nquired Frank.

"Oh, he is expecting the bugs will eat them up, or that it will be too
wet or too dry, or that a hail storm will cut them to pieces, or
something else will destroy them; I hardly know what."

"You will fare as well as other folks, I guess," added Frank. "If
anybody has squashes this year, you will have them; I am certain of
that. But it will take most of your time out of school to hoe them, and
keep the weeds out."

"I don't care for that, though I think I can take care of them mornings
by getting up early, and then I can play after school."

"Then you mean to play some yet?"

"Of course I do. I shouldn't be a boy if I didn't play, though father
says I shouldn't believe in all play and no work."

"You don't. If you work in the morning and play at night, that is
believing in both, and I think it is about fair."

"Ben Drake was along here when I was planting my squashes," said Nat,
"and he told me that I was a fool to worry myself over a lot of squash
vines, and have no time to play. He said he wouldn't do it for a
cart-load of squashes."

"And what did you tell him?" asked Frank.

"I told him that father thought it was better for boys to work some, and
form the habit of being industrious, and learn how to do things; for
then they would be more successful when they became men."

"What did Ben say to that?"

"'Just like an old man!' he said. 'It is time enough to work when we get
to be men. I should like to see myself taking care of a garden when the
other boys are playing.' By this time," continued Nat, "I thought I
would put in a word, so I told him that it would be good for _him_ to
work part of the time, and I had heard a number of people say so. He was
quite angry at this, and said, 'it was nobody's business, he should work
when he pleased.' 'So shall I,' I replied, 'and I please to work on
these squashes part of my time, whether Ben Drake thinks well of it or
not.'"

We shall see hereafter what kind of a boy this Ben was (everybody called
him Ben instead of Benjamin), and what kind of a man he made.

Nat expressed his opinion rather bluntly, although he was not a forward,
unmannerly boy. But he usually had an opinion of his own, and was rather
distinguished for "thinking (as a person said of him since) on his own
hook." When he was only four years old, and was learning to read little
words of two letters, he came across one about which he had quite a
dispute with his teacher. It was IN