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Chapter 11

Springtime

Now breakfast was eaten before dawn, and the sun was rising beyond the dewy meadohen Almanzo drove his team from the barns

He had to stand on a box to lift the heavy collars onto the horses’ shoulders and to slip the bridles over their ears, but he kne to drive He had learned when he was little Father wouldn’t let hi horses, but now that he was old enough to work in the fields he could drive the old, gentle work-team, Bess and Beauty

They ise, sober mares When they were turned out to pasture they did not whinny and gallop like colts; they looked about the grass When they were harnessed, they stepped sedately one behind the other over the sill of the barn door, sniffed the spring air, and waited patiently for the traces to be fastened They were older than Al on ten

They kne to ploithout stepping on corn, orthe furrows crooked They kne to harrow, and to turn at the end of the field Al them more if they hadn’t known so much

He hitched them to the harrow Last fall the fields had been plowed and covered with manure; now the lumpy soil must be harrowed

Bess and Beauty stepped out willingly, not too fast, yet fast enough to harroell They liked to work in the springti in their stalls Back and forth across the field they pulled the harrohile Al the reins At the end of the row he turned the team around and set the harrow so that its teeth barely overlapped the strip already harrowed Then he slapped the reins on the horses’ ruain

All over the countryside other boys were harrowing, too, turning up the moist earth to the sunshine Far to the north the St Lawrence River was a silver streak at the edge of the sky The woods were clouds of delicate green Birds hopped twittering on the stone fences, and squirrels frisked Al behind his team

When he harrowed the whole field across one way, then he harrowed it across the other way The harrow’s sharp teeth co up the lumps All the soil must be made mellow and fine and smooth

By and by Alrier It seemed that noon would never come He wondered how many miles he’d walked And still the sun seee at all He was starving

At last the sun stood overhead, the shadoere quite gone Almanzo harrowed another row, and another Then at last he heard the horns blowing, far and near

Clear and joyful ca tin dinner-horn

Bess and Beauty pricked up their ears and stepped e of the field toward the house they stopped Al the harrow in the field, he climbed onto Beauty’s broad back

He rode down to the pumphouse and let the horses drink He put theave theood horseman always takes care of his horses before he eats or rests But Almanzo hurried