The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1876-07-20
Tom consi dered; was about to con-
- I,,@ k, o1tara1 his mind.

sent. but he altered his mind.
mo, no. / reckon it would hardy
do. Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's awfu
particular about this fence-right mere
on the street you know--but If 1t was
the back fence I wouldn't mhnd' ano
she wouldn't. Yes, she's awful partic
ula about this tence. It's got to oe
done very careful. reckon there ain
one boy sin q thousand, maybe two
thousand, that can do it in the way its
got to be done"
"No-is that so? Oh, come now
lemme just try, only just little. Ia
let you, if you was me, Tom"
ben, I'd like to. honest Injun; but
Aunt Polly--well, Jim wanted to do it.
but she wouldn't let him. Sid wanted
to do it, but she would let Sid. Now,
don't you see how I am fixed? If you
was to tackle this fence, and anything
was to happen to it,
ooh, shucks; I'll be just as careful
Nov len.ne try say-In give you
the core of my apple"
"Well, here. No. Ben; now don't, Tn
afraid
''I'll give ell of it!'
Tom gave up the brush with reluc'
tance in his face, but alacrity in his
heart. And while Ben worked and
-sweated in the sun, the retired artist
sat on barrel in the shade close by,
dragging his legs, munched his apple,
and planned the slaughter of more in
nocents. There was no lack of mate
rial; boys happened along every little
while; they came to jeer, but remained to
whitewash. By the time Ben was fag>
ged out. Tom had traded the next
chance to Billy Fisher for kite in good
repair; and when he played out, Johnny
Miller bought it for dead rat and a
string to swing it with; and so on, hour
after hour And when the middle of
the afternoon came, from being poor,
poverty stricken boy in the morning,
Tom WAS literally rolling il wealth.
He had, besides the things have men,
toned, twelve marbles, part of jews
harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to
look through, spool cannon, key
that wouldn't unlock anything, a frag-
ment of chalk, glass stopper of de>
canter. tin soldier, n couple of tad
poles, six fre-crackers, a kitten with
only one eye, brass door-knob, dog
collar-but no dog-the handle of a
knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a
dilapidated old window-sash. He had
had nice, good, idle time all the while
plenty of company-and the fence
had three coats Of whitewash on it! If
he hadn't run out Of whitewash, he
would have bankrupted every boy in
the village.
Tom said to himself that it was noe
such q hollow world after all. He had
discovered great law of human acti ON
without knowing it, namely, that in
order to make q man or boy coy'et a
thing, it is only necessary to max the
thing difficult TO attain. If he had
been n great and wise philosopher, ike
the writer Of the book, he would now
have comprehended that work consists
of whatever body is obliged to do.
And this would help him to Understand
why constructing artificial flowers or
performing on ad-mill is work,
while rolling nine pins OF climbing
Mont Blanc is only amusement.
There are wealthy gentlemen in Eng
land who drive four horse passenger
coaches twenty or thirty miles on a
daily line in the SUNNI er, because the
privilege costs them considerable mon-
ey, but if they were offered wages for
the service, that would turn it into
work, and then they would resign.
-e;fdr&; 1'p0in.