Mr. Denman's
parting advice was in his mind and he was devoting all his powers to
the business of adjusting himself to his present environment. But to
his fastidious nature the experiences of the morning made it somewhat
doubtful if he should be able to carry out the policy of adjustment
to the extreme of schooling himself to bear with equal mind the daily
contact with the dirt and disorder which held so large a place in
the domestic economy of the Haley household. One thing he was firmly
resolved upon, he would henceforth perform his toilet in his own room,
and thereby save himself the horror of the family roller towel and the
family comb.
Breakfast over, the men stood waiting orders for the day.
"We'll have to crowd them turnips through, Tim," said his father, who
seemed to avoid as far as possible giving direct orders to his men.
"Next week we'll have to git at the hay." So to the turnip field they
went.
It is one of the many limitations of a city-bred boy that he knows
nothing of the life history and the culture of the things that grow upon
a farm. Apples and potatoes he recognises when they appear as articles
of diet upon the table; oats and wheat he vaguely associates in some
mysterious and remote way with porridge and bread, but whether potatoes
grow on trees or oats in pods he has no certain knowledge.
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