1SS6 



GLEANIJ^GS IN J3EE CULTUUK. 



491 



WHAT TO DO, AND HOW TO BE HAPPY WHILE DOING IT. 



Continued from Mat/ /.;. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Whatsoever tliy hand fliidcth to do, do it Avith thy might.— Eccl. 9: 10. 



Before taking up the matter of sowing 

 seeds, I wisli to digress a little and toucli 

 upon a subject which particularly belongs to 

 the last half of the title of oar book ; name- 

 ly, how to be happy while doing your work. 



It was between four and five o'clock in the 

 morning, in the month of May, when an ac- 

 quaintance called. There had been so many 

 applications for work that I had put a notice 

 in one of cur county papers, saying that I 

 could not promise employment any more. 

 This acquaintance evidently had something 

 on his mind ; but pretty soon he came out 

 with it, and spoke somewhat as follows : 



" Mr. Root, I don't want to trouble you by 

 asking you to take any more hands into your 

 employ ; but I have a young half-brother 

 living with me whom I am rather obliged to 

 support, and he has nothing at all to do. 

 Now, if you can set him at work anywhere, 

 and at any kind of wages, no matter what, I 

 shall be greatly obliged to you. lie is to 

 have his board any way, so it will l)e thank- 

 fully received, no matter what you pay him, 

 even if it does not half pay for Ins board. 

 You can try him, if you wish ; and if he 

 does not please you, doift keep him ; but I 

 would much rather he would be at work than 

 to be lying around idle.'" 



"• How old is the boy, friend S.V '^ 



"• Why, Mr. Root, he is only fifteen years 

 old ; but I l)elieve he is a good boy, and in- 

 tends to do right. Can't I hend him to you 

 on trial V " 



The result came with an anxiety and look 

 jn his manner that touched me, and he went 

 fiway without my ever thinking to ask the 

 boy's name. Pretty soon the boy came — a 

 sober-looking little fellow with wliat seemed 

 to me a rather sad air or sorrowful counte- 

 nance. I asked him if he was the boy who 

 had come to work on trial. He said he was. 

 I asked his name ; and when he gave it it 

 startled me. It was a plain, common name, 

 and nothing singular about it, only it hap- 

 pened to be, both surname and given name, 

 .exactly the same as that of my wife's father. 

 My mind ran back to the time when I first 

 met my wife. When I inquired who she 

 was, somebody told me that it was Susan 

 Hall. After a little 1 learned that her fa- 

 ther's name was Daniel Hall. An honest. 



earnest, hard-woi king old gentleman I found 

 Daniel Hall to be, and it was he who gave 

 me my first impetus, almost, in this busy 

 world ; for when the subject came up, he 

 frankly objected to my poor self as a suitor 

 for his daughter, on the ground that I had 

 no stability of character. I was in the chick- 

 en business somewhat, then crazy about 

 electricity, etc., and shifting about; and, 

 worst of all, I was not earning any thing, 

 nor even fitting myself for any special branch 

 of usefulness. Good old Daniel Hall's words 

 stirred me, and I declared I was going to 

 commence forthwith to be good for some- 

 thing. It did not take a very long time nor 

 much hard work on my part to win the con- 

 fidence and respect of my wife's father ; and 

 I won it, too, long before we were married. 

 In due time he began to lean upon me, as it 

 were ; and when I became a Christian he 

 was willing to trust me for all time to come. 

 On his dying bed he begged me to take 

 charge of his property, and see that his 

 wishes were all carried out in regard to it. 

 He talked with me freely and frankly in re- 

 gard to the great unknown beyond the tomb. 

 Well, when I asked the boy his name do 

 you wonder that I was startled when he said 

 it was Daniel Hall f Perhaps the memories 

 awakened by that name made me take a 

 deeper interest in him, and study him more 

 fully. I took him down to the creek-bottom 

 ground where the men had been digging out 

 the stumps and plowing out roots. I had 

 been trying to get the small boys interested 

 in picking up the roots and stones so as to 

 make the ground clean. Like most boys 

 they could see only back-aching drudgery in 

 the work, and they not only made slow 

 progress, but they did not see half of the 

 stones that were so plainly visible to viy 

 eyes wlien I came around. I explained to 

 Daniel what was wanted. I took up a bas- 

 ket and picked up roots with him for a 

 while, as I generally do, that I may be sure 

 the boys understand just what is wanted. 

 Well. I was greatly surprised to see Daniel 

 take hold and take up the roots rapidly— 

 yes, as fast as I could— even saved steps and 

 saved motions by calculating with his mind 

 while he made his hands fiy rapidly. I had 

 seen boys start a good deal that way heiore ; 



