Stripping off his jacket, he caught up the big sledge, and soon rendered his friend efficient aid.
“There’s not another boy in town could swing that sledge,” said Peter. “Do you ever expect to be as stout as Ben?”
“I don’t know; I should like to be.”
“Are you done on the island?”
“Yes.”
“They say you three boys did a great summer’s work.”
“We did the best we could.”
“I know that most of the people thought it wasn’t a very good calculation in your brother Ben to go off and leave three boys to plan for themselves, and that there wouldn’t be much done—at any rate that’s the way I heard them talk while they were having their horses shod.”
“That was just what made us work. If a man hires me, and then goes hiding behind the fences, and smelling round, to see whether I am at work or not, I don’t think much of him; but if he trusts me, puts confidence in me, won’t I work for that man! Yes, harder than I would for myself. But what did they say when they came home from husking?”
“O, the boot was on the other leg then; there never was such crops of corn and potatoes raised in this town before on the same ground. Has your father got his harvest in?”