The boys went out to the barnyard as soon as possible, where they found Mr. Kimball getting ready to start a fire under a big caldron of water that was to be used at a later stage in the proceedings.
"Let us make the fire, dad," begged Adrian, and getting permission, he and Roger soon had a fine blaze going.
The snow was soon trampled down and melting near the fire of hickory logs, which crackled, sputtered, and sparked, filling the cold, bracing air with a pleasant nutty smell. The boys as well as Mr. Kimball and his hired man had heavy boots on, and they wore their oldest clothing, since preparing pigs for sausage and pork chops is not exactly clean work.
"Wa'al, I see yer gettin' ready fer me," spoke a high-pitched voice suddenly, and a tall, spare man, with a much wrinkled face and a little bunch of gray beard on his chin, walked up the driveway to where Mr. Kimball and the boys were gathered about the heat. He too wore boots and an old overcoat. His arms were long and his hands bony and knotted.
"Yep, we're prepared fer ye, Hounson," said Mr. Kimball. "I see ye've got yer instruments a' death 'n' destruction 'ith ye," noting some hooks and a number of long, shining, sharp knives which the old man laid on the rough plank bench near the boiling water.
"Good nippin' weather fer th' middle a' November," observed Hounson, warming his hands at the crackling blaze and nodding to the boys.
"'T is thet," replied Mr. Kimball, while he tried the temperature of the water with his finger. "Hot 'nuff," he said, as he drew his hand hurriedly away from the boiling fluid. "Might's well start in," and he motioned to the hired man. Hounson took up a long sharp knife, and the three men started for the pig-sty, which contained half a dozen squealing porkers, all unconscious of the fate in store for them.
Then came a busy period. While Mr. Kimball and his hired man held the hog down on its back, old man Hounson skilfully and quickly killed it by cutting its throat. Cruel as it seemed to Roger, the animals really suffered very little pain, so rapidly was the knife thrust into a vital part. Then the carcass was dragged over to the incline, made of planks, which led down into a barrel of hot water filled from the steaming caldron, and soused up and down in this until the bristles were softened, so they could easily be removed by the three-sided iron scraper. Next the pig was cleaned and made ready for the market, or for storing away for winter. The boys got the bladders, which they carefully preserved, as Adrian said he could sell them to the Indians at the Reservation, who put dried corn in them and rattled them at their dances.
It was hard work for the three men, this business of pig killing and cutting up and preparing the meat for winter use, and it took the most of the day. The next two were spent in separating the various portions of the hogs, while preparations were made for smoking the hams, with a fire started in the smoke-house, the smouldering blaze being fed with hickory chips, sawdust, and corncobs.
Next Mrs. Kimball, Clara, and Mrs. Hounson, who had been called in to help, got ready to make sausage into links. This work was kept up late one night, when several neighbors dropped in to give assistance. Roger and Adrian took spells at turning the crank of the machine which ground the meat up, and then they worked the lever which forced the plunger down and shoved the sausage into the links. Mrs. Kimball stood near as the long slender skin was filled. About every four inches she gave the skin a twist, which separated the sausage into the familiar lengths. Clara held a big needle, and whenever an air bubble appeared on the surface of the skin, she skilfully pricked it, that the sausage might last better, the admission of air to the meat hindering it from keeping well. It was a new and interesting experience to the city boy, and he enjoyed it very much.