“Which is the easiest,” said Stuyvesant, “to drive the team or hold the plow?”
“That depends,” said Beechnut, “upon whether your capacity consists most in your strength or your skill.”
“Why so?” asked Stuyvesant.
“Because,” said Beechnut, “it requires more skill to drive, than to hold the plow, and more strength to hold the plow, than to drive. I think, therefore, that you had better drive, for as between you and I, it is I that have the most strength, and you that have the most skill.”
Stuyvesant laughed.
“Why you ought to have the most skill,” said Beechnut—“coming from such a great city.”
Beechnut took the plow off from the drag, and laid the drag on one side. He then attached the cattle to the plow. They were standing, when they did this, in the middle of one side of the field.
“Now,” said Beechnut, “we are going first straight through the middle of the field. Do you see that elm-tree, the other side of the fence?”
“I see a large tree,” said Stuyvesant.
“It is an elm,” said Beechnut.