She Knows

There's a lot of wood lying around the farm, some from the building of the barn, especially the leftovers from the other barn that was pulled down, and Dad has also been bringing home trim ends from a sawmill and planer close to where he works. To make use of all this wood, Dad gets a buzz saw installed on a rolling rack built onto the front of the tractor, so the pulley on the side drives a five inch belt that runs the saw. Together, Dad and Jack cut up a lot of the wood for firewood. And they go out a few times cutting wood for others, at first for the men who helped with the barn, and then for other acquaintances.

Soon Dad withdraws from this, as he is busy with his own work, and it becomes a part time job for Jack. He learns to file the one inch teeth with a flat file, and to set them (bend the tips out so the kerf will be wide enough that the blade doesn't bind in the wood) with a brass punch. Most of the men who want him to cut wood have full time jobs, so there's not much time available except on the weekends. And that means working on Sunday. Jack doesn't like that. He has been brought up to keep the Sabbath day holy - and it cuts into his treasured reading time. In trying to come to terms with this problem he has a bitter exchange with Harp Rosenburg, one of the men who helped with the barn. He's a short strawberry blond character, slight of build, with a chip on his shoulder, always pugnacious.