengthened.
On the plantations, too, things look bright. The pea-vine hay is falling heavy and sweet behind the mowing machine, and what was cut yesterday has dried nicely and will be raked into windrows this afternoon. The crab-grass hay is also dry and ready to be stacked again. The cotton is opening well, and we can make a good picking to-morrow.
As I went into the pea-field, where the women were singing as they picked, I came upon a spider who was too large to stand upon a silver dollar. I was most reluctant to kill him, for he was doubtless the Hitachiyama of his race.
He scorned to run, or even move quickly away, so sure was he that he was invincible and need fear no foe, and it did seem too unfair to crush out his little greatness, but the bite of such a spider would mean serious illness, if not death, and there were all the women, most of them with bare feet, to run the risk of being stung, so I dealt the fatal blow.