The boys helped in the fields, chopped the wood
and rounded up the stock, that at times wandered far into the mountains.
There were bells on the cows, on the sheep and even the hogs, and the
boys soon learned to distinguish ownerships by the delicate differences
in the browsing "tong" in the tone of the bells.
Residents of the valley sold to the outside world the live stock they
raised, and poultry and feathers and furs, and tar and resin from the
pines on the mountaintops. They purchased tea, coffee and sugar, a few
household and farm conveniences, and little else. The balance of the
trade was heavily in their favor and they were prosperous and happy.
They had no labor problems. They recognized without collective
bargaining the eight-hour shift--"eight hours agin dinner and eight
hours after hit; ef hit don't rain;" as one old mountaineer, living
there to-day, interpreted the phrase, "A day's work."
Even when the home of the mountaineer was a one- or two-room cabin,
accommodations for any stranger could be provided, and if he wished to
remain, work could be found for him. They observed without thought of
inconvenience the Colonial idea of "bundling."
When the stranger proved worthy there would be a log-rolling and a space
of ground cleared for him to till, and a log-raising in which the
community joined, and made a merry occasion of it, to give him a home.
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