Adapted poem context: A speaker holding a pen watches and remembers his father digging. The memory moves between the father's skilled physical work and the speaker's own choice of writing. The speaker admires the father's ability with the spade even though he follows a different vocation. Adapted CTET December 2024 Set F item 103: ‘. . . . . loving their cool hardness in our hands'. What is the speaker referring to the given line ?

1. the handles of the spade
2. the potatoes
3. the potato drills
4. the gun