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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11140 ***
+
+Rollo at Play;
+
+OR,
+
+SAFE AMUSEMENTS.
+
+by Jacob Abbott
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Contents
+
+ NOTICE TO PARENTS.
+
+ STORY 1. ROLLO AT PLAY IN THE WOODS.
+ The Setting out.
+ Bridge-Building.
+ A Visitor.
+ Difficulty.
+ Hearts wrong.
+ Hearts right again.
+
+ STORY 2. THE STEEPLE-TRAP.
+ The Way to catch a Squirrel.
+ The Way to lose a Squirrel. 
+ How to keep a Squirrel.
+ Fires in the Woods.
+
+ STORY 3. THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; OR, LUCY’S VISIT.
+ A Round Rainbow. 
+ Who knows best, a Little Boy or his Father!
+ Repentance.
+
+ STORY 4. THE FRESHET.
+ Maria and the Caravan.
+ Small Craft.
+ The Principles of Order.
+ Clearing up.
+
+ STORY 5. BLUEBERRYING.
+ Old Trumpeter.
+ Deviation.
+ Little Mosette.
+ Going up.
+ The Secret out.
+
+ STORY 6. TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.
+ Boasting.
+ Getting in Trouble.
+ A Test of Penitence.
+
+
+
+
+ROLLO AT PLAY.
+
+
+THE ROLLO SERIES
+IS COMPOSED OF FOURTEEN VOLUMES. VIZ.
+
+
+Rollo Learning to Talk.
+Rollo Learning to Read.
+Rollo at Work.
+Rollo at Play.
+Rollo at School.
+Rollo’s Vacation.
+Rollo’s Experiments.
+
+Rollo’s Museum.
+Rollo’s Travels.
+Rollo’s Correspondence.
+Rollo’s Philosophy—Water.
+Rollo’s Philosophy—Air.
+Rollo’s Philosophy—Fire.
+Rollo’s Philosophy—Sky.
+
+
+A NEW EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR.
+
+BOSTON:
+PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, AND COMPANY.
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1855, by
+PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, & CO.,
+in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of
+the District of Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+NOTICE TO PARENTS.
+
+
+Although this little book, and its fellow, “ROLLO AT WORK,” are
+intended principally as a means of entertainment for their little
+readers, it is hoped by the writer that they may aid in accomplishing
+some of the following useful purposes:—
+
+1. In cultivating _the thinking powers;_ as frequent occasions occur,
+in which the incidents of the narrative, and the conversations arising
+from them, are intended to awaken and engage the reasoning and
+reflective faculties of the little readers.
+
+2. In promoting the progress of children _in reading_ and in knowledge
+of language; for the diction of the stories is intended to be often in
+advance of the natural language of the reader, and yet so used as to be
+explained by the connection.
+
+3. In cultivating the _amiable and gentle qualities of the heart_. The
+scenes are laid in quiet and virtuous life, and the character and
+conduct described are generally—with the exception of some of the
+ordinary exhibitions of childish folly—character and conduct to be
+imitated; for it is generally better, in dealing with children, to
+allure them to what is right by agreeable pictures of it, than to
+attempt to drive them to it by repulsive delineations of what is wrong.
+
+
+
+
+ROLLO AT PLAY IN THE WOODS.
+
+THE SETTING OUT.
+
+
+One pleasant morning in the autumn, when Rollo was about five years
+old, he was sitting on the platform, behind his father’s house,
+playing. He had a hammer and nails, and some small pieces of board. He
+was trying to make a box. He hammered and hammered, and presently he
+dropped his work down and said, fretfully,
+
+“O dear me!”
+
+“What is the matter, Rollo?” said Jonas,—for it happened that Jonas was
+going by just then, with a wheelbarrow.
+
+“I wish these little boards would not split so. I cannot make my box.”
+
+“You drive the nails wrong; you put the wedge sides _with_ the grain.”
+
+“The wedge sides!” said Rollo; “what are the wedge sides,—and the
+grain? I do not know what you mean.”
+
+But Jonas went on, trundling his wheelbarrow; though he looked round
+and told Rollo that he could not stop to explain it to him then.
+
+Rollo was discouraged about his box. He thought he would look and see
+what Jonas was going to do. Jonas trundled the wheelbarrow along, until
+he came opposite the barn-door, and there he put it down. He went into
+the barn, and presently came out with an axe. Then he took the sides of
+the wheelbarrow off, and placed them up against the barn. Then he laid
+the axe down across the wheelbarrow, and went into the barn again.
+Pretty soon he brought out an iron crowbar, and laid that down also in
+the wheelbarrow, with the axe.
+
+Then Rollo called out,
+
+“Jonas, Jonas, where are you going?”
+
+“I am going down into the woods beyond the brook.”
+
+“What are you going to do?”
+
+“I am going to clear up some ground.”
+
+“May I go with you?”
+
+“I should like it—but that is not for me to say.”
+
+Rollo knew by this that he must ask his mother. He went in and asked
+her, and she, in return, asked him if he had read his lesson that
+morning. He said he had not; he had forgotten it.
+
+“Then,” said his mother, “you must first go and read a quarter of an
+hour.”
+
+Rollo was sadly disappointed, and also a little displeased. He turned
+away, hung down his head, and began to cry. It is not strange that he
+was disappointed, but it was very wrong for him to feel displeased, and
+begin to cry.
+
+“Come here, my son,” said his mother.
+
+Rollo came to his mother, and she said to him kindly,
+
+“You have done wrong now twice this morning; you have neglected your
+duty of reading, and now you are out of humor with me because I require
+you to attend to it. Now it is _my_ duty not to yield to such feelings
+as you have now, but to punish them. So I must say that, instead of a
+quarter of an hour, you must wait _half_ an hour, before you go out
+with Jonas.”
+
+Rollo stood silent a minute,—he perceived that he had done wrong, and
+was sorry. He did not know how he could find Jonas in the woods, but he
+did not say any thing about that then. He only asked his mother what he
+must do for the half hour. She said he must read a quarter of an hour,
+and the rest of the time he might do as he pleased.
+
+So Rollo took his book, and went out and sat down upon the platform,
+and began to read aloud. When he had finished one page, which usually
+took a quarter of an hour, he went in to ask his mother what time it
+was. She looked at the clock, and told him he had been reading
+seventeen minutes.
+
+“Is seventeen minutes more than a quarter of an hour, or not so much?”
+asked Rollo.
+
+“It is more;—_fifteen_ minutes is a quarter of an hour. Now you may do
+what you please till the other quarter has elapsed.”
+
+Rollo thought he would go and read more. It is true he was tired; but
+he was sorry he had done wrong, and he thought that if he read more
+than he was obliged to, his mother would see that he _was_ penitent,
+and that he acquiesced in his punishment.
+
+So he went on reading, and the rest of the half hour passed away very
+quickly. In fact, his mother came out before he got up from his
+reading, to tell him it was time for him to go. She said she was very
+glad he had submitted pleasantly to his punishment, and she gave him
+something wrapped up in a paper.
+
+“Keep this till you get a little tired of play, down there, and then
+sit down on a log and open it.”
+
+Rollo wondered what it was. He took it gladly, and began to go. But in
+a minute he turned round and said,
+
+“But how shall I find Jonas?”
+
+“What is he doing?” said his mother.
+
+“He said he was going to clear up some land.”
+
+“Then you will hear his axe. Go down to the edge of the woods and
+listen, and when you hear him, call him. But you must not go into the
+woods unless you hear him.”
+
+
+
+
+BRIDGE BUILDING.
+
+
+Rollo went on, down the green lane, till he came to the turn-stile, and
+then went through into the field. He then followed a winding path until
+he came to the edge of the trees, and there stopped to listen.
+
+He heard the brook gurgling along over the stones, and that was all at
+first; but presently he began to hear the strokes of an axe. He called
+out as loud as he could,
+
+“Jonas! Jonas!”
+
+But Jonas did not hear.
+
+Then he walked along the edge of the woods till he came nearer the
+place where he heard the axe. He found here a little opening among the
+trees and bushes, so that he could look in. He saw the brook, and over
+beyond it, on the opposite bank, was Jonas, cutting down a small tree.
+
+So Rollo walked on until he came to the brook, and then asked Jonas how
+he should get over. The brook was pretty wide and deep.
+
+Jonas said, if he would wait a few minutes, he would build him a
+bridge.
+
+“_You_ cannot build a bridge,” said Rollo.
+
+“Wait a little and see.”
+
+So Rollo sat down on a mossy bank, and Jonas, having cut down the small
+tree, began to work on a larger one that stood near the bank.
+
+After he had cut a little while, Rollo asked him why he did not begin
+the bridge.
+
+“I am beginning it,” said he.
+
+Rollo laughed at this, but in a minute Jonas called to him to stand
+back, away from the bank; and then, after a few strokes more, the top
+of the tree began to bend slowly over, and then it fell faster and
+faster, until it came down with a great crash, directly across the
+brook.
+
+“There!” said Jonas, “there is your bridge.”
+
+Rollo looked at it with astonishment and pleasure.
+
+“Now,” said Jonas, “I will come and help you over.”
+
+“No,” said Rollo, “I can come over myself. I can take hold of the
+branches for a railing.”
+
+So Rollo began to climb along the stem of the tree, holding on
+carefully by the branches. When he reached the middle of the stream, he
+stopped to look down into the water.
+
+“This is a capital bridge of yours, Jonas,” said he. “How beautiful the
+water looks down here! O, I see a little fish! He is swimming along by
+a great rock. Now he is standing perfectly still. O, Jonas, come and
+see him.”
+
+“No,” said Jonas, “I must mind my work.”
+
+After a little time, Rollo went carefully on over the bridge, and sat
+down on the bank of the brook. But he did not have with him the parcel
+his mother gave him. He had left it on the other side.
+
+After he had watched the fishes, and thrown pebble-stones into the
+brook some time, he began to be tired, and he asked Jonas what he had
+better do.
+
+“I think you had better build a wigwam.”
+
+“A wigwam? What is a wigwam?” said Rollo.
+
+“It is a little house made of bushes such as the Indians live in.”
+
+“O, I could not make a house,” said Rollo.
+
+“I think you could if I should tell you how, and help you a little.”
+
+“But you say _you_ must mind your work.”
+
+“Yes,—I can mind my work and tell you at the same time.”
+
+Rollo thought he should like to build a wigwam very much. Jonas told
+him the first thing to be done was to find a good place, where the
+ground was level. Rollo looked at a good many places, but at last chose
+a smooth spot under a great oak tree, which Jonas said he was not going
+to cut down. It was near a beautiful turn in the brook, where the water
+was very deep.
+
+Jonas told him that the first thing was to make a little stake, and
+drive it down in the middle of his wigwam-ground. Then Rollo
+recollected that he had left his hatchet over on the other side of the
+brook, together with the parcel his mother gave him; and he was going
+over to get them, when Jonas told him he would trim up the bridge a
+little, and then he could go over more easily.
+
+So Jonas went upon the bridge, and began to cut away the branches that
+were in the way, leaving enough on each side to take hold of, and to
+keep Rollo from falling in. Rollo could then go back and forth easily.
+He held on with one hand, and carried his hatchet in the other. Then he
+went over again, and brought his parcel, and laid it down near the
+great oak tree.
+
+Then he made a little stake, and drove it down in the middle of the
+wigwam-ground. Then he asked Jonas what he must do next.
+
+“That is the centre of your wigwam; now you must strike a circle around
+it.”
+
+“What?” said Rollo.
+
+“Don’t you know how to strike a circle?” said Jonas.
+
+Rollo said he did not, and then Jonas told him to do exactly as he
+should say, and that would show him.
+
+“First,” said Jonas, “have you got a string?”
+
+Rollo felt in his pockets in vain, but he recollected his little
+parcel, which was tied with a piece of twine, and held it up to ask
+Jonas if that would do. Jonas said it would, and told him to take it
+off carefully, and tie one end of it to his centre stake.
+
+And Rollo did so.
+
+“Now,” said Jonas, “make another little sharp stake for the marker, and
+tie the other end of the twine to that, near the sharp end.”
+
+Rollo worked busily for some time, and then called out,
+
+“Jonas, it is done.”
+
+All this time, Jonas was at work in the bushes, at a little distance.
+He now came to Rollo’s wigwam-ground, and took hold of the marker, and
+held it off as far from the middle stake as it would go, and then began
+to make a mark on the ground all around the middle stake. Now, as the
+marker was tied to the middle stake by the string, the mark was equally
+distant from the middle stake in every part, and that made it exactly
+round. Then Jonas laid down the marker, and pulled out the middle
+stake; and they looked down and saw that there was a round mark on the
+ground, about as large as a cart-wheel.
+
+Then Jonas took the crowbar, and made deep holes all around, in this
+circle, so far apart that Rollo could just step from one to the other.
+But Rollo could not understand how he could make a house so.
+
+“I will tell you,” said Jonas. “You must now go and get some large
+branches of trees, and trim off the twigs from the lower end, and stick
+them down in these, holes. I will show you how.”
+
+So Jonas took a large bough, and trimmed the large end, and sharpened
+it a little, and then he fixed it down in one of these holes, in such a
+manner that the top of it bent over towards the middle of the circle;
+then he went back to his work, leaving Rollo to go on with the wigwam.
+
+
+
+
+A VISITOR.
+
+
+Rollo put down two or three branches very well, and was very much
+delighted at seeing it gradually begin to look like a house, when he
+thought he heard a voice. He listened a moment, and heard some one at a
+distance calling, “Rol—lo. Rol—lo.”
+
+Rollo dropped his hatchet, and looked in the direction that the sound
+came from, and called out as loud as he could, “What!”
+
+“Where—are—you?” was heard in reply.
+
+Rollo answered, “_Here,_” and then immediately clambered along over the
+bridge, and ran through the woods until he came out into the open
+field; and there he saw a small boy, away off at a distance, just
+coming through the turn-stile.
+
+It was his cousin James. It seems that James had come to play with him
+that day, and Rollo’s mother had directed him down towards the woods.
+
+James came running along towards Rollo, holding up something round and
+bright, in each hand. They were half dollars.
+
+“Where did you get them?” said Rollo.
+
+“One is for you, and one is for me,” said James. “Uncle George sent
+them to us.”
+
+“What a beautiful little eagle!” said Rollo, as he looked at one side
+of his half dollar; “I wish I could get it off and keep it separate.”
+
+“O no,” said James, “that would spoil your half dollar.”
+
+“Why, they would know it was a half dollar by the letters and the head
+on the other side. What a pretty thin eagle! How do you suppose they
+fasten it on so strong?”
+
+James said he thought he could get it off; so they went and sat down on
+a smooth log, that was lying on the ground, and laid Rollo’s half
+dollar on the log. Then he took a pin, and tried to drive the point of
+it under the eagle’s head, with a small stone. But the eagle would not
+move. They only made some little marks and scratches on the silver.
+
+“Never mind,” said Rollo; “I will keep it as it is.” So he took his
+half dollar, and they walked along towards the brook.
+
+They showed their money to Jonas, and told him that they had tried to
+get the eagle off. He smiled at this. The boys went back soon to the
+wigwam, and James said he would help Rollo finish it. While they were
+at work they put their money on a large flat stone, on the brink of the
+brook. They fixed a great many boughs into their wigwam, weaving them
+in all around, and thus made a very pleasant little house, leaving a
+place for a door in front. When they were tired, they went and opened
+Rollo’s little package, and found a fine luncheon in it of bread and
+butter and pie; which they ate very happily together, sitting on little
+hemlock branches in the wigwam.
+
+
+
+
+DIFFICULTY.
+
+
+After their luncheon, the boys began to talk about the best place for a
+window for the wigwam.
+
+“I think we will have it _this_ side, towards the brook,” said James,
+“and then we can look out to the water.”
+
+“No,” said Rollo, “it will be better to have it _here_, towards where
+Jonas is working, and then we can look out and see him.”
+
+“No,” said James, “that is not a good plan; I do not want to see
+Jonas.”
+
+“And I do not want to see the water,” replied Rollo. “It is _my_
+wigwam, and I mean to have the window _here._”
+
+So saying, he went to the side towards Jonas, and began to take away a
+bough. James came there too, and said angrily,
+
+“The wigwam is mine as much as it is yours, for I helped make it, and I
+will not have a window here.”
+
+So he took hold of the branch that Rollo had hold of. They both felt
+guilty and condemned, but their angry feelings urged them on, and they
+looked fiercely at each other, and pulled upon the branch.
+
+“Rollo,” said James, “let go.”
+
+“James,” said Rollo, “I tell you, let my wigwam alone.”
+
+“It is not your wigwam.”
+
+“I tell you it is.”
+
+Just then they heard a noise in the bushes. They looked around, and saw
+Jonas coming towards them. They felt ashamed, and were silent, though
+each kept hold of the branch.
+
+“Now, boys,” said Jonas, “you have got into a foolish and wicked
+quarrel. I have heard it all. Now you may do as you please—you may let
+me settle it, or I will lead you home to your mother, and tell her
+about it, and let her settle it.”
