"And see if you can keep those headlands as clean as I have left them."
"Yes, sir. Shall you want the horses, father, or shall we take both the oxen?"
"Both? — both pairs, you mean — yes; I shall want the horses.
I mean to make a finish of that wheat lot."
"Mamma, you must send us our dinner," said a fourth speaker, and the eldest of the boys; — "it'll be too confoundedly hot to come home."
"Yes, it's going to be a warm day," said the father.
"Who's to bring it to you, Will?" said the mother.
"Asahel — can't he — when he brings the boat for papa?"
"The boat won't go to the top of the hill," said Asahel; "and it's as hot for me as for other folks, I guess."
"You take the young oxen, Winthrop," said the farmer, pushing back his chair from the table.
"Why, sir?" said the eldest son promptly.