d, and the boy gets tired, but
he holds out, and when the tools are ground he says he is as fresh as
a daisy, when he is tired enough to die. Such men do more to teach boys
the hollowness of the world, and its tricky features, than anything, and
they teach boys to know who are friends and who are foes. No, sir, the
best way is to hire a grown person to turn year grind one. I remember I
turned a grindstone four hours for a farmer once, and when I got through
he said I could go to the spring and drink all the water I wanted for
nothing. He was the tightest man I ever saw. Why, tight! That man was
tight enough to hold kerosene."

"That's all right. Who wanted you to turn grindstone anyway? But what
is it about your Pa and Ma being turned out of church? hear that they
scandalized themselves horribly last Sunday."

"Well, you see, me and my chum put up a job on Pa to make him think
Sunday was only Saturday and Ma she fell into it, and I guess we are all
going to get fired from the church for working on Sunday. You see they
didn't go to meetin' last Sunday because Ma's new bonnet hadn't come,
and Monday and Tuesday it rained and the rest of the week was so muddy
no one called, or they could not get anywhere, so Monday I slid out
early and got the daily paper, and on Tuesday my chum he got the paper
off the steps and put Monday's paper in its place. I watched when they
were reading it, but they did not notice the date. Then Wednesday we put
Tuesday's paper on the steps and Pa said it seemed more than Tuesday,
but Ma she got the paper of the day before and looked at the date and
said it seemed so to her but she guessed they had lost a day somehow.
Thursday we got Wednesday's paper on the steps, and Friday we rung in
Thursday's paper, and Saturday my chum he got Friday's paper on the
steps, and Ma said she guessed she would wash to-morrow, and Pa said he
believed he would hoe in the garden and get the weeds out so it would
look better to folks when they went by Sunday to church. Well, Sunday
morning came, and with it Saturday's daily paper, and Pa barely glanced
it over as he got on his overalls and went out in his shirt sleeves a
hoeing in the front garden. And I and my chum helped Ma carry water to
wash. She said it seemed like the longest week she ever saw, but when
we brought the water, and took a plate of pickles to the hired girl that
was down with the mumps, we got in the lilac bushes and waited for the
curtain to rise.