Worth his While by Amy Ella Blanchard

Benny was not a saint by any means. He was just as full of faults / as many other boys, but he had a warm, generous heart, and had been / carefully brought up, so, even if he was not always as thoughtful as / he might be, and sometimes forgot to be promptly obedient, he was at / least truthful, honest, and pure in heart, a fact which made the boys / in his neighborhood call him "old Particular," or "old Partick" for / short. He was used to pretty rough company sometimes, but he had never / been thrown with quite such a crowd as that which surrounded him in the / strawberry patch. Coarse, boorish men, vixenish, loud-voiced women, / who jostled and elbowed him at times, the younger ones teasing and / badgering him in queer broken English.

It was not very pleasant work to stoop over the vines with the sun / beating down on his head, and his fingers becoming weary of the / constant picking. Therefore the first half a day Benny did not make / much headway, and was glad enough when twelve o'clock came, and the / pickers trooped to their quarters, leaving Benny to find his way to / the house, where he was to take his meals in the kitchen with the / farm hands. A coarse, but plentiful meal, was provided; it consisted / of bacon, cabbage, and corn bread, and Benny was hungry enough to eat / heartily.