+
+The boys looked ashamed, but said nothing.
+
+“If you conclude to let me settle it, you must do just as I say. But I
+do not pretend that I have any right to decide such a case, unless you
+consent. So I will take you home, if you prefer.”
+
+The boys both preferred that he should settle it, and promised to do as
+he should say.
+
+“Well, then,” said he, “the first thing is for you, Rollo, to go over
+the other side of the brook, and you, James, to stay here, and both to
+sit down still, until you have had time to cool.”
+
+The boys obeyed, and Jonas went back to his work.
+
+The boys sat still, feeling guilty and ashamed; but they were not
+penitent. They ought to have been sorry for their fault, and become
+good-natured and pleasant again. But instead of that, they were silent
+and displeased, eyeing one another across the brook. Jonas waited some
+time, and then came and called them both to him.
+
+“Now,” says James, “I will tell you all about it, and you shall decide
+who was to blame.”
+
+“I heard it all, and I know which was to blame; you, James, came here
+to see Rollo, and found him building a wigwam. It was _his_ wigwam, not
+_yours_. He began it without you, and was going on without you, and
+when you came, you had no right to assume any authority about it. You
+ought to have let him do as he wished with his own wigwam. You were
+unjust.”
+
+Here Rollo began to look pleased and triumphant, that Jonas had decided
+in his favor.
+
+“But,” continued Jonas, “you, Rollo, were playing here alone. Your
+little cousin came to see you; and you were very glad to have him come.
+He helped you build, and when he wanted to have the window in a
+particular way, you ought to have let him. To quarrel with a visitor
+for such a cause as that, was very ungentlemanly and unkind. So you see
+you were both very much to blame.”
+
+The boys looked guilty and ashamed, but they did not feel really
+penitent. They were not cordially reconciled. Neither was willing to
+give up.
+
+“But,” said Rollo, “how shall we make the window?”
+
+“I think you ought not to make any window, as you cannot agree about
+it.”
+
+They wanted to make a window now more than ever, for each wanted to
+have his own way; but Jonas would not consent, and as they had agreed
+to abide by his decision, they submitted. Jonas then returned to his
+work, and the boys stood by the side of the brook, not knowing exactly
+what to do. Jonas told them, when they went away, that he expected that
+they would have another quarrel, as he perceived that their hearts were
+still in a bad state.
+
+
+
+
+HEARTS WRONG.
+
+
+The boys sat down on the bank of the brook, and began to pick up little
+stones and throw them into the water. They began soon to talk of the
+window again.
+
+Rollo said, “Jonas thought you were most to blame, I know.”
+
+“No, he did not,” replied James. “He blamed you the most; he said you
+were unjust.”
+
+“I don’t care,” said Rollo. “You do not know how to build a wigwam. You
+cannot reach high enough to make a window.”
+
+“I _can_ reach high,” said James. “I can reach as high as that,” said
+he, stretching up his hand.
+
+“And I can reach as high as _that_” said Rollo, stretching up his hand
+higher than James did; for he was a little taller.
+
+James was somewhat vexed to find that Rollo could reach higher than he
+could, though it was very foolish to allow himself to be put out of
+humor by such a thing. But boys, when they are ill-humored, and
+dispute, are always unreasonable and foolish. James determined not to
+be outdone, so he took up a stick, and reached it up in the air as high
+as he could, and said,
+
+“I can reach up as high as _that_.”
+
+Then Rollo took up a stone, and tossed it up into the air, saying,
+
+“And I can reach as high as that.”
+
+Now, when boys throw stones into the air, they ought to consider where
+they will come down; but, unfortunately, Rollo did not in this case,
+and the stone fell directly upon James’s head. It was, however a small
+stone, and his cap prevented it from hurting him much; but he was
+already vexed and out of humor, and so he began to cry out aloud.
+
+Rollo was frightened a little, for he was afraid he had hurt his cousin
+a good deal, and then he expected too that Jonas would come. But Jonas
+took no notice of the crying, but went on with his work. Now, Jonas was
+very kind and careful, and always came quick when there was any one
+hurt. But this time, he knew by the tone of James’s crying, that it was
+vexation rather than pain that caused it.
+
+James, finding that his crying did no good, gradually became still; and
+in a few minutes, as he happened to look round, his eye rested on the
+stone where they had put their half dollars, and he saw that only one
+of them was there.
+
+“O, Rollo,” said he, “one of our half dollars is gone.”
+
+They went to the stone, and, true enough, one was gone. They looked
+around, but it was no where to be found. Boys that are out of humor
+with one another, are never at a loss for subjects of dispute; and
+Rollo said he believed James had taken it, and James charged it upon
+Rollo. Then there was a dispute who should have the one that was left.
+James knew it was his; he said he remembered _exactly_ how his looked;
+and Rollo knew it was his, for the head and the stars were very bright
+on his, and they were very bright on this. James, however, had the half
+dollar, and would not give it up; and so Rollo went to Jonas, and told
+him that James had got his half dollar.
+
+Jonas came, and heard the whole story from both of the boys. James said
+he _knew_ the one that was left was his, for he remembered exactly how
+it looked, and he also remembered exactly the very spot on the stone
+where he put it down.
+
+James did not mean to tell a lie, but he was a little angry and
+excited, and when boys are in that state of mind, they are very apt to
+say they know not what.
+
+Jonas looked at both sides of the half dollar very attentively.
+
+“Which half dollar was it,” said he, “that you tried to get the eagle
+off of?”
+
+“Mine,” said Rollo; “let me see.”
+
+Jonas held down the half dollar, and showed to Rollo and James the
+marks and scratches made by the pin; proving that this was Rollo’s half
+dollar. James looked ashamed and confounded; Jonas just waited to hear
+what he would say.
+
+
+
+
+HEARTS RIGHT AGAIN.
+
+
+James stood still a minute, thinking presently he said,
+
+“Well, Rollo, I suppose my half dollar is lost, but I am glad yours is
+safe, at any rate.”
+
+“I am sorry yours is lost,” said Rollo, “but then I can give you half
+of what I buy with mine.”
+
+“Where did you put the half dollars?” said Jonas.
+
+“On that rock,” said Rollo.
+
+They walked along towards the rock. It was by the edge of the water;
+Jonas thought that as they had been dragging boughs of trees along near
+the rock, some little branch might have reached over and brushed off
+one of the pieces of money into the water. So he walked up to it and
+looked over.
+
+In a minute or two, he pointed down, and the boys looked and saw
+something bright and glittering on the bottom.
+
+“Is that it?” said James.
+
+“I believe it is,” said Jonas.
+
+Jonas then took off his jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeve, lay down on
+the rock, and reached his arm down into the water, but it was a little
+too deep. He could not reach it.
+
+“I cannot get it so,” said he.
+
+“What shall we do?” said James. “How foolish I was to put it so near
+the water!”
+
+“I think we shall contrive some way to get it,” said Jonas.
+
+He then sat down on the rock and looked into the water. “We can go home
+and get a long pair of tongs, and get it with them at any rate,” said
+he.
+
+“O, yes,” said Rollo, “I will go and get them;” and he ran off towards
+the bridge.
+
+“No,” said Jonas, “stop; I will try one plan more.”
+
+So he went and cut a long straight stem of a bush, and trimmed it up
+smooth, and cut the largest end off exactly square. Then he went to a
+hemlock tree near, and took off some of the gum, which was very
+“sticky.” He pressed some of this with his knife on the end of the
+stick. Then he reached it very carefully down, and pressed it hard
+against the half dollar; it crowded the half dollar down into the sand,
+out of sight.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+“There, you have lost it,” said James.
+
+“I don’t know,” said Jonas; and he began slowly and carefully to draw
+it up.
+
+When the end of the stick came up out of the sand, the boys saw, to
+their great delight, that the half dollar was sticking fast on. They
+clapped their hands, and capered about on the stone, while Jonas gently
+drew up the half dollar, and put it, all wet and dripping, into James’s
+hand.
+
+The boys thanked Jonas for getting up the money, and then they asked
+him to keep both pieces for them until they went home. Then they began
+to think of the wigwam again.
+
+“We will make the window as you want it, James,” said Rollo; “I am
+willing.”
+
+“No,” said James, “I was just going to say we would make it your way. I
+rather think it would be better to make it towards the land.”
+
+“Why can you not have two windows?” said Jonas.
+
+“So we can,” said both of the boys; and they immediately went to work
+collecting branches and weaving them in, leaving a space for a window
+both sides. Their quarrelsome feelings were all gone, and they talked
+very pleasantly at their work until it was time for them to go home to
+dinner.
+
+[Illustration: They went to work collecting branches and weaving them
+in.]
+
+
+
+
+THE STEEPLE TRAP.
+
+THE WAY TO CATCH A SQUIRREL.
+
+
+The afternoon of the day when Rollo and his cousin James made their
+wigwam in the woods by the brook, they were at work there again,
+employed very harmoniously together, in finishing their edifice, when
+suddenly Jonas, who was at work in the woods at a little distance,
+heard them both calling to him, in tones of surprise and pleasure—
+
+“O, Jonas, Jonas, come here quick—quick.”
+
+Jonas dropped his axe and ran.
+
+When he got near them, they pointed to a log.
+
+“See there;—see;—see there.”
+
+“What is it?” said Jonas. “O, I see it,” said he.
+
+It was a little squirrel clambering up a raspberry-bush, eating the
+raspberries as he went along. He would climb up by the little branches,
+and pull in the raspberries in succession, until he got to the topmost
+one, when the bush would bend over with his weight until it almost
+touched the log.
+
+“Let us catch him,” said Rollo, very eagerly; “do let us catch him; I
+will go and get our steeple trap.”
+
+Jonas did not seem to be so very much delighted as the boys were. He
+said he was certainly a cunning little fellow, but “what should we do
+with him if we should catch him?”
+
+“O,” said Rollo, “we would put him in a little cage. It would be so
+complete to have him in a cage! Do, Jonas, do.”
+
+“But you have not got any cage.”
+
+“We can get one,” said James. “We can buy one with our half dollars.”
+
+“Well,” said Jonas, “it will do no good to set the trap now, for he
+will be away before we could get back. But I will come down to-night,
+and set the trap, and perhaps we shall catch him, though I do not
+exactly like to do it.”
+
+“Why?” said the boys.
+
+“O,” replied Jonas, “he will not like to be shut up all night, in a
+dark box, and then be imprisoned in a cage. He had rather run about
+here, and gather raspberries. Besides, you would soon get tired of him
+if you had him in a cage.”
+
+“O no,” said Rollo, “I should not get tired of him.”
+
+“Did you ever have any plaything that you were not tired of before
+long?”
+
+“Why,—no,” said Rollo; “but then a real live squirrel is a different
+thing. Besides, you know, if I get tired of him, I need not play with
+him then.”
+
+“No, but a real live thing must be fed every day, and _that_ you would
+find a great trouble. And then you would sometimes forget it, and the
+poor fellow would be half starved.”
+
+“O no,” said Rollo; “I am sure I should not forget it.”
+
+“Did you remember your reading-lesson this morning?”
+
+“Why,—no,” said Rollo, looking a little confused. “But I am sure I
+should not forget to feed a squirrel if I had one.”
+
+“You don’t know as much as I thought you did,” replied Jonas.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“I thought you knew more about yourself than to suppose you could be
+trusted to do any thing regularly every day. Why, you would not
+remember to wash your own face every morning, if your mother did not
+remind you. The squirrel is almost as fit to take care of you in your
+wigwam, as you are to take care of him in a cage.”
+
+Rollo felt a little ashamed of his boasting, for he knew that what
+Jonas said was true. Jonas said, finally, “However, we will try to
+catch him; but I cannot promise that I shall let you keep him in a
+cage. It will be bad enough for him to be shut up all night in the box
+trap, but I can pay him for that the next day in corn.”
+
+So Jonas brought down the box trap that night. It was a long box, about
+as big as a cricket, with a tall, pointed back, which looked like a
+steeple; so Rollo called it the steeple trap. It was so made that if
+the squirrel should go in, and begin to nibble some corn, which they
+were going to put in there, it would make the cover come down and shut
+him in. They fixed the trap on the end of the log, and Jonas observed,
+as he sat on the log, that he could see the barn chamber window through
+a little opening among the trees. Of course he knew that from the barn
+chamber window he could see the trap, though it would be too far off to
+see it plain.
+
+
+
+
+THE WAY TO LOSE A SQUIRREL.
+
+
+Early the next morning, James came over to learn whether they had
+caught the squirrel; and he and Rollo wanted Jonas to go down with them
+and see. Jonas said he could not go down then very well, but if he
+would go and ask his father to lend him his spy-glass, he could tell
+without going down.
+
+Now Jonas had been a very faithful and obedient boy, ever since he came
+to live with Rollo’s father. He had some great faults when he first
+came, but he had cured himself of them, and he was now an excellent and
+trustworthy boy. It was a part of his business to take care of Rollo,
+and they always let him have what he asked for from the house, as they
+knew it was for some good purpose, and that it would be well taken care
+of. So when Rollo went in and asked for the spy-glass, and said that
+Jonas wanted it, they handed it down to him at once.
+
+Jonas took the glass, and they all three went up into the barn chamber.
+
+Jonas opened the glass, and held it up to his eye. The boys stood by
+looking on silently. At length, Jonas said,
+
+“No, we have not caught him.”
+
+“How do you know?” said the boys.
+
+“O, I can see the trap, and it is not sprung.”
+
+“Is not sprung?” said James, “what do you mean by _sprung_?”
+
+“Shut. It is not shut. I can see it open, and of course the squirrel is
+not there.”
+
+“O, he may be in,” said Rollo, “just nibbling the corn. Do let us go
+and see.”
+
+Jonas smiled, and said he could not go then, but he would look through
+the spy-glass again towards noon. He then gave the glass to Rollo, and
+it was carried back safely into the house.
+
+James soon after went home, and Rollo sat down in the parlor to his
+reading. Afterwards he came out, and went to building cities in a sandy
+corner of the garden. He was making Rome,—for his father had told him
+that Rome was built on seven hills, and he liked to make the seven
+hills in the sand. He made a long channel for an aqueduct, and went
+into the house to get a dipper of water to fill his aqueduct, when he
+met James coming again. So they went in, and got the spy-glass, and
+asked Jonas to go up and look again.
+
+Jonas adjusted the glass, held it up to his eye, and looked some time
+in silence, and then said,—
+
+“Yes, it is sprung, I believe. Yes, it is certainly sprung.”
+
+“O, then we have caught him,” said the boys, capering about. “Let us go
+and see.”
+
+“Perhaps we have caught him,” said Jonas, “but it is not certain;
+sometimes the trap gets sprung accidentally. However, you may go and
+ask your father if he thinks it worth while for me to leave my work
+long enough to go down and see.”
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Rollo came back with the permission granted, and they all set off;
+Rollo and James running on eagerly before.
+
+When they came to the trap, they found it shut. Jonas took it up, and
+tipped it one way and the other, and listened. He heard something
+moving in it, but did not know whether it was anything more than the
+corn cob. Then he said he would open the trap a very little, and let
+Rollo peep in.
+
+He did so. Rollo said it looked all dark; he could not see any thing.
+Then Jonas opened it a little farther, and Rollo saw two little shining
+eyes, and presently a nose smelling along at the crack.
+
+“Yes, here he is, here he is,” said Rollo; “look at him, James, look at
+him;—see, see.”
+
+They all peeped at him, and then Jonas took the box under his arm, and
+they returned home.
+
+Jonas told the boys he was not willing to keep the squirrel a prisoner
+very long, but he would try to contrive some way by which they might
+look at him. Now, there was, in the garret, a small fire-fender, which
+had been laid aside as old and useless. Jonas recollected this, and
+thought he could fix up a temporary cage with it. So he took a small
+box about as large as a raisin-box, which he found in the barn, and
+laid it down on its side, so as to turn the open side towards the trap,
+and then moved the trap close up to it. He then covered up all the rest
+of the open part of the box with shingles, and asked James and Rollo to
+hold them on. Then he carefully lifted up the cover of the trap, and
+made a rattling in the back part of it with the spindle. This drove the
+squirrel through out of the trap into the box.
+
+When Jonas was sure that he was in, he took the old fender and slid it
+down very cautiously between the trap and the box, so as to cover the
+open part entirely, and make a sort of grated front, like a cage. Then
+he took the trap away, and there the little nut-cracker was, safely
+imprisoned, but yet fairly exposed to view.
+
+That is, they _thought_ he was safely imprisoned; but he, little rogue,
+had no idea of submitting without giving his bolts and bars a try. At
+first, he crept along, with his tail curled over his back, in a corner,
+and looked at the strange faces which surrounded him. “Let us give him
+a little corn,” said Rollo; “perhaps he is hungry;” and he was just
+slipping some kernels in between the wires of the fender, when Bunny
+sprang forward, and, with a jump and a squeeze, forced his slender body
+between two of the wires that were bent a little apart, leaped down
+upon the barn floor, ran along to the corner, up the post, and then
+crept leisurely along on a beam. Presently, he stopped, and looked
+down, as if considering what to do next.
