Corn an' wheat gittin' cheaper 'n' cheaper.

Machinery eatin' up profits--got to _have_ machinery to harvest the cheap grain, an' then the machinery eats up profits.

Taxes goin' up.

Devil to pay all round; I d' know what in thunder _is_ the matter." The Democrats said protection was killing the farmers; the Republicans said no.

The Grangers growled about the middlemen; the Greenbackers said there wasn't circulating medium enough, and, in the midst of it all, hard-working, discouraged farmers, like Simeon Burns, worked on, unable to find out what really was the matter.
And there, on this beautiful Sabbath morning, Sim sat and thought and thought, till he rose with an oath and gave it up.
IV.
It was hot and brilliant again the next morning as Douglass Radbourn drove up the road with Lily Graham, the teacher of the school in the little white school-house.