IMH 75:2 197

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

1881

Thursday April 21st

It was more or less cloudy till eleven o'clock. From that time till four o'clock it
sprinkled occasionally. The rain kept steadily coming down from four till night
but not in very great quantity. Jap and John Foster brought home the iron wedge
this morning, also the old musket and all the accoutrements except the cap-box.
Alvin and I hauled manure till the rain drove us in. We finished on the cow-dung
mixture just before noon putting it immediately below the house on the corn-field
from whence came smells not exactly like those "wafted by the spice-laden breezes
of Araby the Blest.(87) After dinner having hoisted the bed off the wagon we went
at the horse-manure. We put that on the last ground sowed to grass-seed to make
the seed sprout if possible, which the greatest part of it has hitherto failed to do.
While we were down there we got a load of gravel from the creek and put in the
buggy-shed. Two loads of manure and two of gravel were hauled before the rain
compelled us to stop. Father was gone all day on the assessment business.

Teaching Notes: Hard work was not a stranger to the Harrison family.. nor was it
complained about..they simply did the work needed to be done.