MINISTER'S BOY. 283 



antry a loss sustained through life for the want 

 of a single lesson. To secure good digging, see 

 that a furrow or trench of the specified depth be 

 opened on the one side of the plot to be dug, and 

 the stuff wheeled to the other. Let this furrow be 

 two feet wide and cut straight down, and let the 

 boy understand that when it is filled in the process 

 of digging he must leave another as wide and as 

 deep, and maintain such oponness of trench all the 

 way through the plot. Point out the different 

 colours of the soil that comes up, and show that his 

 work, if rightly done, will all the way present the 

 same appearance. If such a colour is exhibited, 

 the depth is good, the annual weeds fall, of course, 

 to occupy the lowest place, and neither the rake 

 nor the genial sun will bring them to light any 

 more. The manure is by this means also duly de- 

 posited, and not wasted by frost and evaporation. 

 In all cases where not much may be trusted to 

 discretion, the only thing is a rule which has no 

 relative terms, such as " well or ill done," but 

 which, being exactly understood, may be as exactly 

 fulfilled. Such may be applied to hoeing and clean- 

 ing as well as to digging the ground. Let the hoe 

 be inserted the full breadth and pass in regular fur- 

 rows beneath the roots of weeds; let one basket be 

 used for gathering stones and another for weeds; 

 let the rake follow, and prove the exactness of the 

 rule by leaving nothing but red earth, and the crop 

 if there be one. The youngster cannot avoid tak- 

 ing pleasure in work that is so executed a secret 



