Picking Pin-cherries
We three youngest children always had to do the menial tasks around the farm. We had a pin-cherry tree down by the sheep pasture. It grew close to the sheep shed, so it was easy for us to pick the pin-cherries. We'd crawl up on the sheep shed, which was very fragile, - at least so it seemed to us. The roof was rotting and had big holes in it, but we didn't worry about that. Mother made jelly from the pin-cherries we brought home, but first we had to use some of them to drop through the holes onto the sheep below. They were peacefully resting in the shed where they were out of the sun with their warm coats. Can you imagine how much discomfort they felt as we dropped the pin-cherries on them one by one? We were afraid of the sheep and thought we'd get a rise out of them, but they never moved, but continued chewing their cud, never realizing what we were trying to do.
On the way home, we had what we called an "emergency". We were barefoot, as usual. Walking on the stubble in the hayfield was not too pleasant anyway, but the crowning touch came when I stepped on a bee and got stung. We had heard about many remedies for a bee sting, but none were at hand. There was one, however, that we could muster up. We had heard that if we applied ear wax to a bee sting, it would take the pain away. So we all dug in our ears for ear wax. I don't remember if it helped the pain, but what a picture that would have made, - three little barefoot girls, digging in their ears for ear wax, with our pin-cherry pails nearby.