eek. Mrs. Lane went
inside the house to see her sister, who looked sick with too much work,
and the farmer told Archie that he might as well start in, as there was
no object in waiting. So the boy donned a pair of "blue jean" trousers,
and was taken into a field, where a one-horse plough was standing.
Archie knew how to hitch a horse, so he went to the stable and secured
his steed, and then harnessed him to the plough. The farmer didn't
see fit to give him any instructions about ploughing, and the poor boy
hardly knew what to do, but rather than ask he started off, and tried to
guide the animal in the right direction, as far as he knew it. Of course
the horse went wrong, and the plough refused to stay in the earth,
and altogether the attempt was a miserable failure. The farmer leaned
against the fence, picking his teeth with a pin, but when he saw the
horse going crooked, and the plough bounding along over the earth, his
face grew livid with anger. For a minute he seemed unable to speak, but
strode toward Archie with a fierce look in his eyes. Then he found his
tongue, and opened such a tirade of vile words that the poor boy shrank
from him in terror. He was in mortal fear lest the man should lay hands
on him and commit some crime, so intense was his rage, but Hiram Tinch
seemed to know how far to go, and after five minutes of cursing and
swearing he took the plough in his own hands, and guided it through the
earth. "Now take it," he growled at Archie, when he had gone a furrow's
length, "and see ef ye can do better this time. Remember, not a bite of
dinner do ye get until this field is ploughed."

Poor Archie was weak from fright, but there was nothing to do but to
obey. He looked at the vast field before him, and made up his mind that
he would get nothing to eat until night, anyhow, for it was already
nearly noon. He felt very much like bursting into tears, but he was too
proud to give way to his feelings. But he couldn't help wishing that he
were at home, playing with the members of the Hut Club. "Those boys are
much better off than I am," he said, over and over, "though they have
made no effort to improve themselves." After a time, however, his
ambition returned, and as he looked ahead into the future, and
remembered the wonderful things he was going to accomplish, he felt more
like working.

He finished the field at five o'clock in the afternoon, and was almost
fainting from hunger and from the hard work. The plou