this was how it felt to be on your own , just young enough to be at everyone 's mercy and to be anyone 's meat - anyone from a psychotic like osmond to a humorless old lutheran like elbert palamountain , whose idea of a pretty fair work-day was to slog and squelch through gluey fields for twelve hours during a steady cold downpour of october rain , and to sit bolt-upright in the cab of his international harvester truck during lunch hour , eating onion sandwiches and reading from the book of job .