Home." "What! did you plant and hoe them, and take the whole care of
them?" "Yes, sir;
no one else struck a hoe into them, and I am to have all the money
they bring." "You deserve it,
Nat, every cent
of it. I declare, you beat me completely; for the bugs eat mine all
up, so that I did not raise a decent squash. How did you keep the
bugs off?" "I killed thousands of them," said Nat. "In the morning
before
I went to school I looked over the vines; when I came home at
noon I spent a few moments in killing them, and again at night I did
the same. They troubled me only about two weeks." "Well, they
troubled _me_ only two weeks," replied the neighbor, "and by that
time there was nothing left for them to trouble. But very few boys
like to work well enough to do what you have done, and very few have
the patience to do it either.
With most of the boys it is all play and no work. But what do you ask
for your squashes?" Nat proceeded to answer: "That one is worth six
cents; such a one as that eight; that is ten; and a big one like that
(holding up the largest) is fi