Child labor?

I fully intended to do the job myself. But about halfway through cleaning the rust ring that encircled our bathtub, I gained a 4-year-old helper. Who was followed by a 20-month-old shadow.

The tub was pretty much clean by that point, so I did what any resourceful mother would do. I found an extra sponge and suggested we start on the shower.

“What do you call work?”
“Why, ain’t that work?”
Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Oh, come now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?”
The brush continued to move.“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

-Mark Twain