AMONG THE PICKERS
Benny was not a saint by any means. He was just as full of faults as many other boys, but he had a warm, generous heart, and had been carefully brought up, so, even if he was not always as thoughtful as he might be, and sometimes forgot to be promptly obedient, he was at least truthful, honest, and pure in heart, a fact which made the boys in his neighborhood call him “old Particular,” or “old Partick” for short. He was used to pretty rough company sometimes, but he had never been thrown with quite such a crowd as that which surrounded him in the strawberry patch. Coarse, boorish men, vixenish, loud-voiced women, who jostled and elbowed him at times, the younger ones teasing and badgering him in queer broken English.
It Was Not Very Pleasant Work
It was not very pleasant work to stoop over the vines with the sun beating down on his head, and his fingers becoming weary of the constant picking. Therefore the first half a day Benny did not make much headway, and was glad enough when twelve o’clock came, and the pickers trooped to their quarters, leaving Benny to find his way to the house, where he was to take his meals in the kitchen with the farm hands. A coarse, but plentiful meal, was provided; it consisted of bacon, cabbage, and corn bread, and Benny was hungry enough to eat heartily.
As he was returning to the field, he spied a pretty little girl about three years of age sitting on the kitchen step playing with a kitten. She smiled up at Benny and began to chatter to him in her baby way, so that he could not resist stopping to talk to her, and while she was laughing merrily at some of his tricks her little brother, a couple of years older, came around the corner of the house, and the three were soon having a very jolly time. But Benny suddenly became aware that he was wasting too much time, and made ready to go back to his work.
“Don’t go,” begged the little boy. “Pleathe don’t go,” lisped the little girl.
“I must,” returned Benny. “I have work to do.”
“Come back soon,” shouted the little boy after him, “I like you.” And Benny went on, somewhat cheered by these new friends he had made.