Meantime, he tells Harold that he can play ball after he has done upthe chores. As if the chores could ever be "done up" on a farm. Heis first to clean out the horse-stable; then to take a bill-hook andcut down the thistles and weeds from the fence corners in the homemowing-lot and along the road towards the village; to dig up thedocks round the garden patch; to weed out the beet-bed; to hoe theearly potatoes; to rake the sticks and leaves out of the front yard;in short, there is work enough laid out for Harold to keep him busy, itseems to him, till he comes of age; and at half an hour to sundown heis to go for the cows "and mind he don't run 'em!"