How tiresome the work was, and how uncomfortably warm the sun! The boy worked dejectedly.
After a while, pausing to take breath, he looked up and found Neil also pausing.
"We are tired," said Neil, with a friendly smile.
"Don't you hate this work ?" exclaimed Claude vehemently.

"I wouldn't touch it, if Cousin Harriet didn't make me." The hired man looked kindly at the small, tired boy.
"It is not most pleasant," he returned, "but what I think of makes me glad while I work." "What do you think of ?" asked Claude, giving an alkali clod a push.
"I was thinking," answered Neil gently, "how once I had a hard heart--very hard.

It was like these clods, where nothing good can grow.

People who looked at me could see that my heart was hard.

Men would have said, 'Neil's heart can never be different' But Jesus took away my hard heart and gave me a new one.