field -- I shall be busy all day sowing wheat in the bend
meadow."

"Then I'll bring the boat for you, papa, at noon," said a
child on the other side of the table.

"And see if you can keep those headlands as clean as I have
left them."

"Yes, sir. Shall you want the horses, father, or shall we take
both the oxen?"

"Both? -- both _pairs_, you mean -- yes; I shall want the horses.
I mean to make a finish of that wheat lot."

"Mamma, you must send us our dinner," said a fourth speaker,
and the eldest of the boys; -- "it'll be too confoundedly hot
to come home."

"Yes, it's going to be a warm day," said the father.

"Who's to bring it to you, Will?" said the mother.

"Asahel -- can't he -- when he brings the boat for papa?"

"The boat won't go to the top of the hill," said Asahel; "and
it's as hot for me as for other folks, I guess."

"You take the young oxen, Winthrop," said the farmer, pushing
back his chair from the table.