It was a very pretty and
novel sight.
The men had been in the field planting, hoeing or weeding--the farmer's
triad of duties in the vegetable field--and as they worked side by
side, the questions of the day were discussed with freedom and with
partisanship, but with good nature. The one who had a bias for art
brought forward his art hobbies; the dress reformer aired his and the
vegetarian argued his cause. Personal questions often came to the
front--as how Smith probably voted in the Association meeting in the
case of the admission of some mooted person; he was so sly you could
not find out! And they quizzed one another, and they laughed and
rivalled one another in speed of work, which they did faithfully and
interestedly. It was a good school of human nature, and sooner or later
each one was sized up with a deal of exactness. With the sounding of
the horn the hoes were left in the field or put on the shoulder for the
march to the barn, where, in its little room, the toilet for meals was
made.
When I think under what disadvantages these toilers worked for five
years, I wonder at their patience and firmness. What would our city
families say to all going out from their apartments, male and female,
young and old, and walking from an eighth to a quarter of a mile--often
making their own path through the deep snow of our severe New England
winters--three times each day, for the simple meals we had there to
eat? What would they say to living in crowded rooms, without private
parlors, and the public one at the Hive not much better than an office
in a back country hotel, and the other disadvantages heretofore named
and many more, simply for the principle of the thing?
Of course there was enthusiasm, and that sweetens many dull dishes; but
for those used to home comforts, to be sandwiched in with comparative
strangers--squeezed down, as it were, into a press--oftentimes having
the family separated into various and disunited parts of the mansion or
into different houses, was decidedly uncomfortable to bear.
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