'No more 'ops, matey,' Bert complained.
It was five o'clock, and the pole-pullers had knocked off, so that everything could be cleaned up, there being no work on Sunday.For an hour we were forced idly to wait the coming of the measurers, our feet tingling with the frost which came on the heels of the setting sun.In the adjoining bin, two women and half a dozen children had picked nine bushels; so that the five bushels the measurers found in our bin demonstrated that we had done equally well, for the half-dozen children had ranged from nine to fourteen years of age.
Five bushels! We worked it out to eight pence ha'penny, or seventeen cents, for two men working three hours and a half.Eight and one-half cents apiece, a rate of two and three-sevenths cents per hour! But we were allowed only to 'sub' fivepence of the total sum, though the tally-keeper, short of change, gave us sixpence.Entreaty was in vain.A hard luck story could not move him.He proclaimed loudly that we had received a penny more than our due, and went his way.