+
+The moment he escaped, the boys exclaimed, “O, catch him, catch him,”
+and were going to run after him; but Jonas said that it would do no
+good, for they could not catch him again now, and had better stand
+still and see what he would do.
+
+He soon began to run along on the beam; thence he ascended to the
+scaffold, and made his way towards an open window. He jumped up to the
+window sill, and then disappeared. The boys all ran around, outside,
+and were just in time to catch a glimpse of him, running along on the
+top of the fence, down towards the woods again.
+
+“Do let us run after him and catch him,” said Rollo.
+
+“Catch him!” said Jonas, with a laugh, “you might as well catch the
+wind. No, the only way is to set our trap for him again. I meant to let
+him go, myself; but he is not going to slip through our fingers in that
+way, I tell him.” So Jonas went down that night and set the trap again.
+
+For several days after this, the trap remained unsprung, and the boys
+began to think that they should never see him again. At last, however,
+one day, when Rollo was playing in the yard, he saw Jonas coming up out
+of the woods with the trap under his arm. Rollo ran to meet him, and
+was delighted to find that the squirrel was caught again.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO KEEP A SQUIRREL.
+
+
+Jonas contrived to tighten the wires of the lender, by weaving in other
+wires so as to secure the little prisoner this time; and when he was
+fairly in his temporary cage, the boys were so pleased with his
+graceful form and beautiful colors, especially the elegant stripes on
+his back, that they begged hard to keep him; and they made many earnest
+promises never to forget to feed him. Jonas said, at last,
+
+“On the whole. I believe I will let you keep him, but you must do it in
+my way.”
+
+“What is your way?”
+
+“Why, after a day or two, we must carry him back to his raspberry-bush,
+and let him go. But you may give him a name, and call him yours, and
+you can carry some corn down there now and then, to feed him with,—and
+then you will see him, occasionally, playing about there.”
+
+James and Rollo did not exactly like this plan at first, but when they
+considered how much better the little squirrel himself would like it,
+they adopted it; and Rollo proposed that they should tie a string round
+his neck for a collar, so that they might know him again.
+
+“I can get mother to let me have a little pink riband,” said he, “and
+that will be beautiful.”
+
+“It would be a good plan,” said Jonas, “to mark him in some way, but he
+might gnaw off the riband.”
+
+“O no,” said James, “he could not gnaw any thing on his own neck.”
+Rollo thought so too, and they both tried to bite their own collar
+ribands, by way of showing Jonas how impossible it was.
+
+“I don’t know exactly what the limits are of a squirrel’s gnawing,”
+said Jonas. “Perhaps he might tear it off with his claws.”
+
+“Or he might get another squirrel to gnaw it off for him,” said James.
+
+“Yes,” said Jonas, “and there is another difficulty. He might be
+jumping from one tree to another, and catch his collar in some little
+branch, and so get hung, without judge or jury.”
+
+“What can we do then?” said Rollo.
+
+“I think,” said Jonas, “that the best plan would be to dye the end of
+his tail black. That would not hurt him any; and yet, as he always
+holds his tail up, we should see it, and know him.”
+
+The boys both thought this would be excellent, and Jonas said he had
+some black dye, which he had made for dyeing some wood. Jonas was a
+very ingenious boy, and used to make little boxes, and frames, and
+windmills, with his penknife, in the long winter evenings, and he had
+made this dye out of vinegar and old nails, to dye some of his wood
+with.
+
+“I am not certain,” said Jonas, “that my dye will color hair; I never
+tried it, except on wood. Do you think that black would be a pretty
+color?”
+
+“No,” said Rollo, “black would not be a very pretty color, but it would
+do. Yellow, and red, and green, are pretty colors, but black, and
+brown, and white, are not pretty at all.”
+
+“I have not got any yellow, or red, or green,” said Jonas. “I don’t
+know but that I have got a little blue.”
+
+“O, blue would be beautiful,” said James.
+
+Then Jonas walked along into the barn, and Rollo and James followed
+him. He went up stairs, and walked along to the farthest corner, and
+there, up on a beam, were several small bottles all in a row. Jonas
+took down one, and shook it, and said that was the blue.
+
+He brought it down to the cage; Rollo went into the house, and brought
+out an old bowl, and Jonas prepared to pour out the dye into it. They
+then concluded that they would carry the whole apparatus down into the
+edge of the woods, and perform the operation there; and then the
+squirrel, when he was liberated, would easily find his way back to his
+home. Jonas carried down a pair of thick, old gloves, to keep the
+squirrel from biting him.
+
+As they walked along, Rollo proposed that Jonas should dip the
+squirrel’s ears in as well as his tail; “because,” said he, “we may
+sometimes see him when he is half hid in the bushes, so that only his
+head is in sight.”
+
+“Besides,” said James, “it will make him look more beautiful if his
+ears and tail are both blue.”
+
+Jonas did not object to this, and after a short time, they reached the
+edge of the woods. They found a little opening, where the ground was
+smooth and the grass green, which seemed exactly the place for them. So
+they put down the cage and the bowl of dye, and Jonas began to put on
+his glove.
+
+“Now, boys,” said he, “you must be still as moonlight while I do it. If
+you speak to me, you will put me out; and besides, you will frighten
+little Bunny.”
+
+The boys promised not to speak a single word; and Jonas, after
+unfastening the fender from the front of the box, moved it along until
+there was an opening large enough for him to get his hand in. Rollo and
+James stood by silently, and somewhat anxiously, waiting the result.
+
+When the squirrel saw Jonas’s hand intruding itself into the box, he
+retreated to the farther corner, and curled himself up there, with his
+tail close down upon his back. Jonas followed him with his hand,
+saying, in a soothing tone, “Bunny, Bunny, poor little Bunny.”
+
+He reached him, at length, and put his hand very gently over him, and
+slowly and cautiously drew him out.
+
+Rollo and James gave a sort of hysteric laugh, and instantly clapped
+their hands to their mouths, to suppress it; but they looked at one
+another and at Jonas with great delight.
+
+Jonas gradually brought the squirrel over the bowl, and prepared to dip
+his ears into the dye. It was a strange situation for a squirrel to be
+in, and he did not like it at all; and just at the instant when his
+ears were going into the dye, he twisted his head round, and planted
+his little fore teeth directly upon Jonas’s thumb. As might have been
+supposed, teeth which were sharp and powerful enough to go through a
+walnut shell, would not he likely to be stopped by a leathern glove;
+and Jonas, startled by the sudden cut, gave a twitch with his hand,
+and, at the same instant, let go of the squirrel. Bunny grasped the
+edge of the howl with his paws, and leaped out, bringing the bowl
+itself at the same instant over upon him, spattering him all over from
+head to tail with the blue dye.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The boys looked aghast for a minute, but when they saw him racing off
+as fast as possible, and running up a neighboring tree, Jonas burst
+into a laugh, which the other boys joined, and they continued it loud
+and long, till the woods rang again.
+
+“Well, we have spotted him, at any rate,” said Jonas. “We will call him
+Leopard.”
+
+The boys then looked at Jonas’s bite, and found that it was not a very
+serious one. In fact, Jonas was a little ashamed at having let go for
+so small a wound However, it was then too late to regret it and the
+boys returned slowly home.
+
+As they were walking home, James said that the squirrel’s back looked
+_wet_, where the dye went upon him, but he did not think it looked very
+_blue_.
+
+“No,” said Jonas, “it does not generally look blue at first, but it
+grows blue afterwards. It will be a bright color enough before you see
+him again, I will warrant.”
+
+So they walked along home; the fender was put back in its place in the
+garret, the bowl in the house, and the box in the barn. Jonas soon
+forgot that he had been bitten, and the squirrel, as soon as his back
+was dry, thought no more of the whole affair, but turned his attention
+entirely to the business of digging a hole to store his nuts in for the
+ensuing winter.
+
+
+
+
+FIRES IN THE WOODS.
+
+
+All the large trees that Jonas had felled beyond the brook, he cut up
+into lengths, and hauled them up into the yard, and made a great high
+wood-pile of them, higher than his head; but all the branches, and the
+small bushes, with all the green leaves upon them, lay about the ground
+in confusion. Rollo asked him what he was going to do with them. He
+said, after they were dry, he should burn them up, and that they would
+make a splendid bonfire.
+
+They lay there drying a good many weeks. The leaves turned yellow and
+brown, and the little twigs and sticks became gradually dry and
+brittle. Rollo used to walk down there often, to see how the drying
+went on, and sometimes he would bring up a few of the bushes, and put
+them on the kitchen fire, to see whether they were dry enough to burn.
+
+At last, late in the autumn, one cool afternoon, Jonas asked Rollo to
+go down with him and help him pile up the bushes in heaps, for he was
+going to burn them that evening. Rollo wanted very much that his
+cousins James and Lucy should see the fires; and so he asked his mother
+to let him go and ask them to come and take tea there that night, and
+go out with them in the evening to the burning. She consented, and
+Rollo went. Lucy promised to come just before tea-time, and James came
+then, with Rollo, to help him pile the bushes up.
+
+Jonas said that the boys might make one little pile of their own if
+they wished; and told them that they must first make a pile of solid
+sticks, and dry rotten logs as large as they could lift or roll, so as
+to have a good solid fire underneath, and then cover these up with
+brush as high as they could pile it, so as to make a great blaze. He
+told them also that they must make their pile where it would not burn
+any of the trees which he had left standing, for he had left a great
+many of the large oaks, and beeches, and pines, to ornament the ground
+and make a shade.
+
+Rollo and James decided to make their pile near the brook, between the
+bridge which Jonas made of a tree, and the old wigwam which they had
+made some time before of boughs. They got together a great heap of
+solid wood, as large pieces as they could lift, and at one end they put
+in a great deal of birch bark, which they stripped off, in great
+sheets, from an old, decayed birch tree, which had been lying on the
+ground near, for half a century. When this was done, they began to pile
+on the bushes and brush, taking care to leave the end where the birch
+bark was, open. After they had piled it up as high as they could reach.
+Rollo clambered up to the top of it, and James reached the long bushes
+up to him, and he arranged them regularly, with the tops out. So they
+worked all the afternoon, and by the time they had got their pile done,
+they found that Jonas had thrown almost all the rest of the bushes into
+heaps; and then they went home to tea.
+
+They found Lucy there, and they were all so eager to go to the
+bonfires, that they did not eat much supper. Their father told them
+that, as they had so little appetite, they had better carry down some
+potatoes and apples, and roast them by the fires. They thought this an
+excellent plan, and ran into the store-room to get them. Their mother
+gave them a basket to put the potatoes and apples into, and a little
+salt folded up in a paper. They were then so impatient to go that their
+parents said they might set off with Jonas, and they themselves would
+come along very soon.
+
+So Jonas and the three children walked on. Rollo carried the basket,
+and Jonas a lantern; and Jonas, as he went along, made, with his
+penknife, some flat, wooden spoons, to eat their potatoes with. They
+came to the bridge, and all got safely over, though Lucy was a little
+afraid at first.
+
+They played around there a few minutes, as the twilight was coming on;
+and, soon after, they saw Rollo’s father and mother coming down through
+the trees, on the other side of the brook. They stopped on that side,
+as Rollo’s mother did not like to come across the bridge. Pretty soon
+they called out to Jonas to light the fires.
+
+Jonas then took a large piece of birch bark, and touched the corner of
+it to the lamp in the lantern, and when it was well on fire, he laid it
+carefully on the ground. The bark began to blaze up very bright,
+sending out volumes of thick smoke and dense flame, writhing, and
+curling, and snapping, as it lay on the ground. The light shone
+brightly on the grass and sticks around.
+
+“There,” said Jonas, “that will burn some time; now you may light your
+torches from that.”
+
+“Torches?” said Rollo, “we have not got any torches.”
+
+“Have not you made any torches? O, well,—I will make you some in a
+minute.”
+
+So he took out his knife, and selected three long slender stems of
+bushes, and trimmed them up, and cut off the tops. Then he made a
+little split in the top end, and slipped in a piece of birch bark. Then
+he handed them to the children, one to each, and said, “There are your
+torches; now you can light your fires without burning your fingers.”
+
+So they took their torches, and held the ends over the flame of the
+piece of birch bark, which, however, had by this time nearly burned
+out. Lucy’s took fire, but Rollo’s and James’s did not, at first; and
+as they pressed their torches down more and more to make them light,
+they only smothered what little flame was left, and put it out.
+
+“O dear me!” said Rollo.
+
+Lucy had gone a little way towards a pile; but when she saw what was
+the matter, she came back and said, “Here;—light it by mine.” So the
+boys held their torches over hers until they were all three in a bright
+blaze. They then carried them along, waving them in the air, and
+lighting pile after pile, until the whole forest seemed to be in a
+flame.
+
+The children stood still a few moments, gazing on the fires, and on the
+extraordinary effect which the light produced upon the objects around.
+It was a singular scene. Flashing and crackling flames rose high from
+the heaps which were on fire, and shed a strong but unsteady light on
+the trees, the ground, and the banks of the brook, and penetrated deep
+into the forest on every side. Rollo called upon James and Lucy to look
+at his father and mother, who were across the brook; they stood there
+under the trees, almost invisible before, but now the bright light
+shone strongly upon their faces and forms, and cast upon them a clear
+and brilliant illumination, which was strongly contrasted with the dark
+depths of the forest behind them.
+
+The children were silent, and stood still for a few minutes, gazing on
+the scene with feelings of admiration and awe. They expected to have
+capered about and laughed, but they found that they had no disposition
+to do so. The enjoyment they felt was not of that kind which leads
+children to caper and laugh. They stood still, and looked silently and
+soberly on the flashing flames, the lurid light, the bright red
+reflections on the woods, the banks, and the water,—and on the volumes
+of glowing smoke and sparks which ascended to the sky.
+
+Before long, however, the light fuel upon the top of the piles was
+burned up, and there remained great glowing heaps of embers, and logs
+of wood still flaming. These the boys began to poke about with long
+poles that Jonas had cut for them, to make them burn brighter, and to
+see the sparks go up. Presently they heard their father calling them.
+
+The boys all stopped to listen.
+
+“We are going home,” said he; “we shall take cold if we stand still
+here. You may stay, however, with Jonas, only you must not sit down.”
+
+So Rollo’s father and mother turned away, and walked along back towards
+the house, the light shining more and more faintly upon them, until
+they were lost among the trees.
+
+“Why do you suppose we must not sit down?” said Lucy.
+
+“Because,” said Jonas, “they are afraid you will take cold. As long as
+you run about and play around the fires, you keep warm.”
+
+“O, then we will run about and play fast enough,” said James. “I know
+what I am going to do.”
+
+So he took a large flat piece of hemlock bark, which he found upon the
+ground, and began tearing off strips of birch bark from the old tree,
+and piling them upon it.
+
+“What are you going to do?” said Lucy.
+
+“O, I am going to play steam-boat on fire,” said he; and he took up the
+piece of bark with the little pile of combustibles upon it, and carried
+it down to the edge of the brook. Then he went back and got his torch
+stick, and put a fresh piece of birch bark in the split end, and
+lighted it, and then came back to the brook, walking slowly lest his
+torch should go out.
+
+Lucy held his torch for him while he gently put his steam-boat on the
+water; and then he lighted it with his torch, and pushed it out. It
+floated down, all blazing as it was, to the great delight of the three
+children, and astonishment of all the little fishes in the brook, who
+could not imagine what the blazing wonder could be.
+
+The children followed it along down the brook, and began to pelt it
+with stones, and soon got into a high frolic. But as they were very
+careful not to hit one another with the stones, nor to speak harshly or
+cross, they enjoyed it very much. When at last the steam-boat was
+fairly pelted to pieces, and the blackened fragments of the birch bark
+were scattered over the water, and floating away down the stream, they
+began to think of roasting their corn and potatoes, which they did very
+successfully over the remains of the fires. When they had nearly
+finished eating, Rollo suddenly exclaimed,—
+
+“O, I will tell you what we will do; we will go and set our wigwam on
+fire!”
+
+Rollo pointed to the wigwam. James and Lucy looked, and observed that
+it had been dried and browned in the sun, and Rollo thought it was no
+longer good for any thing as a wigwam, but would make a capital
+bonfire. He proposed that they should all go into it and sit down, and
+put a torch near the side so as to set it on fire, as if accidentally.
+They would go on talking as if they did not see it, and when the flames
+burst out, they would jump up and run out, crying, Fire! as people do
+when their houses get on fire.
+
+Lucy said she should not like to do that. She should be afraid, she
+said. The sparks would fall down upon her and burn her. So the boys
+gave that plan up. Then James proposed that they should make believe
+that they were savages, going to set fire to a town. The wigwam was to
+be the town. They would take their torches, and all go and set it on
+fire in several places.
+
+“But, then, I could not help,” said Lucy, “for women do not go to war.”
+
+“O yes, they do, if they are savages,” said James. “We play that we are
+savages, you see.”
