lf.

I cannot at all convey the sense of high adventure I had as I stood
there. Though I had not the slightest idea of what I should do or say,
yet I was determined upon the attack.

Neither father nor son saw me until they had nearly reached the end of
the field.

"Step lively, Ben," I heard the man say with some impatience; "we've got
to finish this field to-day."

"I AM steppin' lively, dad," responded the boy, "but it's awful hot. We
can't possibly finish to-day. It's too much."

"We've got to get through here to-day," the man replied grimly; "we're
already two weeks late."

I know just how the man felt; for I knew well the difficulty a farmer
has in getting help in planting time. The spring waits for no man. My
heart went out to the man and boy struggling there in the heat of their
field. For this is the real warfare of the common life.

"Why," I said to myself with a curious lift of the heart, "they have
need of a fellow just like me."

At that moment the boy saw me and, missing a step in the rhythm of the
planting, the father also looked up and saw me. But neither said a word
until the furrows were finished, and the planters came to refill their
baskets.

"Fine afternoon," I said, sparring for an opening.

"Fine," responded the man rather shortly, glancing up from his work. I
recalled the scores of times I had been exactly in his place, and had
glanced up to see the stranger in the road.

"Got another basket handy?" I asked.

"There is one somewhere around here," he answered not too cordially. The
boy said nothing at all, but eyed me with absorbing interest. The gloomy
look had already gone from his face.

I slipped my gray bag from my shoulder, took off my coat, and put them
both down inside the fence. Then I found the basket and began to fill it
from one of the bags. Both man and boy looked up at me questioningly. I
enjoyed the situation immensely.

"I heard you say to your son," I said, "that you'd have to hurry in
order to get in your potatoes to-day. I can see that for myself. Let me
take a hand for a row or two."

The unmistakable shrewd look of the bargainer came suddenly into the
man's face, but when I went about my business without hesitation or
questioning, he said nothing at all. As for the boy, the change in his
countenance was marvellous to see. Something new and astonishing had
come into the world. Oh, I know what a thing it is to be a boy and to
work in trouting time!

"How ne