Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered

Chapter 2 begins as the protagonist wakes from a lovely dream about a girl and fishing. Harris explains that there is a rush to get down to breakfast, or else “Louie will get all the pancakes” (12). Louie is a farm worker who lives on the land. We learn that Louie used the tractor to drive himself into town for a beer the previous night.

With dawn’s first light not yet shining, the protagonist makes his way through the dark into the dining room for pancakes. There, he finds the family;  Glennis and Clair are cooking, and the men are at the table awaiting their meal. The protagonist notes that the women never sit to eat. He observes Louie, who is filthy and rough, with “blue gun-barrel eyes and a toothless mouth” (13). Everyone at the table is glazed and tired. When breakfast is served, Louie takes the entire first three stacks for himself immediately and eats them whole. It is not until the fourth stack that Harris is finally able to snag some. Harris is then asked to share his meal with the protagonist. Knute, the uncle, only drinks coffee.

Harris rushes the protagonist out the door to fetch the cows in the still darkness of the morning. Being inexperienced on the farm, the protagonist is clumsy and hurts himself several times on the way. Harris leads him behind the barn and lights a rolled cigarette, offering it to the protagonist. The protagonist rolls up his own cigarette and smokes it, which results in him throwing up all over Harris. As they run back out into the darkness to find the cows, something suddenly hits the protagonist in the head, knocking him out. The chapter ends on this cliffhanger.

The third chapter starts as the protagonist overhears a conversation between Harris and Clair as they discuss an incident. Vivian, one of the cows, kicked the protagonist in the head when Harris led him out in the dark. The protagonist is lying on the table with a cloth on his head, regaining consciousness. He observes the faces around him: “Everybody but Harris [has] worried looks on their faces” (18), and Harris is trying to play it off as no big deal. The protagonist ends up with a lump on his forehead, and Clair explains that Vivian is temperamental.

Every time Harris swears, his sister or his mother hits him. He continually does this, downplaying the injury and acting jealous when the others fuss over the protagonist and give him pie. Eventually, Clair spanks Harris with a ladle until he runs outside. Once the protagonist finishes his pie, Harris urges him outside, and he curiously follows. Harris shows him the chicken coop, filled with dozens of chickens and chicks of different colors and breeds, and the metal and junk yard, where the farm machines are kept. He leads the protagonist past the pig pen and then stops in his tracks when he realizes Ernie the rooster is nowhere to be seen. Ernie leaps out and attacks Harris, who wrestles him to the ground.

As the protagonist begins to learn the ins and outs of farm life, Harris shows him how to separate cow’s milk into cream and milk. Using a manual crank, the boys pour the milk into the separator and began turning the crank together as Clair, Louie, Knute, and Glennis continually bring them milk. When everyone finishes, they retire inside for a “snack,” which is more like a second breakfast. All filled up, Harris and the protagonist go out to play, and the chapter ends.