These men that I worked with were unimaginably ignorant. One night we held a heated argument as to whether the stars were other worlds and suns, or merely lights set in the sky to light the world of men by ... which latter, the old man maintained, was the truth, solemnly asserting that the Bible said so, and that all other belief was infidelity and blasphemy. So it was that, each evening, despite the herculean labour of the day, we drew together and debated on every imaginable subject....
On the third day of my employment by him, Bonton put me at the mouth of the separator, where the canvas ran rapidly in, carrying the bundles down into the maw of the machine. My job was feeding the bundles to it ... up in the air in the back the threshed straw was kicked high, and the chaff whirled in dusty clouds ... from a spout in the side of the separator the threshed grain poured in an unending stream....
It was difficult to keep the horses from the straw stacks that the daily threshing built up.
Also Bonton speeded so terrifically that much of the grain was shot out into the straw....
One night three of the horses made their way to the straw and ate and gorged ... in the morning one of them was dead and the other two were foundered....
The cramps bothered me no more.
The boss came up to me and slapped me on the back.