Jo-ey Hart was a boy who was sent by his fath-er to spend the sum-mer
with an un-cle in the coun-try. Jo-ey had been ill, and the doc-tor
said that there was noth-ing like coun-try air to make him well a-gain.
So he set off one bright morn-ing, and be-fore night was safe at his
un-cle's farm. His pa-pa had thought that Jo-ey might go to school
dur-ing the sum-mer, but when the doc-tor heard of it he said no.
"Let the boy run wild for three months. He will learn twice as fast
next win-ter."
He was wild with joy when he was at last at his un-cle's. He was so
hun-gry, and the bread and but-ter and milk tast-ed so nice-ly, that
he thought he should nev-er have e-nough. Each day he was up with the
sun, and by night had played so hard that al-most be-fore it was dark
he was read-y to go to bed.
It was great fun to watch the men in the fields at work. Some-times his
un-cle let him ride the mow-ing ma-chine, and at such times he was ve-ry
proud. Then it was ve-ry ex-cit-ing to ride on the top of a great sway-ing
load of hay, right in on to the barn floor.
La-ter on, when the hay was all gath-ered, the wheat be-gan to rip-en,
and the men were bu-sy cut-ting it and gath-er-ing it in-to sheaves. The
birds act-ed as if they thought it was cut for them on-ly, for they came
in such swarms that it looked as if they would eat it all and leave none
for the farm-er.
[Illustration]
Some-times his aunt would ask him to take their lunch-eon to the men
at work in the fields, for dur-ing hay-ing and har-vest when the work
is heav-i-est the men al-ways have a lunch at ten in the morn-ing.
Now on one day when Jo-ey took his bas-ket and left the house for the
fields, he got him-self in-to trou-ble, and this was the way. Close by
his un-cle's house on the main street lived a gen-tle-man who had a
fine gar-den. All a-round it was a high fence and a no-tice was post-ed
up, "Tres-pas-sers will be pros-e-cu-ted." That no-tice was be-cause
the school house was not far a-way, and the boys some-times helped
them-selves to the old gen-tle-man's ap-ples.
Jo-ey had to pass di-rect-ly by the gar-den wall, and it so hap-pened
that his bas-ket was heav-y and he set it down to rest.
What took place you can see in the pic-ture on the next page bet-ter
than I can tell you. Jo-ey got the ap-ples but a bad fall, and when
he went to get up he found that he could not stand and that one an-kle
hurt him se-vere-ly.
How long he would have staid there I can not tell, had not the men in
the field grown hun-gry and sent one of their num-ber to see what had
be-come of their lunch.
The mes-sen-ger found Jo-ey, and picked him up and car-ried him home.
Then, com-ing back, he took the bas-ket and all the ap-ples that lay
a-bout, and went back to the field and the men ate them all for lunch-eon.
And so Jo-ey not on-ly got no ap-ples but had to lie in bed for a week
be-fore his an-kle got well e-nough for him to run a-bout a-gain.
[Illustration: "Oh, I say! and pippins too!!"
"I'll help myself to some of these, see if I don't Mister Notice."
Joey helps himself to more than he intended.]