+
+So it was all agreed to. They lighted their torches, and marched along,
+waving them in the air, until they came to the wigwam, and then they
+danced around it, singing and shouting as they set it on fire in many
+places on all sides. The flames spread rapidly, and flashed up high
+into the air, and soon there was nothing left of the poor wigwam but a
+few smoking and blackened sticks lying on the ground.
+
+The children then crept along over the bridge, and went towards home.
+There were still great beds of burning embers remaining, and in some
+places the remains of logs and stumps were blazing brightly. And that
+night, when Rollo went to bed, he lay looking out the window which was
+towards the woods, and saw the light still shining among the trees, and
+the smoke slowly rising from the fires, and floating away through the
+air.
+
+
+
+
+THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; OR, LUCY’S VISIT.
+
+“A ROUND RAINBOW.”
+
+
+About six miles from the house where Rollo lived, there was a mountain
+called Benalgon, which was famous for bears and blueberries. There were
+no bears on it, but there were plenty of blueberries. The reason why it
+was so famous for bears, when in fact there were none there, was
+because the boys and girls that went there for blueberries every year,
+used to see black logs and stumps among the trees and bushes of the
+mountain, and they would run away very hastily, and insist upon it,
+when they got down the mountain, that they had seen a bear.
+
+Now, Rollo’s father and mother, together with his uncle George, formed
+a plan for going up this mountain after blueberries, and they were
+going to take Rollo and his cousin Lucy with them. Uncle George and
+cousin Lucy were to come in a chaise to Rollo’s house immediately after
+breakfast, and Rollo was to ride with them, and his father and mother
+were to go in another chaise.
+
+Rollo got his little basket to pick his blueberries in, all ready the
+night before, and he got a string to tie around his neck, intending to
+hang his basket upon it, so that he could have both his hands at
+liberty, and pick faster. He also thought he would take all the heavy
+things out of his pocket, so that he could run the faster, in case he
+should see any bears. He put them all on a window in the shed. The
+things were a knife, a piece of chalk, two white pebble stones, and a
+plummet. When he got them all out, he asked Jonas, who was splitting
+wood in the shed, if he would not take care of them for him, till he
+came back.
+
+“Why, yes,” said Jonas, “I will take care of them if you wish; but what
+are you going to leave them for?”
+
+“O, so that I can run faster,” said Rollo.
+
+“Run faster? I do not think you will run much, up old Benalgon, unless
+he holds his back down lower than when I went up.”
+
+Rollo did not mean that he was going to run up the mountain, but he did
+not explain what he did mean, for he thought that Jonas would laugh at
+him, if he told him he was afraid of the bears. So he said, “Jonas,
+don’t you wish you were going with us?”
+
+“I should like it well enough, but I must stay at home and mind my
+work.”
+
+“I wish you could go. I will go and ask my father if he will not let
+you.”
+
+Rollo ran into the house with great haste and eagerness, leaving all
+the doors open, and calling out, “Father, father,” as soon as he had
+begun to open the parlor door.
+
+“Father, father,” said he, running up to him, “I wish you would let
+Jonas go with us to-morrow.”
+
+Now, Rollo’s father had come home but a short time before, and was just
+seated quietly in his arm-chair, reading a newspaper, and Rollo came up
+to him, pulling down the paper with his hands, and looking up into his
+father’s face, so as to stop his reading at once. Heedless boys very
+often come to ask favors in this way.
+
+His father gently moved him back and said,
+
+“No, my son, it is not convenient for Jonas to go to-morrow. Besides, I
+am busy now, and cannot talk with you;—you must go away.”
+
+Rollo turned away disappointed, and went slowly back through the
+kitchen. His mother, who was there, and who heard all that passed, as
+the doors were open, said to him, as he walked by her, “What a foolish
+way that was to ask him, Rollo! You might have known it would have done
+no good.”
+
+Rollo did not answer, but he went and sat down on the step of the door,
+and was just beginning to think what the foolishness was in his way of
+asking his father, when a little bird came hopping along in the yard.
+He ran in to ask his mother to give him some milk to feed the bird
+with. She smiled, and told him milk was good for kittens, but not for
+birds; and she gave him some crumbs of bread. Rollo threw the crumbs
+out, but they only frightened the little thing away.
+
+That night, when Rollo went to bed, his father said, that when he was
+all ready, he would come up and see him. When he came into his chamber,
+Rollo called out to him,
+
+“O, father, look out the window, and see what a beautiful ring there is
+round the moon.”
+
+“So there is,” said his father; “I am rather sorry to see that.”
+
+“Sorry, father! why? It is beautiful, I think.”
+
+“It does look pretty, but it is a sign of rain to-morrow.”
+
+“Of rain? O no, father; it is a kind of a rainbow. It is a round
+rainbow. I am sure it will be pleasant to-morrow.”
+
+“Very well,” said his father, “we shall see in the morning.” Then he
+sat down on Rollo’s bed-side some time, talking with him on various
+subjects, and then heard him say his prayers. At length he took the
+light, and bade Rollo good night.
+
+Rollo’s eye caught another view of the moon as his father was going,
+and he said,
+
+“O, father, just look at the moon once more; that _is_ a rainbow; I see
+the colors. I expect it will grow into a large one, such as you told me
+was a sign of fair weather. I will watch it.”
+
+“Yes,” said his father, “you can watch it as you go to sleep.”
+
+So Rollo laid his face upon his pillow in such a way that he could see
+the moon through the window; and he began to watch the bright circle
+around it, but before it grew any bigger, he was fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+WHO KNOWS BEST, A LITTLE BOY OR HIS FATHER?
+
+
+The next morning, Rollo awoke early, and he was very much pleased to
+see, as soon as he opened his eyes, that the sun was shining in at the
+windows. He was not only pleased to find that the prospect was so good
+for a pleasant ride, but his vanity was gratified at the thought that
+it had turned out that he knew better about the weather than his
+father. He began to dress himself, as far as he could without help, and
+was preparing to hasten down to his father, to tell him that it was
+going to be a pleasant day. When he was nearly dressed, he was
+surprised lo observe that the bright sunlight on the wall was gradually
+fading away, and at length it wholly disappeared. He went to look out
+the window to see what was the cause. He found that there was a broad
+expanse of dark cloud covering the eastern sky, excepting a narrow
+strip quite low down, near the horizon. When the sun first rose, it
+shone brightly through this narrow zone of clear sky; but now it had
+ascended a little higher, and gone behind the cloud.
+
+“Never mind,” said Rollo to himself. “The cloud is not so very large
+after all, and the sun will come out again above it when it gets up a
+little higher.”
+
+Rollo came down to breakfast, and he went out into the yard every two
+or three minutes, to look at the sky. The cloud seemed to extend, so
+that the sun did not come out of it, as he expected, but still he
+thought it was going to be pleasant Children generally think it is
+going to be pleasant, whenever they want to go away.
+
+His father thought it was probably going to rain, and that at any rate
+it was very doubtful whether Uncle George would come. However, he said
+they should soon see, and, true enough, just as they were rising from
+the breakfast table, a chaise drove up to the door, and out jumped
+Uncle George and cousin Lucy.
+
+Lucy was a very pleasant little blue-eyed girl, two or three years
+older than Rollo. She had a small tin pail in her hand, with a cover
+upon it.
+
+“Good morning, Rollo,” said she. “Have you got your basket ready?”
+
+“Yes,” said Rollo; “but I am afraid it is going to rain.”
+
+While the children were saying this, Uncle George said to Rollo’s
+father,
+
+“I suppose we shall have to give up our expedition to-day. I am in
+hopes we are going to have some rain.”
+
+“In _hopes_,” thought Rollo; “that is very strange when we want to go a
+blueberrying.”
+
+Rollo’s father and mother and his uncle looked at the clouds all
+around. They concluded that there was every appearance of rain, and
+that it would be best to postpone their excursion, and then went into
+the house. Rollo was very confident it would not rain, and was very
+eager to have them go. He asked Lucy if she did not think it was going
+to be pleasant, but Lucy was more modest and reasonable than he was,
+and said that she did not know; she could not judge of the weather so
+well as her father.
+
+Rollo began by this time to be considerably out of humor. He said he
+knew it was not going to rain, and he did not see why they might not
+go. He did not believe it would rain a drop all day.
+
+Lucy just then pointed down to a little dark spot on the stone step of
+the door, where a drop had just fallen, and asked Rollo what he called
+that.
+
+“And that,—and that,—and that,” said she, pointing to several other
+drops.
+
+Rollo at first insisted that that was not rain, but some little spots
+on the stone.
+
+Then Lucy reached out her hand and said,
+
+“Hold out your hand so, Rollo, and you will feel the drops coming down
+out of the sky.”
+
+Rollo held out his hand a moment, but then immediately withdrew it,
+saying, impatiently, that he did not care; it was not rain; at any rate
+it was only a little sprinkling.
+
+Lucy observed that Rollo was getting very much out of humor, and she
+tried to please him by saying,
+
+“Rollo, I would not mind. If it does rain, I will ask my father to let
+me stay and play with you to-day, and we can have a fine time up in
+your little room.”
+
+“No, we cannot,” said Rollo; “and besides, they will not let you stay,
+I know. I went yesterday to ask my father to let Jonas go with us
+to-day, and he would not.”
+
+It was certainly very unreasonable for Rollo to imagine that his father
+and uncle would be unwilling to have Lucy stay just because it had not
+been convenient to let Jonas go with them. But when children are out of
+humor, they are always very unreasonable.
+
+“Why would not he let Jonas go?” asked Lucy.
+
+“I do not know. Mother said it was because I did not ask him right.”
+
+“How did you ask him?”
+
+“O, I interrupted him. He was reading.”
+
+“O, that is not the way. I never _interrupt_ my father if I want to ask
+him any thing.”
+
+“Suppose he is busy, and you want to know that very minute; what do you
+do?”
+
+“I will show you. Come with me and I will ask him to let me stay with
+you to-day.”
+
+So Lucy and Rollo walked in. When they came to the parlor door, they
+saw that their parents were sitting on the sofa, talking about other
+things.
+
+Rollo stopped at the door, but Lucy went in gently. She walked up to
+her father’s side, and stood there still.
+
+Her father took no notice of her at first, but went on talking with
+Rollo’s father. Lucy stood very patiently until, after a few minutes,
+her father stopped talking, and said,
+
+“Lucy, my dear, do you want to speak to me?”
+
+“Yes, sir,” said Lucy, “I wanted to ask you if you were willing to let
+me stay here to-day and play with Rollo, if you do not go to the
+mountain.”
+
+“I do not know,” said her father, hesitating, and patting Lucy on the
+head—“that is a new idea; however, I believe I have no objection.”
+
+Lucy ran back joyfully to Rollo, and after a short time, her father
+went home. Rollo, however, did not feel in any better humor, and all
+Lucy’s endeavors to engage him in some amusement, failed. She proposed
+building with bricks, or going up into his little room, and drawing
+pictures on their slates, or getting his storybooks out and reading
+stories, and various other things, but Rollo would not be pleased.
+
+Rollo ought, now, when he found that he must be disappointed about his
+ride, to have immediately banished it from his mind altogether, and
+turned his thoughts to other pleasures; but like all ill-humored
+people, he _would_ keep thinking and talking, all the time, about the
+thing which caused his ill-humor. So he sat in a large back entry,
+where he and Lucy were, looking out at the door, and saying a great
+many ill-natured things about the weather, and his father’s giving up
+the ride just for a little sprinkling of rain that would not last half
+an hour. He said it was a shame, too, for it to rain that day, just
+because he was going to ride.
+
+Just then, his father spoke to him from the window, and called him in.
+
+He and Lucy went in together into the parlor.
+
+“Rollo,” said his father, “did you know you were doing very wrong?”
+
+Rollo felt a little guilty, but he said rather faintly, “No, sir, I was
+not doing any thing.”
+
+“You are committing a great many sins, all at once.”
+
+Rollo was silent. He knew his father meant sins of the heart.
+
+“Your heart is in a very wicked state. You are under the dominion of
+some of the worst of feelings; you are self-conceited, ungrateful,
+undutiful, unjust, selfish, and,” he added in a lower and more solemn
+tone, “even impious.”
+
+Rollo thought that these were heavy charges to bring upon him; but his
+father spoke calmly and kindly, and he knew that he could easily show
+that what he said was true.
+
+“You are _self-conceited_—vainly imagining that you, a little boy of
+seven years old, can judge better than your father and mother, and
+obstinately persisting in your opinion that it is not going to rain,
+when the rain has actually commenced, and is falling faster and faster.
+You are _ungrateful,_ to speak reproachfully of me, and give me pain,
+by your ill-will, when I have been planning this excursion, in a great
+degree, for your enjoyment, and only give it up because I am absolutely
+compelled to do it by a storm; _undutiful_, in showing such a repining,
+unsubmissive spirit towards your father; _unjust_ in making Lucy and
+all of us suffer, because you are unwilling to submit to these
+circumstances that we cannot control; _selfish_, in being unwilling
+that it should rain and interfere with your ride, when you know that
+rain is so much wanted in all the fields, all over the country; and,
+what is worse than all, _impious_, in openly rebelling against God, and
+censuring the arrangements of his providence, and pretending to think
+that they are made just to trouble you.”
+
+When he had said this, he paused to hear what Rollo would say. He
+thought that if he was convinced of his sin, and really penitent, he
+would acknowledge that he was wrong, or at least be silent;—but that
+if, on the other hand, he were still unsubdued, he would go to making
+excuses.
+
+After a moment’s pause, Rollo said,—“I did not know that there was need
+of rain in the fields.”
+
+“Did not you?” said his father. “Did not you know that the ground was
+very dry, and that, unless we have rain soon, the crops will suffer
+very much?”
+
+“No, sir,” said Rollo.
+
+“It is so,” said his father; “and this rain, which you are so unwilling
+to have descend, is going down into the ground all over the country,
+and into the roots of all the plants growing in the fields, carrying in
+the nourishment which will swell out all the corn and grain, and apples
+and pears. In a few days there will be thousands and thousands of
+dollars’ worth of fruit and food more than there would have been
+without this rain; and yet you are very unwilling to have it come,
+because you want to go and get a few blueberries!”
+
+Rollo was confounded, and had not a word to say.
+
+“Now, Rollo,” continued his father, “all the rest of us are disposed to
+be good-humored, and to acquiesce in God’s decision, and try to have a
+happy day at home; and we cannot have it spoiled by your wicked
+repinings. So you must go away by yourself, until you feel willing to
+submit pleasantly and with good humor. Then you may come back, but be
+sure not to come back before.”
+
+
+
+
+REPENTANCE.
+
+
+Now there was in Rollo’s house a small back garret, over a part of the
+kitchen chamber, which had one small window in it, looking out into the
+garden. This garret was not used, and Rollo’s father had put a little
+rocking-chair there, and a small table with a Bible on it, and hung
+some old maps about it, so as to make it as pleasant a little place as
+he could; and there he used to send Rollo when he had done any thing
+very wrong, or when he was sullen and ill natured, that he might
+reflect in solitude, and either return a good boy, or else stay where
+his bad feelings would not trouble or injure others. His father had put
+in marks, too, at several places in the Bible, where he thought it
+would be well for him to read at such times; as he said that reading
+suitable passages in the Bible would be more likely to bring him to
+repentance, than any other book.
+
+Rollo knew that when his father told him to go away by himself, he
+meant for him to go into this back garret. So he turned round and
+walked out of the room. As he passed up the back stairs, the kitten
+came frisking around him, but he had no heart to play with her, and
+walked on. He then turned and went up the narrow, steep stairs that led
+to the garret; they were rather more like a ladder than like stairs.
+Rollo ascended them, and then sat down in the little rocking-chair. The
+rain was beating against the windows, and pattering on the roof which
+was just over his head.
+
+It is sometimes but a little thing which turns the whole current of the
+thoughts and feelings. In Rollo’s case, at this time, it was but a drop
+of water. For after having sat some time in his chair, his heart
+remaining pretty nearly the same, a drop of water, which, somehow or
+other, contrived to get through some crevice in the boards and shingles
+over his head, fell exactly into the back of his neck. The first
+feeling it occasioned was an additional emotion of impatience and
+fretfulness. But he next began to think how unreasonable and wicked it
+was to make all that difficulty, just because his father was preventing
+his going out to stay all day in the rain, when a single drop falling
+upon him vexed and irritated him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+He also looked out of the window towards the garden, and the dry
+ground, and all the trees and garden vegetables seemed to be drinking
+in the rain with delight. That made him think of the vast amount of
+good the rain was doing, and he saw his own selfishness in a striking
+point of view. In a word Rollo was now beginning to be really penitent.
+The tears came into his eyes; but they were tears of real sorrow for
+sin, not of vexation and anger.
+
+He took up his little Bible, to read one of the passages, as his father
+had advised him. He happened to open at a mark which his father had put
+in at the parable of the prodigal son. The first verse which his eye
+fell upon, was the verse, “I will arise and go to my father.” Rollo
+thought that that was exactly the thing for him to do—to go and confess
+his fault to his father.
