It is comprehended, in the first place, that he is to do all theerrands, to go to the store, to the post office, and to carry allsorts of messages. If he had as many legs as a centipede, they wouldtire before night. His two short limbs seem to him entirelyinadequate to the task. He would like to have as many legs as awheel has spokes, and rotate about in the same way. This hesometimes tries to do; and people who have seen him "turning cart-wheels" along the side of the road have supposed that he was amusinghimself, and idling his time; he was only trying to invent a new modeof locomotion, so that he could economize his legs and do his errandswith greater dispatch. He practices standing on his head, in orderto accustom himself to any position. Leapfrog is one of his methodsof getting over the ground quickly. He would willingly go an errandany distance if he could leap-frog it with a few other boys. He hasa natural genius for combining pleasure with business. This is thereason why, when he is sent to the spring for a pitcher of water, andthe family are waiting at the dinner-table, he is absent so long; forhe stops to poke the frog that sits on the stone, or, if there is apenstock, to put his arm over the spout and squirt the water alittle while. He is the one who spreads the grass when the men havecut it; he mows it away in the barn; he rides the mule to cultivatethe corn, up and down the scorching, weary rows; he picks up the potatoeswhen they are dug; he drives the cows night and afternoon; he bringswood and water and splits kindling; he gets up the mule and puts outthe mule; whether he is in the home or out of it, there is alwayssomething for him to do. Just before school in winter he shovelspaths; in summer he turns the grindstone. He knows where there arelots of winter-greens and sweet flag-root, but instead of going forthem, he is to stay in-doors and pare apples and stone raisins andpound something in a mortar. And yet, with his mind full of schemesof what he would like to do, and his arms full of occupations, he isan idle boy who has nothing to busy himself with but school andchores! He would gladly do all the work if somebody else would dothe chores, he thinks, and yet I doubt if any boy ever amounted toanything in the world, or was of much use as a man, who did not enjoythe advantages of a liberal education in the way of chores.