Band books

I agreed to pay each $25 a
month to start with, and explained my plan of an increasing wage of $1 a
month for each period of six months' service. They thought they ought to
have $30 level. I thought so, too, if they were as good as they
promised. But I had a fondness for my increasing scale, and I held to
it. These people were skilled laborers, and were worth more to begin
with than ordinary farm hands. That is why I gave them $25 a month from
the start. Six hundred dollars a year for a man and wife, with no
expense except for clothing, is good pay. They can easily put away $400
out of it, and it doesn't take long to get fore-handed. I think the
Frenches have invested $500 a year, on an average, since they came to
Four Oaks.
It is now time to get at the dairy-house, since the dairy and the
dairymaid are both in evidence. The house was to be on the building
line, and both Polly and I thought it should have attractive features.
We decided to make it of dark red paving brick. It was to be eighteen
feet by thirty, with two rooms on the ground.


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