+
+So he laid down his little Bible, wiped the tears from his eyes, and
+went down stairs. He met his father in the entry. He went up to him,
+and took his hand, and said,
+
+“Father, I am really very sorry I have been so naughty; I _will try_ to
+be a good boy now.”
+
+His father stooped down and kissed him. “I am very glad to hear it,
+Rollo,” said he. “Now you may go and find Lucy. I believe she is up in
+your mother’s chamber.”
+
+Rollo went off quite happy in pursuit of Lucy. He found her sitting on
+a cricket in his mother’s room, looking over a little picture-book.
+Rollo ran laughing up to her, and said,
+
+“What have you got, Lucy?”
+
+“One of your little picture-books. Will you lend it to me to carry
+home?”
+
+Rollo said he would, and then they began to talk about what they should
+do. It rained very fast, and they could not go out of doors; and, after
+proposing several things, which, however, neither of them seemed to
+like, they turned to Rollo’s mother, and asked her what they had better
+do.
+
+“I always find,” said his mother, “that when I am disappointed of any
+pleasure, it is best not to try to find any other pleasure in its
+place, but to turn to _duty_.”
+
+The children did not understand this very well, and they were silent.
+
+“What I mean,” she continued, “is this: When we have just been
+disappointed of any pleasure which we had set our hearts upon, it is
+very difficult to find any thing else that we can have in its place,
+that will look as pleasant as the one we had lost. You see that you are
+not satisfied with any thing you propose to one another. Now, I find
+that the best way, in such cases, is to give up pleasure altogether,
+and turn to some duty; and after performing the duty a short time,
+peace and satisfaction return to the mind again, and we get over the
+effects of the disappointment in the quickest and pleasantest way.”
+
+Rollo and Lucy looked at one another rather soberly. They did not seem
+to know what to say.
+
+“I presume, however, you will not do this,” continued his mother.
+
+“Why?” said Rollo.
+
+“Because,” said his mother, “it requires a good deal of resolution, at
+first, to turn to _duty_ when you have just been setting your heart on
+_pleasure_.”
+
+“O, we have got resolution enough,” said Rollo.
+
+“What duty do you think we had better do?” asked Lucy.
+
+“If I were you,” replied Rollo’s mother, “I should first of all sit
+down and have a good reading lesson.”
+
+Rollo and Lucy hesitated a little, but they concluded to take their
+mother’s advice at last, and went to Rollo’s little library, and chose
+a book, and then went down to the back entry, and sat down there, on a
+long cricket, and began to read.
+
+At first, it was rather hard to do it, for it did not look very
+pleasant to either of them to sit down and read, just at the time when
+they expected to be gathering blueberries on the mountain. Rollo said,
+when they were opening the hook and finding the place, that, if they
+had gone, they should, by that time, have just about arrived at the
+foot of the mountain.
+
+“Yes,” said Lucy, “but we must not think of that now. Besides, just see
+how it rains. It would be a fine time now to go up a mountain, wouldn’t
+it?”
+
+Rollo looked out of the open door, and saw the rain pouring down into
+the yard, and felt again ashamed to recollect how he had insisted that
+it was not going to rain.
+
+Lucy said it was beautiful to see it pouring down so fast. “Look,” said
+she; “how it streams down from the spout at the corner of the barn!”
+
+“Yes,” said Rollo, “and see that little pond out by the garden gate.
+How it is all full of little bubbles! It will be a beautiful pond for
+me to sail boats in, when the rain is over. I can make paper-boats and
+pea boats!”
+
+“Pea boats?” said Lucy; “what are pea-boats?”
+
+“O! they are beautiful little boats,” said he. “Jonas showed me how to
+make them. We take a pea-pod, a good large full pea-pod, and shave off
+the top from one end to the other, and then take out the peas, and it
+makes a beautiful little boat. I wish we had some; I could show you.”
+
+“Let us make some when we have done reading, and sail them. Only that
+pond will all go away when the rain is over.”
+
+“O no,” said Rollo, “I will put some ground all around it, and then the
+water cannot run away.”
+
+“Yes, but it will soak down into the ground.”
+
+“Will it?” said Rollo. “Well, we can sail our boats on it a little
+while before it is gone.”
+
+“But it is so wet,” said Lucy, “we cannot go out to get any pea-pods.”
+
+“I did not think of that,” said Rollo. “Perhaps Jonas could get some
+for us, with an umbrella.”
+
+“_I_ could go with an umbrella,” said Lucy, “just as well as not.”
+
+The children saw an umbrella behind the door, and they thought they
+would go both together, and they actually laid down their book, spread
+the umbrella, and went to the door. It then occurred to them that it
+would not be quite right to go out, without leave; so Rollo went to ask
+his mother.
+
+His mother said it was not suitable for young ladies to go out in the
+rain, as their shoes, and their dress generally, were thin, and could
+not bear to be exposed to wet; but she said that Rollo himself might
+take off his shoes and stockings, and go out alone, when the rain held
+up.
+
+“But, mother,” said he, “why cannot I go out now, with the umbrella?”
+
+“Because,” she replied, “when it rains fast, some of the water spatters
+through the umbrella, and some will be driven against you by the wind.”
+
+“Well, I will wait, and as soon as it rains but little, I will go out.
+But must I take off my shoes and stockings?”
+
+“Yes,” said his mother, “or else you will get them wet and muddy. And
+before you go you must get a dipper of water ready in the shed, to pour
+on your feet, and wash them, when you get back; and then wait till they
+are entirely dry, before you put on your shoes and stockings again. If
+you want the pea-pods enough to take all that trouble, you may go for
+them.”
+
+Rollo said he did want them enough for that, and he then went back and
+told Lucy what his mother had said, and they concluded to read until
+the rain should cease, and that then Rollo should go out into the
+garden.
+
+They began to read; but their minds were so much upon the pea-pod
+boats, that the story did not interest them very much. Besides,
+children cannot read very well aloud, to one another; for if they
+succeed in calling all the words right, they do not generally give the
+stops and the emphasis, and the proper tones of voice, so as to make
+the story interesting to those that hear. Some boys and girls are vain
+enough to think that they can read very well, just because they can
+call all the words without stopping to spell them; but this is very far
+from being enough to make a good reader.
+
+Rollo read a little way, and then Lucy read a little way; but they were
+not much interested, and thinking that the difficulty might be in the
+book, they got another, but with no better success. At last Rollo said
+they would go and get their mother to read to them. So they went
+together to her room, and Rollo said that they could not get along very
+well in rending themselves, and asked her if she would not be good
+enough to read to them.
+
+“Why, what is the difficulty?” said she.
+
+“O, I do not know, exactly: the story is not very interesting, and then
+we cannot read very well.”
+
+“In what respect will it be better for me to read to you?” she asked.
+
+“Why, mother, you can choose us a prettier story; and then we should
+understand it better if you read it.”
+
+“I suppose you would; but I see you have made a great mistake.”
+
+“What mistake?” said both the children at once.
+
+“Why is it that you are going to read at all?”
+
+“Why, you advised us to, mother.”
+
+“Did I advise you to do it as a _duty_, or as a _pleasure_?”
+
+“As a _duty_, mother; I recollect now.” said Rollo.
+
+“Yes: well, now the mistake you have made is, that you are looking upon
+it only as a pleasure, and instead of doing it faithfully, in such a
+way as will make it most useful to you, you are forgetting that
+altogether, and only intent upon having it interesting and pleasant. Is
+it not so?”
+
+“Why—yes,” said Rollo, hesitating, and looking down; and then turning
+round to Lucy, he said, “I suppose we had better go and read the story
+ourselves.”
+
+“Do just as you please,” said his mother. “I have not commanded you to
+read, but only recommended it; and that not as a way of _interesting_
+you, but as a way of spending an hour _usefully_, as a preparation for
+an hour of enjoyment afterwards. You can do as you please, however; but
+if you attempt to read at all, I advise you to do it not as _play_, but
+as a _lesson_.”
+
+“Well, come, Rollo,” said Lucy, “let us go.”
+
+So the children ran back to the entry, and sat down to their story,
+taking pains to read carefully, as if their object was to learn to
+read; and though they did not expect it, they did, in fact, have a very
+pleasant time.
+
+The rest of the adventures of Rollo and Lucy, during this day must be
+reserved for another story.
+
+
+
+
+THE FRESHET.
+
+
+The story that Rollo and his cousin Lucy began to read together, in the
+back entry, looking out towards the garden, that rainy day when they
+were disappointed of the excursion up the mountain, commenced as
+follows:—
+
+
+
+
+MARIA AND THE CARAVAN.
+
+
+Maria Wilton lives in the pretty white house which stands just at the
+entrance of the wood, where the children find the blackberries so thick
+in the berrying season. It is not as large or elegant a house as many
+that we pass on a walk through the village; but yet, with its
+neatly-painted front and blooming little garden, its appearance is
+quite as inviting as that of many a more splendid mansion. Certain it
+is, at least, that there is not a more pleasant or happy dwelling in
+the town. Neatness and good order regulate all the arrangements of the
+family, and where such is the case, it is almost needless to add that
+peace and harmony characterize the intercourse of the inmates. It is
+seldom that confusion or uproar, or disputes or contentions, are known
+among the Wiltons.
+
+But it was of Maria that I was intending to speak more
+particularly,—her kind, and yielding, and conciliating manners towards
+her brothers and sisters. Maria was not the oldest of the children; she
+was not quite nine, and her sister Harriet was as much as eleven, and
+her brother George still older. And yet her influence did more to
+maintain peace and good feeling in the family group, than would have
+been believed by a person who had not observed her. In every case where
+only her own wishes or inclinations were concerned, Maria was ready to
+give up to George or Harriet; because, as she said, they were older
+than herself; and again, she was quite as ready to yield to little
+Susan and Willy, because they were younger. Her brothers and sisters,
+in their turn, were far less apt to contend for any privilege or
+advantage, than they would have been, if she had shown herself more
+tenacious of her own rights.
+
+Mr. Wilton used occasionally to go into the city, a few miles distant,
+upon business. He usually went in a chaise, taking one of the children
+with him. The excursion was to them a very pleasant one, and all
+anticipated, with a great deal of pleasure, their respective turns to
+ride with their father. It happened that the day when it fell to
+Maria’s turn, was to be the close of an exhibition of animals, which
+had been for a short time in the city. Maria’s eye brightened with
+pleasure as her father mentioned this circumstance at the dinner table,
+and inquired if she would like to visit the caravan.
+
+“O, father!” exclaimed George, eagerly, as he laid down his knife and
+fork; “a caravan!—Mayn’t I go?”
+
+“You cannot both go,” replied his father; “and I believe it is Maria’s
+turn to go into town with me.”
+
+“Well,” said George, “but I don’t believe Maria would care any thing
+about seeing it;” and his eye glanced eagerly from his father to Maria,
+and then from Maria to his father again.
+
+“How is it, Maria?” said Mr. Wilton; “have you no wish to visit the
+caravan?”
+
+Maria did not answer directly, while yet her countenance showed very
+plainly what her wishes really were. “Is there an _elephant_ there,
+father?” she, at length, rather hesitatingly inquired.
+
+“There probably is,” replied her father.
+
+“An _elephant_!” repeated George with something of a sneer; “who has
+not seen an elephant? I would not give a farthing to go, if there was
+nothing better than an elephant to be seen.”
+
+“What _should_ you care so much to see?” inquired Mr. Wilton.
+
+“Why, I would give any thing to see a leopard or a camel.”
+
+“A leopard or a camel!” repeated his father in the same tone in which
+George had made his rude speech; “I am sure I wouldn’t give a farthing
+to see either a camel or a leopard.”
+
+“No,” said George, “because you have seen them both; but _I_ never
+did.”
+
+“Neither has Maria seen an elephant,” returned Mr. Wilton; “so what is
+the difference?”
+
+George looked a little mortified at the overthrow of his argument. But
+still his eagerness for the gratification was not to be repressed.—“I
+shouldn’t think a _girl_ need to care about going to see a parcel of
+wild beasts,” he remarked, rather petulantly, as he gave his chair a
+push, upon rising from the table.
+
+“O, George, George.” expostulated his father, “I did not think you were
+either a selfish or a sullen boy.”
+
+“No, father, and he is not,” said Maria, approaching her father, and
+taking his hand; “but he wants to go very much, and I do not care so
+_much_ about it; so he may go, and I will stay at home.”
+
+“You are a good girl,” said her father; “but I shall not consent to any
+such injustice; so go and get ready as quick as possible.”
+
+“But, father, I had really a great deal rather that George should go,”
+insisted Maria.
+
+“But I cannot think that George would really, on the whole, prefer to
+take your place,” said Mr. Wilton, turning to George.
+
+“No, sir.” replied George, who—restored by this time to a sense of
+propriety and justice—was standing ready to speak for himself. “No,
+sir; Maria is very kind; but I do not wish to take her place; I am very
+sorry indeed that I said any thing about it. I certainly shall not
+consent to hike your place, Maria,” he said, perceiving that she was
+ready to entreat still further.
+
+“O! but I do wish you would,” said Maria. But just here her mother
+interposed. “If Maria would really prefer to give up her place to her
+brother,” said Mrs. Wilton, “I certainly shall like the arrangement
+very much, for I am to be particularly engaged this afternoon, and, as
+Harriet is to be absent, I shall be very glad of some of Maria’s
+assistance in taking care of the baby.”
+
+“O! well,” said Maria, brightening up, “then I am sure I will not go:
+so run, George, for father is almost ready to start.”
+
+Thus the matter was amicably settled. George went with his father, and
+Maria remained at home to help take care of little Willy.
+
+Maria loved her little brother very much, and she never seemed tired of
+taking care of him, even when he was ever so fretful or restless. She
+would leave her play, at any moment, to run and rock the baby, or to
+hold him in her lap; for, even if she felt inclined, at any time, to be
+a little out of patience for a moment, she would recollect how many
+hours she had herself been nursed, by night and by day, and she was
+glad of an opportunity to relieve her mother of some of her care and
+fatigue. Her cousin, Ellen Weston, called, one afternoon, to ask her to
+accompany a party of little girls, who were going to gather berries in
+the wood near Maria’s house. It happened that Maria had been left with
+the care of Willy, just as her cousin called; and it happened, too,
+that Willy was that afternoon unusually fretful and difficult to
+please. If Maria left him for a moment, or if she did not hold him
+exactly in the posture which suited him, or if she had not precisely
+the thing ready which he wanted at the moment, he would act just as all
+babies of nine or ten months sometimes take it into their heads to act.
+With all her patience and good-humor, she hardly knew how to manage
+him; and especially after having been obliged to reject so agreeable an
+invitation as the one her cousin brought, she found her task a little
+irksome.
+
+She could hardly repress an occasional expression of impatience, as she
+tried in vain to please the wayward little fellow. But her patience and
+good-humor were very soon restored; and as she reflected that she was
+doing her mother a great deal of good, by staying at home with Willy,
+she felt quite willing to dismiss all thoughts of the berrying
+expedition. The girls, however, did not forget her. It was proposed by
+one of the party, when Ellen had stated the reason why Maria could not
+join them, that each should contribute some portion of her berries to
+be carried to her on their way home. All agreed very readily to the
+plan, and each took pains to select the largest and the ripest of her
+berries for Maria’s basket. The gratification afforded Maria by this
+little token of kind remembrance, more than compensated for the
+self-denial which she had practised. It is almost always the case when
+persons cheerfully submit to any privation, for the sake of other
+persons, or because it is duty, that they are amply rewarded for it.
+They enjoy, at least, the consciousness of doing right, which is one of
+the very highest sources of pleasure. Maria would, at any time, have
+been satisfied with only this reward; but it very often happened, very
+unexpectedly, that something more was in store for her. This was the
+case upon the time when she gave up her ride, and her visit to the
+caravan, for the sake of her brother. I have not said that it was
+absolutely Maria’s duty to yield to her brother, in this case: perhaps
+it would have been perfectly right for her to have maintained her own
+claims; and yet there is no doubt that she felt a great deal happier
+for the sacrifice she had made.
+
+But we were going to speak of some further reward that her amiable
+behavior, in this instance, procured her. As her father opened a
+package which he had brought on his return, he silently placed in her
+hands a beautiful copy of a newly-published work, upon the fly-leaf of
+which she found written—“Maria Wilton—a reward for her kind and
+obliging manners towards her brothers and sisters.”
+
+
+
+
+SMALL CRAFT.
+
+
+When they had finished the story, Lucy shut the book, saying, “Maria
+was a good girl, was not she, Rollo?”
+
+“Yes,” said Rollo, “she was an excellent girl. I would have done just
+so; would not you, Lucy?”
+
+“I ought to, I know,” said Lucy, “but perhaps I should not.”
+
+“I should, I am sure,” said Rollo.
+
+Lucy was a polite girl, and she did not contradict Rollo, though she
+recollected how much selfishness he had shown that morning, and it did
+not seem to her very likely that he would have been willing to make any
+very great sacrifice to oblige others.
