Ninety Five Horses

You've heard the quote; "Build a better mouse trap, and the world will beat a path to your door", a phrase attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. On a farm, the same holds true whenever a new piece of machinery shows up. For instance, this morning Popa's new tractor was delivered, and immediately there were men waiting to look at it, walk around it, run their hands across the shiney New Holland blue paint, feel the deep unused tread of its tires. Two sat inside the cab on cushioned seats, covered with plastic, and started the engine, listening to its power and feeling the cold air swirling from air conditioning vents. "Does the radio work? Let's run it through its shifting cycles, and what about those sparkling, dust-free windows?"

And then it's back outside to raise the hood and look at the engine; there's a ninety five horse power engine in there you know, with no dust or oil drips. Now to wrap my mind around what that really means, I see this: ninety five sleek, muscled work horses, harnessed to the hay cutting machine, come charging out of that hood whenever the engine starts, and around and around the field they go.

This evening, about sundown, I'll take my turn looking and touching, for I want to know if anything is different in the way to start or stop those ninety five horses.

Charlotte