"Guess I can get this spadin' 'most done this afternoon," he said to himself.

He made the brown earth fly around him.

He whistled as he worked.

As the afternoon wore on he began to wonder if he could not finish the garden before his father got home.
He was sure he had not come as yet, for he had kept an eye on the road, and besides he would have heard the heavy rattle of the wood-wagon.

"Father 'll be real tickled when he sees the garden all done," said Jerome, and he stopped whistling and bent all his young spirit and body to his work.