+
+“My father says we cannot tell what we should do until we are tried,”
+said Lucy.
+
+“Well, I _know_ I should have been willing to stay at home, if I had
+been Maria,” replied Rollo.
+
+“But, only think, that would be preferring another person’s pleasure
+rather than your own.”
+
+“Well, I _should_ prefer another person’s pleasure rather than my own.”
+
+Rollo was beginning to get a little excited and vexed. People who boast
+of excellences which they do not possess, are very apt to be
+unreasonable and angry when any body seems to doubt whether their
+boastings are true. He was thus going on, insisting upon it that he
+should have acted as Maria had done, and was just saying that he should
+prefer another person’s pleasure rather than his own, when Jonas came
+into the entry from the kitchen, with an armful of wood, which he was
+carrying into the parlor.
+
+“When is it, Rollo,” said Jonas, “that you prefer another person’s
+pleasure to your own?”
+
+“Always,” said Rollo, with an air of self-conceit and consequence.
+
+Jonas smiled, and went on with his wood.
+
+It is always better for boys to be modest and humble-minded. They
+appear ridiculous to others when they are boasting what _great_ things
+they can do; and when they boast what _good_ things they do they are
+very likely to be just on the eve of doing exactly the opposite.
+
+In a moment Jonas came back out of the parlor, and said, as he passed
+through,
+
+“Self-praise
+Goes but little ways;”
+
+
+a short piece of versification which all boys and girls would do well
+to remember.
+
+Now it happened that, all this time, Rollo’s mother was sitting in a
+little bedroom, which had a door opening into the entry where Lucy and
+Rollo had been reading, and she heard all the conversation. She knew
+that though Rollo was generally a good boy, and was willing to know his
+faults, and often endeavored to correct them, still that he was, like
+all other boys, prone to selfishness and to vanity, and she thought
+that she must take some way to show him clearly what the truth really
+was, about his disinterestedness.
+
+In a few minutes, therefore, she went out of the room, and took from
+the store closet an apple and a pear. They were both good, but the pear
+was particularly fine. It was large, mellow, and juicy. She then went
+back to her seat, and called, “Rollo.”
+
+Rollo came running to her.
+
+“Here,” said she, “is an apple and a pear for you.”
+
+“Is one for me and one for Lucy?” said he.
+
+“That is just as you please. I give them both to you. You may do what
+you choose with them.”
+
+Rollo took the fruit, much pleased, and walked slowly back, hesitating
+what to do. He thought he must certainly give one to Lucy, and as he
+had just been boasting that he preferred another’s pleasure to his own,
+he was ashamed to offer her the apple; and yet he wanted the pear very
+much himself.
+
+If he had had a little more time, he would have hit upon a plan which
+would have removed all the difficulty at once, by dividing both the
+apple and the pear, and giving to Lucy half of each. But he did not
+think of this. In fact his mother knew that, as he was going directly
+bark to Lucy, he would not have much time to think but must act
+according to the spontaneous impulse of his heart.
+
+But though he did not think of dividing the apple and the pear, he
+happened to hit upon a plan, which occurred to him just as he was going
+back into the entry, that he thought would do.
+
+He held the fruit behind him; the apple in one hand, and the pear in
+the other. Lucy saw him coming, and said,
+
+“What have you got, Rollo?”
+
+“Which will you have, right hand or left?” said he in reply.
+
+“Right.”
+
+Rollo held forward his right hand, and, lo! it was the pear. But he
+could not bear to part with it, and he brought forward the other, and
+said,
+
+“No, you may have the apple.”
+
+“No,” said Lucy; “the pear is fairly mine; you asked me which I would
+have, and I said the right.”
+
+“But I want the pear,” said Rollo; “you may have the apple. Mother gave
+them both to me.”
+
+“I want the pear too,” said Lucy; “it is mine, and you must give it to
+me.”
+
+Just then a voice called from the bedroom,
+
+“Children!”
+
+“What, mother?” said Rollo.
+
+“I want you both to come here.”
+
+Rollo and Lucy would both have been ashamed of their contention, were
+it not that the pear looked so very rich and tempting, that they were
+both very eager to have it.
+
+“What is the difficulty?” said Rollo’s mother, as soon as they stood
+before her.
+
+“Why, Lucy wants the pear,” said Rollo, “and you gave them both to me,
+and said I might do as I pleased with them. I am willing to give her
+the apple.”
+
+“Yes, but he offered me my choice,” said Lucy, “right hand or left, and
+I chose the right, and now he ought to give it to me.”
+
+“And are you willing that I should decide it?” said the lady.
+
+“Yes, mother,” and “Yes, aunt,” said Rollo and Lucy together.
+
+“You have both done wrong; not _very_ wrong, but a little wrong; and I
+think neither ought to have the whole of the pear. So I shall divide
+the pear and the apple both between you; and I will tell you how you
+have done wrong.
+
+“You, Rollo, by asking her which she would have, implied that you would
+leave it to chance to decide, and that you would let her have her fair
+chance. Then you ought to have submitted to the result. If she had
+chosen the left hand, she ought to have been content. If she had got
+the apple, you would have had the credit of giving her an equal chance
+with you, and she ought therefore to have had the full benefit of the
+chance.
+
+“And then you, Lucy, did wrong, for, although Rollo asked you to
+choose, he did not _actually promise_ you your choice, and as he was
+under no obligation to give you either, you ought not to have insisted
+upon his fulfilling his _implied promise_. Is it not so?”
+
+The children both saw and admitted that it was.
+
+“The best way, I think,” she continued, “would have been for you,
+Rollo, to have given the _pear_ to Lucy, as she was your visitor, and a
+young lady too. Then she would have given you half in eating it.
+However, you were not very much in the wrong, either of you. It was a
+sort of a doubtful case. But I hope you see from it, Rollo, what I
+wanted to teach you, that you are no more inclined to prefer other
+persons’ pleasure to your own, than other children are. Remember
+Jonas’s couplet hereafter. I think it is a very good one. Now go and
+get a knife, and cut the fruit; and see, it does not rain but little;
+you can go and get your pea-pods now.”
+
+Away went the children out into the kitchen after a knife. Rollo wanted
+to cut the apple and the pear himself, and Lucy made no objection; and
+we must do him the justice to say that he gave rather the largest half
+of each to Lucy. They then went out into the shed, Rollo taking with
+him a dipper of water to wash his feet when he came back from the
+garden. Rollo then took off his shoes, and gave Lucy his share of the
+fruit, to keep for him, and then sallied forth into the yard, holding
+the umbrella over his head, as a few drops of rain were still falling.
+
+He waded into the little pond at the garden gate, and then turned round
+to look at Lucy and laugh. He began, too, to caper about in the water,
+but Lucy told him to take care, or he would fall down, and they could
+not wash his _clothes,_ as they could his feet, with their dipper of
+water.
+
+[Illustration: He waded into the little pond at the garden gate]
+
+So he went carefully forward till he came to the peas, and gathered as
+many as he wanted, and then returned.
+
+As he was coming back, he saw Jonas in the barn. Jonas called out to
+him to ask what he had got.
+
+“I have been to get some pea-pods,” said he, “to make boats with.”
+
+“Where are you going to sail them?” said Jonas.
+
+“O, in this little pond, when it is done raining.”
+
+“But you had better have a little pond _now_, in the shed.”
+
+“How can we?” said Rollo.
+
+“You might have it in a milk-pan.”
+
+“So we can. Could you come and get it for us?”
+
+“Yes, in a few minutes—by the time you get your boats made.”
+
+Rollo and Lucy were much pleased with this, and they sat down, one on
+each side of the milk-pan pond, and sailed their boats a long time. He
+cut small pieces of the apple and of the pear for cargo, and Rollo put
+in the stem of the pear for the captain of his boat. Each one was
+good-humored and obliging, and the time passed away very pleasantly,
+until it was near dinner-time. When they came in to dinner, they
+observed that it was raining again very fast.
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCIPLES OF ORDER.
+
+
+“Father,” said Rollo, at the dinner-table, “do you think it will rain
+all the afternoon?”
+
+“It looks like it,” replied his father, “but why? Do you not enjoy
+yourselves in the house?”
+
+“O yes, sir,” said Rollo, “we have had a fine time this morning; but
+Lucy and I thought that, if it did not rain this afternoon, we might go
+out in the garden a little.”
+
+“It may clear up towards night; but, if it does, I think it would be
+better to go down to the brook and see the freshet, than to go into the
+garden.”
+
+“The freshet? Will there be a freshet, do you think?”
+
+“Yes, if it rains this afternoon as fast as it does now, I think the
+brook will be quite, high towards night.”
+
+Rollo was much pleased to hear this. He told Lucy, after dinner, that
+the brook looked magnificently in a freshet; that the banks were
+brimming full, and the water poured along in a great torrent, foaming
+and dashing against the logs and rocks.
+
+“Then, besides, Lucy,” said he, “we can carry down our little boats and
+set them a sailing. How they will whirl and plunge along down the
+stream!”
+
+Lucy liked the idea of seeing the freshet, too, very much; though she
+said she was afraid it would be too wet for her to go. Rollo told her
+never to fear, for his father would contrive some way to get her down
+there safely, and they both went to the back entry door again, looking
+out, and wishing now that it would rain faster and faster, as they did
+before dinner that it would cease to rain.
+
+“But,” said Lucy, “what if it should not stop raining at all,
+to-night?”
+
+“O, it will,” said Rollo, “I know it will. Besides, if it should not,
+we can go down to-morrow morning, you know, and then there will be a
+bigger freshet. O how full the brook will be by to-morrow morning!”
+
+And Rollo clapped his hands, and capered with delight.
+
+“Yes,” said Lucy, soberly, “but I must go home to-night.”
+
+“Must you?” said Rollo. “So you must. I did not think of that.”
+
+“But I think,” continued he, “that it will certainly clear up to-night.
+I will go and ask father if he does not think so too.”
+
+They both went together back into the parlor to ask the question.
+
+“I cannot tell, my children, whether it will or not. I see no
+indications, one way or the other. I think you had better forget all
+about it, and go to doing something else; for if you spend all the
+afternoon in watching the sky, and trying to guess whether it will
+clear up or not, you cannot enjoy yourselves, and may be sadly
+disappointed at last.”
+
+“Why, we cannot help thinking of it, father.”
+
+“You cannot, if you stand there at the back door, doing nothing else;
+but, if you engage in some other employment, you will soon forget all
+about it.”
+
+“What do you think we had better do?” said Lucy.
+
+“I think you had better go up and put your room and your desk all in
+order, Rollo; Lucy can help you.”
+
+“But, father, I have put it in order a great many times, and it always
+gets out of order again very soon, and I cannot keep it neat.”
+
+“That is partly because you do not put it in order right. You do not
+understand the principles of order.”
+
+“What are the principles of order?” said Lucy.
+
+“There are a good many. I will tell you some of them, and then you may
+go and apply them in arranging Rollo’s things.
+
+“One principle is to have the things that are most frequently used in
+the most accessible place, so that they can be taken out and returned
+to their proper places easily.
+
+“Another good principle for you is to distinguish between the things
+which you wish to _use_, and those you only wish to _preserve_. The
+former ought to be in sight, and near at hand. The latter may be packed
+away more out of view.
+
+“Another principle is to avoid having your desk and room encumbered
+with things of little or no value, as stones you have picked up, and
+papers, and sticks. The place to keep such things is in the barn or
+shed, not in your private room.
+
+“Then you must arrange your things systematically, putting things of
+the same nature together. Once I looked into your desk after you had
+put it in order, and I found that, in the back side of it, you had
+piled up hooks, and white paper, and pictures, and a slate, and a
+pocket-book or two, all together. You thought they were in order,
+because they were in a _pile_. Now, they ought to have been separated
+and arranged; all the white paper by itself in front, where you can
+easily get it to use; the pictures all by themselves in a portfolio;
+and the books should be arranged, not in a _pile_, but in a _row_, on
+their edges, so that you can get out any one without disturbing the
+others. Those are some of the principles of order.”
+
+“Well, come, Rollo,” said Lucy, “let us go and see your things, and try
+to put them in order, right.”
+
+Rollo went, but, as he left the room, he turned round to ask his father
+if he would not come with them, and just show them a little about it.
+His father said he could not come very well then, but if they would try
+and do as well as they could, he would come and look over their work
+after it was done, and tell them whether it was right or not.
+
+Rollo and Lucy went up into Rollo’s room, and, true enough, they found
+not a little confusion there. But they went to work, and soon became
+very much interested in their employment. A great many of the things
+were new to Lucy, and as they went on arranging them, they often
+stopped to talk and play. In this way several hours passed along very
+pleasantly; and when, at last, they had got them nearly arranged, Rollo
+went to the window to throw out some old stones that he concluded not
+to keep any longer, when he exclaimed aloud,
+
+“O, Lucy, Lucy, come here quick.”
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Lucy ran. Rollo pointed out to the western horizon, and said, “See
+there!”
+
+There was a broad band of bright golden sky all along the western
+horizon—clear and beautiful, and extending each way as far as they
+could see. The dark clouds overhead reached down to the edge of this
+clear sky, where they hung in a fringe of gold, and the dazzling rays
+of the sun were just peeping under it. The rain had ceased.
+
+Rollo and Lucy gazed at it a moment, and then ran down stairs as fast
+as they could go, calling out,
+
+“It is clearing away! It is clearing away! Father, it is clearing away.
+We can go and see the freshet.”
+
+
+
+
+CLEARING UP.
+
+
+They went out upon the steps to look at the sky. A few drops of rain
+were still falling, but the clouds appeared to be breaking in several
+places, and the tract of golden sky in the west was rising and
+extending. The air was calm, and the golden rays of the sun shone upon
+the fields and trees, and upon the glittering drops that hung from the
+leaves and branches. Rollo and Lucy both said it was beautiful.
+
+They went in and urged their father to go with them down to the brook
+to see the freshet, but he said they must wait till after tea. “It is
+too wet to go now,” said he.
+
+“But, father,” said Rollo, “I do not think it will be any better after
+tea. The ground cannot dry in half an hour.”
+
+“No,” said his father; “but the water will run off of the paths a great
+deal, so that we can get along much better.”
+
+“Well, but then it will run off from the brook a great deal too, and
+the freshet will not be so high.”
+
+“It is a little different with the brook,” his father replied, “for
+that is very long, and the water comes a great way, from among the
+hills. Now, while we are taking tea, the water will be running into the
+brook back among the hills, faster than it will run away here, so that
+it will grow higher and higher for some hours.”
+
+Rollo had no more to say, but he was impatient to go. He and Lucy went
+out and stood on the steps again. The clouds were breaking up and
+flying away in all directions, and large patches of clear blue sky
+appeared everywhere, giving promise of a beautiful evening.
+
+“Hark!” said Rollo; “what is that?”
+
+Lucy listened. It was a sort of roaring sound down in the woods. Rollo
+at first thought it was a bear growling.
+
+“Do you think it is a bear?” said he to Lucy, with a look of some
+concern.
+
+“A bear!—no,” said Lucy, laughing. “That is not the way a bear growls.
+It is the freshet.”
+
+“The freshet!” said Rollo.
+
+“Yes; it is the water roaring along the brook.”
+
+Rollo listened, and he immediately perceived that it was the sound of
+water, and he jumped and capered with delight, at thinking how fine a
+sight it must be.
+
+At the tea-table Rollo’s father explained the plan he had formed for
+their going. He said it was rather a difficult thing to go and see a
+freshet without getting wet—especially for a girl. He and Rollo, he
+said, could put on their good thick boots, but Lucy had none suitable
+for such a walk, as it would probably be very wet and muddy in some
+places.
+
+“What shall we do then?” said Rollo.
+
+“I believe I shall let Jonas go down and draw Lucy in his wagon,” said
+his father. “How should you like that, Lucy?”
+
+Lucy said she should like it very well, and after tea they went out to
+the garden-yard door, where they found Jonas with his wagon all ready.
+This wagon was one which Jonas had made to draw Rollo upon. It was
+plain and simple, but strong and convenient, and perfectly safe. They
+helped Lucy into it, and she sat down on the little seat. Rollo, with
+his hoots on, took hold behind to push, and Jonas drew. Rollo’s father
+walked behind, and thus they set off to view the freshet.
+
+They moved along carefully through the yard, and then turned by the
+gate and went into the field. The path led them by the garden fence for
+some distance, and they went along very pleasantly for a time, until at
+length they came to a large pool of water covering the whole path.
+There were high banks on each side, so that the wagon could not turn
+out.
+
+“What shall we do now?” said Rollo.
+
+“I can go right through it,” said Jonas; “it is not deep.”
+
+“And we can go along on the bank, by the side,” said Rollo.
+
+“Very well.” said his father, “if you are not afraid, Lucy.”
+
+Lucy did feel a little afraid at first, but she knew that if her uncle
+was willing that she should go, there could not be any danger; so she
+made no objection. Besides, she knew that, as Jonas was to walk along
+before her, she could see how deep it was, and there could not be any
+deep places without his finding it out before the wagon went into them.
