“Not work!” said Rollo. “Is it not work to wheel up such heavy loads of sand? You don't know how heavy they were.”
“I dare say it was hard; but boys play hard, sometimes, as well as work hard.”
[pg 75]“But I should think ours, this afternoon, was work,” said Rollo.
“Work,” replied his father, “is when you are engaged in doing any thing in order to produce some useful result. When you are doing any thing only for the amusement of it, without any useful result, it is play. Still, in one sense, your wheeling the sand was work. But it was not very useful work; you will admit that.”
“Yes, sir,” said Rollo.
“Well, boys, how should you like to do some useful work for me, with your wheelbarrows? I will hire you.”
“O, we should like that very much,” said James. “How much should you pay us?”
“That would depend upon how much work you do. I should pay you what the work was fairly worth; as much as I should have to pay a man, if I were to hire a man to do it.”
“What should you give us to do?” said Rollo.
“I don't know. I should think of some job. How should you like to fill up the quagmire?”