How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It was fifteen miles to Newton; to cover that distance with a team, to do the chores and handle money—that was a man's job. To be trusted with it was a huge satisfaction. (5.21)
If you thought doing errands was a woman's job, you've got another think coming. Going into town is Jethro's first manly responsibility and he's totally chuffed that Matt's letting him take this on. A big part is the amount of trust that goes into it—riding the long trip, exchanging money, picking up goods. This is certainly not a task for a child.
Quote #5
He had worked since he could remember, but his work had been done at the side of some older member of the family; when he had grown tired, he was encouraged to rest or sometimes he was dismissed from the task altogether. Now he was to know labor from dawn till sunset; he was to learn what it meant to scan the skies for rain while corn burned in the fields, or to see a heavy rainstorm lash grain from full, strong wheat stalks, or to know that hay, desperately needed for winter feeding, lay rotting in a wet quagmire of a field. (6.16)
And the training wheels come off. Jeth is entering the major leagues now and that means he's responsible for the entire farm. Talk about pressure. Even if he's not technically a man yet, he sure will be working like one… or five or six.
Quote #6
Jethro was not yet in any mood approaching perfect sweetness and light.
"Tendin' a team is man's work," he said grimly. "I'll do my own unhitchin' and waternin'." (6.103-104)
This is actually a little moment of immaturity for Jeth. For one thing, he's jealous that Jenny didn't read Shad's letter out loud, so he turns away her help when he comes home from John's place. And we're not sure about the rules, but we don't think real men act all passive-aggressive and then call themselves men. Jeth needs to keep his emotional self-righteousness in check.