Inventors -- United States -- Biography; Pupin, Michael, 1858-1935
One of the farm-hands, a Swiss, came in after a while in order to
remind me that it was bedtime and to inform me that early in the
morning he would wake me up and take me to the barn, where my job would
be assigned to me. He kept his word, and with lantern in hand he took
me long before sunrise to the barn and introduced me to two mules which
he put in my charge. I cleaned them and fed them while he watched and
directed; after breakfast he showed me how to harness and hitch them
up. I took my turn in the line of teams hauling manure to the fields.
He warned me not to apply myself too zealously to the work of loading
and unloading, until I had become gradually broken in, otherwise I
should be laid up stiff as a rod. The next day I was laid up, stiffer
than a rod. He was much provoked, and called me the worst “greenhorn”
that he ever saw. But, thanks to the skilled and tender care of the
ladies on the farm, I was at my job again two days later. My being a
greenhorn appealed to their sympathy; they seemed to have the same kind
of soul which I had first observed in my American friends who paid my
fare from Vienna to Prague.
One of my mules gave me much trouble, and the more he worried me the
more amusement he seemed to furnish to the other farm-hands, rough
immigrants of foreign birth. He did not bite, nor did he kick, as
some of the mules did, but he protested violently against my putting
the bridle on his head. The other farm-hands had no advice to offer;
they seemed to enjoy my perplexity. I soon discovered that the
troublesome mule could not stand anybody touching his ears. That was
his ticklish spot. I finally got around it; I never took his bridle off
on working-days, but only removed the bit, so that he could eat. On
Sunday mornings, however, when I had all the time I wanted, I took his
bridle off, cleaned it, and put it on, and did not remove it again for
another week. The foreman and the superintendent discovered my trick
and approved of it, and so the farm-hands lost the amusement which they
had had at my expense every morning at the harnessing hour. I noticed
that they were impressed by my trick and did not address me by the name
of greenhorn quite so often. They were also surprised to hear me make
successful attempts to speak English. Nothing counts so much in the
immigrant’s bid for promotion to a grade above that of a greenhorn as
the knowledge of the English language. In these efforts I received a
most unexpected assistance, and for that I was much indebted to my red
fez.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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