+
+Jonas was barefoot, and did not mind wetting his feet; so he waded in,
+drawing the wagon after him. It was about up to his ankles all the way.
+Lucy looked over the side of the wagon, and felt a little fear as she
+saw the wheels half under water; but they went safely through.
+
+Presently they began to descend a path which led them into the woods.
+They heard the roaring of the water, which grew louder and louder as
+they drew nigh, and then Rollo suddenly stopped and said,
+
+“Why, father, it is raining here in the woods now.”
+
+Lucy listened, and they heard the drops of rain falling upon the ground
+all around them; and yet, looking up, they saw that the sky was almost
+perfectly clear. Presently they thought that this was only the drops
+falling off from the leaves of the trees.
+
+Rollo said he meant to see if it was so, and he ran out of the path,
+and took hold of a slender tree with a large top of branches and
+leaves, and, looking up to see if any drops would come down, he gave it
+a good shake; and, true enough, down came a perfect shower of drops all
+into his face and eyes. At first he was astonished at such an
+unexpected shower-bath, but he concluded, on the whole, to laugh, and
+not cry about it; and he came back wiping his face, and looking
+comically enough. All the party laughed a little at his mishap, and
+then went on.
+
+In a few minutes more, they came in sight of the foaming brook. The
+water was very high; in some places, the banks were overflowed, and the
+current swept along furiously, dashing against the rocks, and whirling
+round the projecting points.
+
+The children stopped, and gazed upon the scene a little while, and then
+Rollo said he was going to sail his boats, which he had brought in his
+pocket.
+
+Just then Jonas saw a plank which was lying partly on the bank and
+partly in the water, a little up the stream. It had been placed across
+the brook some distance above, for a bridge; but the freshet had
+brought it away, and it had drifted down to where it then was.
+
+Jonas said he would find a place for Lucy to stand upon with it. So he
+went and pushed off this plank, and let it float down to where the
+children were standing; and then he drew it up upon the shore, and laid
+it along, so that Lucy could stand upon it safely, and launch the
+pea-pod boats.
+
+These boats were soon all borne away rapidly down the stream, out of
+sight; and then they threw in sticks and chips, and watched them as
+they sailed away, and whirled around in the eddies, or swept down the
+rapids. Thus they amused themselves a long time, and then slowly
+returned home.
+
+[Illustration: The boats were soon all borne away.]
+
+
+
+
+BLUEBERRYING.
+
+OLD TRUMPETER.
+
+
+Rollo’s mother advised him, when he went to bed the evening before the
+day fixed upon for the blueberrying, to rise early the next morning,
+and take a good reading lesson before breakfast. She said he would
+enjoy himself much more, during the day, if he performed all his usual
+duties before he went. Rollo accordingly arose quite early, and, when
+he came in to breakfast, had the satisfaction of telling his father
+that he had read his morning lesson, and prepared his basket, and was
+all ready to go.
+
+He wanted Jonas to go too, and as, the last time when he asked his
+father’s permission that he should go, he lost his request by asking it
+in an improper manner, he determined to be careful this time.
+
+So he was silent at breakfast time while his father and mother were
+talking, and then, watching an opportunity when they seemed disengaged,
+he asked his father if Jonas might not go with them.
+
+“I do not think he can very well, for there is no room for him. Both
+the chaises will be full.”
+
+“But could not he ride on Old Trumpeter?” said Rollo.
+
+Old Trumpeter was a white horse, that had served the family some time,
+but was now rather old, and not a very good traveller.
+
+Rollo’s father hesitated a moment, and then said, perhaps he might.
+“You may go and tell him that we are going, and that if he thinks Old
+Trumpeter will do to carry him, he may go. He will be of great help to
+us, if we should get into any difficulty.”
+
+Rollo thought of the bears that he expected to see on the mountain, and
+ran to tell Jonas. Jonas was glad to go. So he went and gave Old
+Trumpeter some oats, and got the saddle and bridle ready. He also got
+out a pair of saddle-bags that he always used on such occasions, and
+put into them a hatchet, a dipper, a box of matches, and some rope. On
+second thoughts, he concluded it would be best to put these things into
+the chaise-box, and to put the saddle-bags on his horse empty, as he
+might want them to bring something home in.
+
+After breakfast, Lucy and her father, Rollo’s uncle George, drove up to
+the door, for they were going too; and in a short time you might have
+seen all the party driving away from the door—Rollo’s father and mother
+in the first chaise, uncle George, and Rollo, and Lucy, in the second,
+and Jonas on Old Trumpeter behind.
+
+They rode on for a mile or two, and then turned off of the main road
+into the woods, and went on by a winding and beautiful road until they
+came in sight of a range of mountains, one of which seemed very high
+and near.
+
+“Is that Benalgon?” said Rollo.
+
+“I do not know,” said his uncle; “I have never been to it before; but I
+suppose Jonas can tell.”
+
+“I will call him,” said Rollo. So he turned round, and kneeled up upon
+the seat, so that he could look out behind the chaise, for the back
+curtain was up. Lucy did the same, but Jonas was not to be seen. They
+looked a little longer, and presently saw him coming along round a
+curve in the road. They beckoned to him, and as he rode up, they saw he
+had a bush in his hand. He came up to the side of the chaise, and
+handed it to Rollo. It was a large blueberry-bush, covered with
+beautiful ripe blue berries. Rollo took them, and admired them very
+much; and at first he was going to divide them between Lucy and
+himself; but they concluded, on the whole, to send them forward to his
+mother. Jonas told them the mountain before them _was_ Benalgon, and
+rode on to carry the blueberry-bush to the other chaise. Presently he
+came back, bringing it with him, except a small sprig which Rollo’s
+mother had taken off. The rest she had sent back to the children.
+
+“Well, Jonas,” said uncle George, when he got back, “I do not see but
+that Old Trumpeter is strong enough to carry you yet.”
+
+“O yes, sir,” said Jonas, “he is strong enough to carry half a dozen
+like me.”
+
+“O, uncle George,” said Rollo, “let him carry me too with Jonas. I can
+ride behind.”
+
+“Very well; if you want to ride with him a little while, you may, if
+Jonas is willing.”
+
+Jonas was, and Rollo got out, and climbed up upon a stump, by the side
+of the road. Jonas drove up to the stump, and Rollo clambered up behind
+him, with a switch in his hand.
+
+“Now, Jonas,” said he, “whenever you want him to go any faster, you
+just speak to me, and I will touch him up with my switch.”
+
+Jonas said he would, and they jogged along behind the chaise. Lucy
+kneeled upon the cushion, and looked out behind, talking with Rollo.
+
+
+
+
+DEVIATION.
+
+
+They went on so very quietly for some time, until Jonas said there was
+a turn in the road on before them, where there was a foot-path that led
+across a ravine, by a nearer way than the chaise-road, and proposed
+that Rollo should ask leave for Jonas and himself to go across on
+horseback, and wait for the chaises, when they should come out on the
+main road.
+
+So they rode up to the chaise, and Rollo put the question to his uncle
+George.
+
+His reply was that he could not say any thing about it; Rollo must go
+and ask his father.
+
+“Would you go?” said Jonas.
+
+“Yes,” said Rollo.
+
+“Well, touch up Old Trumpeter then.”
+
+So Rollo applied his switch, and the horse trotted on fast. Rollo had
+hard work to hold on, but he clasped his arm tight around Jonas’s
+waist, and succeeded in keeping his seat.
+
+Rollo’s father and mother were riding some distance before them, but
+they saw Jonas coming up, and rode slowly, that he might overtake them.
+
+“Well, Rollo,” said his father, “how do you like riding double?”
+
+“Very much,” said Rollo; “and we want you to let Jonas and I cut across
+by the horse-path through the valley, and wait for you at the mill.”
+
+“Is there a horse-path across here, Jonas?”
+
+“Yes, sir,” said Jonas.
+
+“Is it a good path?”
+
+“It is rather rough, sir, through the woods and bushes; but it is a
+pretty good road.”
+
+Rollo’s father sat hesitating a moment, and then said—
+
+“You may go, if you choose, but I advise you not to.”
+
+“Why do you advise us not to?” said Rollo.
+
+“Why, you may get into some difficulty, and so we get separated.”
+
+“Yes, but,” said Rollo, “it is not near so far across, and we shall
+have time to get through to the mill long before you come along.”
+
+“Very well, you may do as you please.”
+
+“Jonas, what would you do? Would you go, or not?”
+
+“I think I would _not_ go, if your father thinks we had better not.”
+
+“I want to go very much,” said Rollo.
+
+“Very well,” said his father; “you are willing to go with him, I
+suppose, Jonas, are you not?”
+
+“O yes, sir,” said Jonas.
+
+“Well,” said Rollo, “let us go. We will he very careful, father, not to
+get into any difficulty.”
+
+So the two chaises rode on, and Jonas and Rollo, in a few minutes,
+turned off by a narrow path that struck into the woods. Just as they
+were bending down their heads to pass under a great branch of a tree,
+Rollo looked along, and saw Lucy waving her handkerchief to him, as the
+chaise which she was in disappeared by a turn of the road.
+
+Rollo at first felt a little uneasy to think that he had deserted his
+cousin, as it were. He thought that he should not have liked it
+exactly, if she had gone off, and left him alone so in the chaise.
+However, it was now too late to repent, and his attention was attracted
+by the wild and romantic scene around him. The path descended
+obliquely, by a rough, wet, and stony way, through a dark forest. He
+heard the sighing of the wind, in the tops of the tall trees, and the
+mellow notes of forest birds, far off, and high, which came rich and
+sweet to his ear with a peculiar expression of solitude and loneliness.
+
+The boys rode on, and the path became more and more slippery, stony,
+and steep Rollo clung tight to Jonas, and begun to be somewhat afraid.
+He would have proposed to go back, but he was ashamed to do it. After a
+little time, he asked Jonas whether the path was as bad as that all the
+way.
+
+“As bad as this!” said Jonas; “we call this very good. I will show you
+the bad road pretty soon.”
+
+Rollo looked frightened, but said nothing.
+
+“The road seems more wet than common to-day,” said Jonas, “I suppose on
+account of the rain yesterday; and I declare,” said he, “I am afraid we
+shall find the brook up.”
+
+“The brook up!” said Rollo.
+
+“Yes—why did not I think of that before? However, we must go on now.”
+
+“Why?” said Rollo. “Why cannot we go back?”
+
+“O, because we should be too late; besides, there is no danger, only we
+may have to wade a little.”
+
+As they went on, the mud in the road grew deeper and deeper, and
+presently Old Trumpeter’s legs sunk far down among roots and mire.
+Rollo began to feel more and more alarmed, and heartily wished that he
+had taken his father’s advice.
+
+Soon alter they came to a place where the path, for some distance
+before them, was full of water, deep and miry. Jonas said he thought
+that they had better go out upon one side; so he made the horse step
+over a log and go in among the trees and bushes. The branches brushed
+and scratched Rollo unmercifully, though he bent down, and leaned over
+to this side and that, continually, to escape them. He asked Jonas why
+this path had not dried, as well as the main road, where the chaises
+had gone; and Jonas told him that the sun and the wind were the great
+means of drying the open road, but that this narrow and secluded path
+was shaded from the sun, and sheltered from the wind, and that the
+water consequently remained a long time among the moss, and roots, and
+mire.
+
+After a time, they got back into the path again, and, going on a little
+farther, they came down to the margin of the brook. They found that it
+_was_ “up,” as Jonas had feared. At the place where the path went down
+and crossed the brook, a deep cut had been worn in the two opposite
+banks, and this was filled with water, and above and below the stream
+rushed on in a torrent. Jonas hesitated a moment, and then asked Rollo
+if he thought he could hold on, while they we’re riding through. Rollo
+said he was afraid it was so deep as to drown them. Jonas then said
+that he might get off and stand upon a rock by the side of the path,
+while he rode through, first, to see how it was, and that then he would
+come back for him.
+
+So Rollo got off, in fear and trembling, and stood on the rock, while
+Jonas urged his horse into the water. Old Trumpeter did not much like
+this kind of travelling, but Jonas half persuaded and half compelled
+him to go through. When he was in the middle, the water came up so
+high, that Jonas was obliged to lift up his feet to keep them from
+being wet. Presently, however, it became more shoal, as the horse
+walked slowly along; and at last he fairly reached the dry ground, and
+stood dripping on the bank.
+
+Rollo was glad to see that the water was no deeper, but was still
+afraid to go over. He told Jonas he _could not_ go over I here, and
+that he _must_ go back with him.
+
+“No,” said Jonas, “that would not be right.”
+
+“Why,” said Rollo, “we can ride fast, and overtake them.”
+
+“Not very soon,” said Jonas. “If we go back now, they will get to the
+mill before us, and then will be very anxious and unhappy, thinking
+that something has happened to us; and perhaps your father will come
+through here after us. Now it was your own plan, coming across here,
+and you ought not to make other people suffer by it. Your father
+advised you not to come.”
+
+“I know it,” said Rollo; “what a foolish boy I was! I shall certainly
+be drowned.”
+
+“O no,” said Jonas, “there is no real danger, or I should not make you
+go;” and so saying, he came back slowly through the water. “See,” said
+he, “it is not very deep.”
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE MOSETTE.
+
+
+After some further persuasion Rollo got on behind him, and they began
+to in make their way slowly through the water again. Old Trumpeter
+staggered along, but not very unsteadily on the whole, until he got a
+little past the middle, when he blundered upon a stone on the bottom,
+which he could not see, and fell down on his knees. Jonas caught up his
+feet, in an instant, and Rollo had his already drawn up behind him, and
+they both grasped the saddle convulsively. The horse happened to regain
+his feet again in a moment, so that they contrived to hold on; and in a
+few minutes they were drawn out safely upon the shore, without even
+getting their feet wet.
+
+“Well, Old Trumpeter,” said Jonas, “you have done pretty well for you,
+and you have got the mire washed off your legs, at any rate. But,
+Rollo, what is that?”
+
+He pointed back, as he said this, to a little tuft floating round and
+round in a small eddy, made by a turn of the brook, just above where
+they had crossed. He turned his horse towards it. “It is a bird’s
+nest,” said he.
+
+“So it is,” said Rollo; “and I verily believe there is a little bird in
+it.”
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Jonas jumped off of the horse, handed the bridle to Rollo, and took up
+a long stick lying on the ground, and very gently and cautiously drew
+the nest, in to the shore. He took it up with great care, and brought
+it to Rollo.
+
+There was a little bird in it, scarcely fledged. Jonas said he believed
+it was a robin, and that it must have been washed off from its place on
+some bush, by the freshet in the brook. The bottom of the nest was
+soaked through by the water, as if it had been floating some time; and
+the little bird kept opening its mouth wide. The poor little thing was
+hungry, and heard Jonas and Rollo, and thought they were its mother,
+come to give it something to eat.
+
+“What shall we do with him?” said Rollo.
+
+“He will die if we leave him here,” said Jonas, “for he has lost his
+mother now. I think we had better carry him home, if we can, and feed
+him, till he is old enough to fly.”
+
+“He is hungry,” said Rollo; “let us feed him now.”
+
+“We have not any thing to feed him with. Perhaps I can catch a fly, or
+a grasshopper.”
+
+“O, that will not do,” said Rollo; “you might as well kill him as kill
+a grasshopper.”
+
+Jonas could not reply to this, and they concluded to carry nest and all
+carefully to the mill, and show it to Rollo’s father there. But how to
+carry it was the difficulty. If either of them undertook to hold it in
+one hand, he was afraid the bird might be jolted out; and neither of
+them had but one hand to spare, for Rollo must have one hand to hold on
+with, and Jonas one to drive. At last Jonas took off his cap, and
+placed it bottom upwards on the saddle before him, and put the nest,
+with the bird in it, in that, and then drove carefully along. The road
+grew much smoother and better after they passed the brook; and, after
+going on a short distance farther, they came in sight of the mill.
+
+They had been detained so long that the chaises had reached the mill
+before, them; and the party in the chaises were looking out down the
+path where they expected the boys were to come out, watching for them
+with considerable interest:
+
+“There they come at last,” said Lucy, as she perceived a movement among
+the bushes, and saw Old Trumpeter’s white head coming forward.
+
+“Yes,” said Rollo’s mother, “but they have met with some accident.
+Jonas has lost his cap.”
+
+By this time the boys had emerged from the bushes, and were coming
+along the path slowly, Jonas bareheaded, and Rollo holding on
+carefully. Lucy saw that Jonas was holding something before him, on the
+saddle, and wondered what it was. Rollo’s mother said she was afraid
+they had got hurt.
+
+As soon as they came within hearing Rollo heard his father’s voice
+calling out to him,
+
+“Rollo, what is the matter? Have you got into any difficulty?”
+
+“Yes, sir,” said Rollo; “we had some difficulty; and I should be sorry
+I did not take your advice, only then we should not have found this
+little bird.”
+
+“What bird?” said they all.
