Everything he said was listened to with great interest, and this
distinguished wit seemed to find many of the adventures very funny
indeed. "You have certainly had some wonderful experiences," he said,
when Archie had finished, "and I can appreciate your anxiety to leave
school. I had that desire myself when I was a boy of about fifteen,
but my father succeeded in making me change my opinion on the subject,
and without much argument, unless you can call an ox-team and a stony
pasture an argument. I had been asking to stay at home from school for
a long time. I said that I was too old to be sitting there with a lot
of girls and some younger boys, and that I wanted to work. Finally, my
father said that I could stay at home if I cared to, and that he would
let me work on the farm for a time. I was overjoyed, of course, at the
prospect of staying out of school.
"The next morning I was awakened at four o'clock, and had to swallow
my breakfast in a hurry, because I was late, my father said. Then he
took me out to the barn and ordered me to hitch up the ox-team, and
when this was done he took me out to a pasture lot and told me to pick
up all the boulders there. Well, I picked up boulders all day long,
and by evening my back and arms were so sore I could hardly move them.
I was too tired to eat supper, and was soon asleep in bed. When my
father awoke me at four the next morning, I told him to let me alone
and that I was going back to school.
Pages:
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89