The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1876-07-27

That put the thing in new light
Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Ton
swept his brush daintily back and
forth-stepped hack to note the efIec
added touch here and there-crit-
icising the effect again.-Ben watch
ing every move, and getting more and
more interested, more and more alb.
sorbed. Presently he said:
"Say, Tom, let me whitewash lit.
tle."
Tom considered; he was about to
consent but he altered his mind. "No
| reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben.
You see, Aunt Polly is awful particu
lar about this fence: it's got to be
done very careful; l reckon there
amt one boy i'm thousand, maybe
two thousand, that can do it the way
it's got to be DONE"
'.No--is that so? o, come now,
lemme just try, only just little. I'd
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 wouldn't let
Sid. Now, don't you see how I'm
fixed? If you was to tackle this
fence, and anything was to happen to
it,
.'Oh, shucks. I'll be just as careful.
Now, lemme try. Say-lll give you
the core of my apple"
"Well, here. No, Ben; now don't,
I'm afeared."
I'll give you all of it,"
Tom gave up the brush with reluct-
ance in his face but alacrity in his
heart. Aud while Ben worked and
sweated in the sun, the retired artist
sat on a barrel in the shade close by,
dangling his legs, munched his apple,
and planned the slaughter Of more
innocents. There was no lack of ma
terial boys happened along every lit
tie while they came to jeer but re-
mained to whltewash. BY the time
Ben was tagged out Tom had traded
the next chance 10 Billy Fisher, for a
kite in good repair; and when he
played out Johnny Miller bought in
for dead rat and string to swing it
with; and so on, 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 in wealth.
lie had, besides the things l have
mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a
jew sharp, piece of blue bottle glass
to look through, spool cannon, a
key that wouldn't unlock anything, a
fragment of chalk, II glass stopper to
a decanter, tin soldier, a couple Of
tadpoles, six firecrackers, kitten with
only one eye, brass doOr-knOb, dog
collar--but no dog--the handle Of
knife, four pieces of orange peel, and
a dilapidated old window sash. He
had had nice, good, easy time all the
while--plenty of company--and the
fence had three coats of whitewash
on il! Ii he hadn't run out of white
wash he would have bankrupted eve.
ry boy in the village.
Tom said to himself that it was not
such hollow world after all. He had
a great law of human ac-
ton without knowing it, namely:
That in order to make man OF boy
covet thing, it is only necessary to
make the thing difficult to attain. If
he had been a great and good philos-
opher, like the writer of this book, he
would have compreheHded that work
consists in whatever body is obliged
to do, and play of whatever body is
not obliged to do. And it would help
him to understand why constructing
artificial flowers and performing on q
treadmill is work, whilst rolling nine
pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only
There are wealthy gen.
tlemen in England who drive four
horse passenger coaches, twenty or
thirty miles in daily line in the sum-
mer, because the privilege costs them
money but if they were
offered wages for the service, that
then would turn 1t into work, and then
they would resign.