ys," said he, "what have you been doing all this afternoon?"

"O," said Rollo, "we have been hard at work."

"And what have you been doing?"

Rollo explained to his father that they had been making a sand-garden out
in a corner of the yard, and they both asked him to go with them and see
it.

They all three accordingly went out behind the house, the children running
on before.

"But, boys," said Rollo's father, as they went on, "how came your feet so
muddy?"

"O," said James, "they got muddy in the quagmire."

The boys explained how they could not go around the quagmire with their
loaded wheelbarrows, and so had to pick their way through it the best way
they could; and thus they got their shoes muddy a little; but they said
they were as careful as they could be.

When they came to the sand-garden, Rollo's father smiled to see the beds
and walks, and the rows of flowers stuck up in the sand. It made quite a
gay appearance. After looking at it some time, they went slowly back
again, and as they were walking across the yard,

"Father," said Rollo, "do you not think that is a pretty good garden?"

"Why, yes," said his father, "pretty good."

"Don't you think we have worked pretty well?"

"Why, I think I should call that play, not work."

"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."

"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?"

"Fill up the quagmire!" said Rollo. "How could we do that?"

"You might fill