The Complete Writings, vol 4 | Page 9

people who have seen
him "turning cart- wheels" along the side of the road have supposed
that he was amusing himself, and idling his time; he was only trying to
invent a new mode of locomotion, so that he could economize his legs
and do his errands with greater dispatch. He practices standing on his
head, in order to accustom himself to any position. Leapfrog is one of
his methods of getting over the ground quickly. He would willingly go
an errand any distance if he could leap-frog it with a few other boys. He
has a natural genius for combining pleasure with business. This is the
reason why, when he is sent to the spring for a pitcher of water, and the
family are waiting at the dinner-table, he is absent so long; for he stops
to poke the frog that sits on the stone, or, if there is a penstock, to put
his hand over the spout and squirt the water a little while. He is the one
who spreads the grass when the men have cut it; he mows it away in
the barn; he rides the horse to cultivate the corn, up and down the hot,
weary rows; he picks up the potatoes when they are dug; he drives the

cows night and morning; he brings wood and water and splits kindling;
he gets up the horse and puts out the horse; whether he is in the house
or out of it, there is always something for him to do. Just before school
in winter he shovels paths; in summer he turns the grindstone. He
knows where there are lots of winter-greens and sweet flag-root, but
instead of going for them, he is to stay in-doors and pare apples and
stone raisins and pound something in a mortar. And yet, with his mind
full of schemes of what he would like to do, and his hands full of
occupations, he is an idle boy who has nothing to busy himself with but
school and chores! He would gladly do all the work if somebody else
would do the chores, he thinks, and yet I doubt if any boy ever
amounted to anything in the world, or was of much use as a man, who
did not enjoy the advantages of a liberal education in the way of chores.
A boy on a farm is nothing without his pets; at least a dog, and
probably rabbits, chickens, ducks, and guinea-hens. A guinea-hen suits
a boy. It is entirely useless, and makes a more disagreeable noise than a
Chinese gong. I once domesticated a young fox which a neighbor had
caught. It is a mistake to suppose the fox cannot be tamed. Jacko was a
very clever little animal, and behaved, in all respects, with propriety.
He kept Sunday as well as any day, and all the ten commandments that
he could understand. He was a very graceful playfellow, and seemed to
have an affection for me. He lived in a wood-pile in the dooryard, and
when I lay down at the entrance to his house and called him, he would
come out and sit on his tail and lick my face just like a grown person. I
taught him a great many tricks and all the virtues. That year I had a
large number of hens, and Jacko went about among them with the most
perfect indifference, never looking on them to lust after them, as I
could see, and never touching an egg or a feather. So excellent was his
reputation that I would have trusted him in the hen-roost in the dark
without counting the hens. In short, he was domesticated, and I was
fond of him and very proud of him, exhibiting him to all our visitors as
an example of what affectionate treatment would do in subduing the
brute instincts. I preferred him to my dog, whom I had, with much
patience, taught to go up a long hill alone and surround the cows, and
drive them home from the remote pasture. He liked the fun of it at first,
but by and by he seemed to get the notion that it was a "chore," and
when I whistled for him to go for the cows, he would turn tail and run

the other way, and the more I whistled and threw stones at him, the
faster he would run. His name was Turk, and I should have sold him if
he had not been the kind of dog that nobody will buy. I suppose he was
not a cow-dog, but what they call a sheep-dog. At least, when he got
big enough, he used to get into the pasture and chase the sheep to death.
That was the way he got into trouble, and