154 HELPING WEED THE PASTURE 



" How many hours a day do you calculate to 

 work? " Uncle Hiram asked. 



" Until we are tired," I said, and Philip gave 

 me a poke to keep still. 



" We'll work," he said, " until we have money 

 enough to buy new jack-knives." 



" Oh," Uncle Hiram answered, and he put his 

 fingers in his beard. " 'Pears to me boys are less 

 of a nuisance when they have no jack-knives." 



" We'll buy rabbits then," Philip said. 



" Rabbits are as big a nuisance as jack-knives," 

 Uncle Hiram said. " They gnaw the bark off 

 young trees and nibble on the prettiest kinds of 

 shrubs." 



" Perhaps you wouldn't mind our buying cam- 

 eras," Tommy said. 



"To take Uncle Hiram's picture? Well, I 

 see.no objection to that. I rather think the bar- 

 gain's made. Remember you must pull the 

 Daisies up by their roots, and come and lay them 

 here on my well-step, giving me your word of 

 honor there's a hundred in each bunch." 



We ran off to the meadow very fast. It was 

 white with Daisies. Buttercups were there too, 

 and yellow Daisies with brown, hard centers, that 

 Tommy and Philip both called Black-eyed Susans. 

 It was these flowers that Uncle Hiram told Philip 

 to be sure and pull. 



I had a handful of Daisies in my basket very 

 quickly and then I started to pick Buttercups. 



