So he and Beechnut walked along after the oxen. They found a narrow, but very pretty road, or rather path, overhung with trees and bushes, which led down to the water. The road terminated at a broad and shallow place in the stream, where the sand was yellow and the water very clear. The oxen went out into the water, and then put their heads down to drink. Presently they stopped, first one and then the other, and stood a moment considering whether they wanted any more. Finding that they did not, they turned round in the water, and then came slowly out to the land. They walked up the bank, and finally emerging from the wood at the place where they had entered it, they went toward home. When they reached the house the cattle went straight through the yard, toward the barn. Beechnut and Stuyvesant followed them. Beechnut was going to get them some hay. Stuyvesant went in with Beechnut and stood below on the barn floor, while Beechnut went up the ladder to pitch the hay down. During all the time that Beechnut and Stuyvesant had been coming up from the field, conversation had been going on between them, about various subjects connected with farming. Stuyvesant asked Beechnut if Phonny could drive oxen pretty well. "_Pretty_ well," said Beechnut. "Does he like to drive?" asked Stuyvesant. "He likes to begin to drive," said Beechnut. "What do you mean by that?" asked Stuyvesant. "Why, when there is any driving to be done," replied Beechnut, "he thinks that he shall like it, and he wants to take a goad stick and begin. But he very soon gets tired of it, and goes away. You seem to have more perseverance. In fact, you seem to have a great deal of perseverance, which I think is very strange, considering that you are a city boy." Stuyvesant laughed. "City boys," continued Beechnut, "I have always heard said, are good for nothing at all." "But you said, a little while ago," replied Stuyvesant, "that city boys had a great deal of skill." "Yes," said Beechnut, "they are bright enough, but they have generally no steadiness or perseverance. They go from one thing to another, following the whim of the moment. The reason of that is, that living in cities, they are brought up without having any thing to do." "They can go of errands," said Stuyvesant. "Yes," said Beechnut, "they can go of errands, but there are not many errands to be done, so they are brought up in idleness. Country boys, on the other hand, generally have a great deal to do. They have to go for the cows, and catch the horses, and drive oxen, and a thousand other things, and so they are brought up in industry." "Is Phonny brought up in industry?" asked Stuyvesant. "Hardly," said Beechnut. "In fact he is scarcely old enough yet to do much work." "He is as old as I am," said Stuyvesant. "True," said Beechnut, "but he does not seem to have as much discretion. Do you see that long shed out there, projecting from the barn?"