A DAY’S HARD WORK 
ST 
His head this afternoon was full of going to town 
to buy paint, that he might continue work on the 
trellis. At length, I persuaded him to leave that 
entirely to Timothy and to occupy himself with 
drawing designs for planting our flower-seeds. Any 
day, I said, the spring might surprise us by growing 
very warm, and I especially wished him to make up 
his mind where we should have roses. 
“The smell of paint,” I said, “makes me very 
sick, and" I have heard of boys having painter’s 
colic as well as girls.” 
Little Joseph then wondered if this smell might 
not disturb the sweet pea seeds, but soon concluded 
that they would know nothing about it, as they 
would be well covered up with earth. From the 
window we could see the old man busy digging the 
trench before the trellis. 
“To-morrow,” Little Joseph said, “he must go 
somewhere else to work, so he is doing as much as 
he can to-day.” 
When he had finished digging and had put the 
overturned sods and the manure in the bottom of 
the trench, and had filled it nearly to the top with 
earth, Joseph went out with his sweet peas. He 
placed each little seed on the soft earth himself, 
remembering all that Mr. Bradley had told him, 
and lightly covered them over with soil. Later, 
Timothy showed Joseph about putting on the hose. 
The water trickled gently down to the seeds and 
settled them into the soft earth. The planting 
