The new cedar posts were laid out on the ground, ready for their burial. Each had been prepared at the mill, split, cut to length and slots bored to accept the rails. The cedar rails, with their ends ready to be randomly inserted into the slots on the posts were scattered along side waiting to be united with the posts.

Morley arrived unexpectedly early, although uncharacteristically right at the agreed upon time. Morley is good at digging holes. Morley can dig a three-foot post hole faster than a gopher. If left to his own devices, Morley will dig three-foot post holes all over your back yard just for fun.
Morley dug the first post hole in about 5 minutes. Morley wasn’t too concerned where the second post hole was to be. One location at a time was about all Morley could handle on a serious job. The mid-summer sun beat down on Morley’s brow but it encountered no beads of sweat. This was not hard work for Morley. This was easy money.
The post was dropped into the hole, ceremoniously aligned and backfilled. A rail was selected and fitted into the bottom slot and the location of the second post was determined and shown to Morley. Morley started digging with unbridled enthusiasm. He chopped and pried and dug like there was no tomorrow. When he encountered a rock too big for his shovel he would talk to it as he poked around it with the bar, cajoling and coaxing until the rock would finally give up its hold on mother earth and pop out of the hole. Personified rocks. Perhaps that is what made the chore easy for Morley. Each rock was considered an adversary with the battle won when it was pried from its steadfast position in obscurity and brought forth into the light. It was Morley’s duty to free each rock from its confines.
As the morning progressed in the hot sun a fence was born where there had not been one before. Posts placed into holes and rails fitted into slots. Morley dug and pried, backfilled and tamped for three hours and when he was done he sat back, took a good long look at the results of his efforts and thought to himself, “I’m hungry now. I wonder if there will be any lunch.”