For weeks after, in fact for the whole of that summer, little John Davey looked after the potato that he had planted. He hoed it, and watered it, and cared for it as a mother does a child. It is not to be wondered at that when the time came to dig up the potatoes John’s little patch had the biggest ones in the whole garden, and there was no prouder or more excited boy in England. There were very few schools in those days, and as no one was compelled to go, and even small children could earn money, most boys, and even girls of poor families, did not go to school, but were sent straight to work. When John Davey was eight years old he was sent to work on neighbouring farms for sixpence a day. The little fellow often spent twelve hours a day weeding vegetables until his back seemed as if it would break. There was no time for play and as he could neither read or write, there was practically nothing to do but work and sleep. When he was thirteen his mother died and as there was a large family the children were all sent out to work for different farmers. John had by this time learned a great deal about farming. There was very little that he could not do; and he was also anxious to do his best. On the farm where he was sent to work, there was a rough teamster, much given to the use of profane language, and John had to share his room and bed with this man. He had been taught to pray each night, but the first night he slept in that room he hesitated. He was afraid of the swearing teamster, but when the man got into bed, John knelt down to pray. The man was talking in the darkness, but as he got no replies he put out his hand, and it rested on John’s head. Then it dawned upon the rough man that John was praying. To the lad’s surprise the man was deeply moved and asked John to forgive him for his profane language. John worked on this farm for seven years. There was nothing about a farm that he did not learn to do. He worked fourteen and even sixteen hours a day. When night came he was utterly exhausted. Then something happened which gave him an ambition. He and another young man were putting slates on a roof when this youth took a small piece of slate and with it wrote his name upon another slate. John Davey was astonished and all at once a great longing came to him that he might learn to read and write. He felt sure that if this young man could do it, he could.