On the morning when the first witch hazel flowers appeared, at a time when they often heard the thumping of the pheasants in the woods, both signs of coming frost, Mooney told the boys to pull the blades from the sorghum cane, and he went down the rows himself and selected from the tallest canes the best of the big brown tassels of seeds, which he took to the house and put in a gourd, to be saved until the future planting time.
