That day, I remember, Jim laid the loads. Halstead helped him to
tread down the hay, and Elder Witham and Asa pitched it on the cart. The
old Squire had mounted the driver's seat and taken the reins; and
Addison and I raked up the scatterings from the "tumbles."
In the course of two hours four loads of the hay had gone into the barn,
and we thought that the thirty-three tumbles that remained could be
drawn at the fifth and last load. It was then that grandmother Ruth
appeared. She had been watching proceedings from the house and followed
the cart down from the barn to the south field, resolutely bent on
laying the last load. Theodora and Ellen came with her to help tread
down the hay on the cart.
"Here I am!" she cried cheerily. She tossed her hayfork into the empty
rack and climbed in after it. Her sun hat was tied under her chin, and
she had donned a white waist and a blue denim skirt. "Come on now with
your hay!"
Elder Witham moistened his hands, but made no comment. Jim was grinning.
The old Squire drove the cart between two tumbles, and the work of
pitching on and laying the load began. No one knew better than
grandmother Ruth how a load should be laid.
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