+
+By this time, they had come up near the chaises, and Jonas carefully
+lifted the birdsnest out of his cap, and held it so that they could all
+see it, while Rollo told them the story. They all looked much pleased
+but Lucy seemed in delight. She wanted to have it go in their chaise,
+and asked Rollo to let her hold the nest in her lap.
+
+Rollo did not answer very directly, for he was busy looking at the
+bird,—seeing him open his mouth, and wishing he had something to give
+him to eat.
+
+“Father,” said he, “what shall we feed him with? Jonas was going to
+catch a grasshopper, but I thought that would not be right.”
+
+“Why not?” said uncle George.
+
+“Because,” said Rollo, “he has as good a right to his life as the bird,
+has not he, father?”
+
+“Not exactly,” said his father: “a bird is an animal of much higher
+grade than a grasshopper, and is probably much more sensible of pain
+and pleasure, and his life is of more value; just as a man is a much
+higher animal than a bird. It would be right to kill a bird to save a
+man’s life, even if he were only an animal; and so it would be right to
+destroy a grasshopper, or a worm, to save a robin.”
+
+“But I read in a book once,” said Lucy, “that, when we tread on a worm,
+he feels as much pain in being killed as a giant would.”
+
+“I do not think it is true,” said he. “I think that there is a vast
+diversity among the different animals, in respect to their sensibility
+to pain, according to their structure, and the delicacy of their
+organization. I think a crew of a fishing-vessel might catch a whole
+cargo of mackerel, and not cause as much pain as one of their men would
+suffer in having his leg bitten off by a shark.”
+
+“Well, father,” said Rollo, “do you think we had better give him a
+grasshopper?”
+
+“O no,” said Lucy; “a grasshopper would not be good to eat, he has got
+so many elbows sticking out. Let us give him some blueberries.”
+
+“O yes,” said Rollo, “that would be beautiful.”
+
+So he slid down off of Old Trumpeter’s back, and ran to the side of the
+road to see if he could not find some blueberries.
+
+He brought a few in his hand, and his father took them, saying that he
+would feed the bird for him. He squeezed out pulp of the berries, and
+then made a chirping sound, when the bird opened his mouth, and he fed
+him with the soft pulp, and threw away the skins. After giving the bird
+two or three berries in this way, they put him back into the nest, and
+gave the nest to Lucy to hold in her lap, and all the party prepared to
+go on.
+
+They rode along about a mile farther, and then came to the place where
+they must leave the horses, and prepare to ascend the mountain on foot.
+They unharnessed them, so that they might stand more quietly, and then
+fastened them to trees by the side of the road.
+
+While they were thus taking care of their horses, Rollo and Lucy were
+standing by, with Rollo’s mother looking at the bird.
+
+“What are you going to do with him, Rollo?” said his mother.
+
+“Why, I should like to carry him home, and keep him, if you are
+willing.”
+
+“I am, on one condition.”
+
+“What is that?”
+
+“You must keep him in a cage with the door always open, so that, as
+soon as he is old enough to fly away, he may go if he chooses.”
+
+“Then he will certainly fly away, and we shall lose him forever,” said
+Lucy.
+
+“That is the only condition,” replied Rollo’s mother.
+
+“But why, mother,” said he, “why may we not keep him shut up safe?”
+
+“If I were to tell you the reasons now, they would not satisfy you, you
+are so eager to keep him. I think you had better determine to comply
+with the condition, good-humoredly, and say no more about it, but try
+to think of a name for him.”
+
+“Well, mother, what do you think would be a good name?”
+
+“I do not know: you and Lucy must think of one.”
+
+Just then uncle George finished tying his horse, and came along to
+where the children were standing, and, hearing their conversation, and
+finding that Lucy and Rollo were perplexed about a name, he told them
+he thought they might, not improperly, call him Noah, as, like Noah, by
+floating in a sort of ark, he was saved from a flood.
+
+“I think he was more like Moses than Noah,” said Lucy.
+
+“Why?” said her father.
+
+“Because Moses was a little thing when they found him, and then the ark
+of bulrushes was something like a birdsnest. I think you had better
+name him Moses, Rollo,” said she.
+
+Rollo seemed a little at a loss: he said he thought he was a good deal
+like Moses, but then he did not think that Moses was a very pretty name
+for a bird.
+
+“Do you think it is, mother?” said he.
+
+“I do not know but that it would do very well. You might alter it a
+little; call him Mosette, if you think that would be any better for a
+bird’s name.”
+
+Rollo and Lucy repeated the name Mosette to themselves several times,
+and concluded that they should like it very much. By this time, the
+horses were all ready, and Jonas recommended that they should hide
+Mosette away somewhere, until they returned from the mountain, for it
+would be troublesome to them, and somewhat dangerous to the bird, to
+carry him up and down.
+
+The children approved of this plan, though they were rather unwilling
+to part with the bird, at all. They went just into the bushes, and
+found a very secret place, by the corner of a large rock, where the
+shrubs and wild flowers grew thick, so that it would be entirely out of
+sight.
+
+
+
+
+GOING UP.
+
+
+They then set forward, the children in advance of the rest. Jonas
+walked with Rollo and Lucy, and he had round his waist a broad leather
+belt, which he always wore on such occasions, and which had, on one
+side, his hatchet and knife, and on the other a sort of bag or pocket,
+containing several things, such as matches, a little dipper, &c.
+
+Rollo’s father and mother, and his uncle George, walked along behind
+them. The way was, for some distance, a sort of cart-path, too steep
+and rough for a chaise, but hard and dry, and pretty comfortable
+walking. Rollo and Lucy asked Jonas if he would not tell them a story,
+as they went along, to beguile the way.
+
+Jonas began a story, about a boy that lived a long time on a mountain
+alone, but he had not proceeded far, before they heard a voice behind,
+calling them. They looked buck, and saw that Rollo’s father was
+beckoning them to stop.
+
+They waited till he came up, and he told them he wanted to give them
+their orders for the day; and they were rules, he said, which ought to
+be observed on all berrying expeditions, by children.
+
+“_First_” said he, “always keep in sight of _me_. For this purpose,
+watch me all the time, when we are stepping, and keep before, rather
+than behind, when we are walking.
+
+“_Second_. Take no unnecessary steps, but keep in the right path, and
+walk slowly and steadily there, so as to save your strength. Otherwise
+you will get tired out very soon.
+
+“_Third_. Do not touch any flower or berry that you see, except
+blueberries, without first showing them to one of us.”
+
+The children listened to these rules, and promised to obey them, and
+then walked on. They tried to walk slowly and steadily, listening to
+Jonas’s story. They turned off, after a time, into a narrower and
+steeper path, and ascended, stepping from stone to stone The trees and
+bushes hung over their heads, making the walk shady and cool.
+
+After slowly ascending in this way, for some time, they came out of the
+woods into an opening of rocky ground, and patches of blue
+berry-bushes. They saw, also, at some distance before them, three or
+four boys, sitting upon a rock, with pails and baskets in their hands,
+talking and laughing loud. They did not take much notice of them, but
+walked on quietly. They were going on directly towards them, but
+Rollo’s father called them, and pointed for them to turn off to the
+right, round a rocky precipice which was in that direction.
+
+The children were turning accordingly, when they heard a shout from the
+boys before them,—“Hallo,—come this way, and we will show you where the
+blueberries are.”
+
+“Father,” said Rollo, as he stopped and turned round to his father,
+“the boys say they will show us the blueberries, out that way: shall we
+go and see?”
+
+“No,” said his father in a low voice, so that the boys did not hear.
+“No: go the way I told you.”
+
+They went along, and presently got round the precipice out of sight of
+I he boys again. They walked slowly until their parents overtook them.
+
+“Father,” said Rollo, “why could you not let us go out with those boys?
+They said they were thickest out there.”
+
+“Because,” said he, “I presume they are not good boys, and I do not
+want you to have any thing to do with them.”
+
+“But, father, they must be good boys, or they would not want to show us
+the blueberries. If they were bad, selfish boys, they would want to
+keep all the good places to themselves.”
+
+If Rollo had only asked his father, in a modest manner, how it could be
+that the boys were bad, when they wanted to show him the best place for
+blueberries, it would have been very proper; but his manner of speaking
+showed a silly confidence in his own opinion, which was very wrong. His
+father, however, did not attempt to reason with him, but only said,
+
+“I think they are bad boys, for I overheard them using bad language;
+and I wish you to have nothing to do with them.”
+
+He then found a good place for them to begin to gather their berries.
+It was a beautiful spot of open ground, between the thick woods on one
+side, and a broken, rocky precipice on the other.
+
+Uncle George took Jonas forward alone, until they were out of sight,
+and presently returned without him. Rollo asked where Jonas was gone,
+and his uncle told him that that was a secret at present. They heard,
+soon after, the strokes of his hatchet in the woods, on before them,
+but could not imagine what he could be doing.
+
+Thus things went on very pleasantly, and they gathered a large quantity
+of berries. There was, indeed, in the course of the day, a serious
+difficulty between Rollo and the bad boys; and there is an account of
+it given in the next story of “TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.” With Ibis
+exception, every thing went on well until about, noon, when Rollo
+observed that Jonas had been missing a long time.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECRET OUT.
+
+
+“Where is Jonas, all this time?” said Rollo to Lucy.
+
+Lucy said that he had been busy, a long time, doing something over
+beyond some rocks, but she did not know what, for her father told her
+she must not go to see. Rollo wondered what the secret was, and he was
+just going to ask his father to let him go and see what Jonas was
+doing, when they saw him coming out from the bushes. He came up to
+Rollo’s father, and told him that it was all ready. Then Rollo’s father
+called to all the company, and told them it was time to stop gathering
+berries, and they might take up their baskets and follow him.
+
+The baskets and pails were heavy and full, and the whole party walked
+along, carrying them carefully towards the place where Jonas had come
+from. Rollo’s Hither led the way. They entered into a little thicket,
+and passed through it by a narrow path. They came out presently into a
+sort of opening, on a brow of the mountain. On one side they could look
+down upon a vast extent of country, exhibiting a beautiful variety of
+forests, rivers, villages, and farms. On the other side was a rocky
+precipice, rising abruptly to a considerable height, and then sloping
+off towards the summit of the mountain. They walked along a few steps
+on a smooth surface of the rock, between patches of grass and
+blueberry-bushes, until Lucy and Rollo ran forward to a brook which
+came foaming down the precipice, and then, after tumbling along over
+rocks a little way, took another foaming leap down the mountain, and
+was lost among the trees below.
+
+The party all stepped carefully over this brook, and then walked along
+up the bank on the opposite side until they came to the precipice. Here
+they were surprised and pleased to see a large bower built, in front of
+a little sort of cavern or recess in the rock. Jonas had built it of
+large limbs of trees and bushes, which he had leaned up against the
+rock, in such a manner as to enclose a large space within. There was an
+opening left round on the farther side, next the rock, and they all
+went round mid went in—Rollo first, then Lucy, then the others. They
+found that smooth and clean logs and stones were arranged around the
+sides of the bower; and in the middle, on a carpet of leaves, was very
+abundant provision for a rustic dinner.
+
+There was bread, and butter, and ham, and gingerbread, and pie, and
+glasses for water from the brook. Rollo and Lucy wondered how all those
+things could have got up the mountain. Presently, however, they
+recollected that, when they were coming up, Jonas had two covered
+baskets to bring, and they thought, at the time, that they seemed to be
+heavy.
+
+Thus the day passed away, and towards evening they came down the
+mountain. Some remarkable things happened when they were coming down,
+which will be related in the story called “TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.”
+
+
+
+
+TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.
+
+BOASTING.
+
+
+“How pleasant it is here!” said Rollo to his cousin Lucy, as they were
+gathering blueberries high up on old Mount Benalgon, the day they went
+up with Rollo’S father and mother, and uncle; “and how thick the
+blueberries are, Lucy!”
+
+“Yes,” said Lucy, “they are very thick, I think; and how far we can see
+now, we are up here so high! I wish we were up on that great high
+rock.”
+
+Rollo looked where Lucy pointed, and he saw, away above them, a rocky
+summit projecting out from the mountain. The front of the rock was
+ragged and precipitous, but it was flat and mossy upon the top, and
+firs and other evergreen trees grew there, some of them hanging over
+the edge.
+
+“I wish I could get up there,” said Lucy.
+
+“I wish I could too,” said Rollo. “I should like to climb up one of
+those trees which hangs over, and then I could look down.”
+
+“O, Rollo,” said Lucy, “you would not dare to climb up one of those
+trees.”
+
+“Yes, I should dare to,” said Rollo.
+
+Rollo was sometimes a proud, boasting boy, pretending that he could do
+great things, and talking very largely. This was one of his greatest
+faults; and whenever he seemed to be in this boasting mood, he almost
+always got into some difficulty after it. There is a text in the Bible
+that was proved true, very often, in Rollo’s case. It is this—“Pride
+cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Rollo
+had a sad Tall this day, though it was not from that high rock. It was
+a different sort of a fall from that, as we shall presently see.
+
+“Lucy,” said he again, “I do not believe but that I could get up upon
+that rock myself. I can climb rocks.”
+
+“O no, you could not,” said Lucy.
+
+“Why, yes, I see a way.”
+
+“Which way?”
+
+“O, round by that great black log There is a path there through the
+bushes.”
+
+“O no,” said Lucy, “you could not get up there. But there are some boys
+by that log; what boys are they?”
+
+Rollo looked. They were some boys which they had seen coming up the
+mountain, and Rollo’s father had warned him not to go near them. They
+had wanted Rollo to go with them before, but his father had forbidden
+it. Rollo wanted to go, and now he was glad to see them again; but Lucy
+was sorry.
+
+
+
+
+GETTING IN TROUBLE.
+
+
+The blueberries were very thick and large, and the bottoms of the
+baskets were soon covered with them. Each one picked where he found
+them most plenty.
+
+Rollo and Lucy kept pretty near together, talking, and gradually
+strayed away to some distance from the rest of the party. After a
+little while, Rollo looked up, and saw the three boys pretty near them.
+As soon as Lucy saw them so near, she moved along towards their
+parents; and Rollo ought to have done so too, but he remained where he
+was, and presently one of the boys came up to him.
+
+“Why did you not come up where we were?” said he. “They were thicker
+out there.”
+
+“My father would not let me,” said Rollo.
+
+“O, come along,” said the boy; “he will not care. Besides, he will not
+know it. He is busy picking by himself. He does not mind where you
+are.”
+
+Rollo thought this was not exactly the way that a good boy would speak
+of obeying a father, but he wanted very much to see the place where the
+berries were so much thicker.
+
+“How far is it?” said he to the boy.
+
+“O, it is only a little way-just around that rock.”
+
+By this time the other two boys came up, and they talked with Rollo a
+little while, and endeavored to persuade him to go. He said finally
+that he would go and ask his father. So he left his basket, and went
+and asked his father if he might just go with those boys round the
+rock. He said the blueberries were much thicker around there, and also
+that he had been talking with the boys, and he was sure they were good
+boys.
+
+“No, Rollo,” said his father, decidedly, “I cannot think that any boys
+that use bad language can be good boys, or safe companions for you. I
+had rather you would keep with us. If they speak to you, answer them
+civilly; but the less you have to say to them or do with them, the
+better. In fact, I had rather you would not go back to them at all.”
+
+“I must,” said Rollo, “to get my basket.”
+
+He accordingly returned to his basket, and told the boys that his
+father preferred that he should stay where he was.
+
+The biggest boy of the three was a ragged and dirty-looking boy; the
+others called him Jim, and he talked with Rollo a good deal. Rollo’s
+conscience reproved him for not leaving them, and going back to his
+father; but he wanted to stay and hear their talk, and he quieted his
+conscience by saying to himself that his father told him to treat them
+civilly. At first the boys were careful what they said to Rollo; but at
+length Jim grew more and more hold. He used language which Rollo knew
+was wrong, and he told Rollo that he was a fool to stick so close to
+his father; that he was big enough to find his way alone all over the
+mountain, if he was of a mind to.
+
+All this Rollo was silly enough to believe, and, as his father only
+required him to keep in sight, he thought he would show the boys that
+he was not so much afraid as they thought he was; and so hi gradually
+moved off farther and farther from his parents, as he went on gradually
+filling up his basket. Lucy, in the mean time, went nearer and nearer
+to them, and in a short time was safely gathering her blueberries by
+her aunt’s side.
+
+Things went on so for an hour. Rollo’s mother asked his father whether
+he had not better call Rollo to them.
+
+“No,” said he; “I have told him his duty once, plainly, and now, if he
+does not do it, he must take the consequences. I believe I shall leave
+him to himself.”
+
+The boys went on talking to one another and to Rollo, telling various
+stories about their running away from school, stealing apples, and such
+things. Rollo was much interested in listening to them, though he knew,
+all the time, that he was doing wrong. But he had not the courage to
+leave them abruptly, as he ought to have done, and go back to his
+father.
+
+Rollo took a great deal of pains with the berries he picked; he chose
+the largest and ripest, and was very careful not to get in any sticks
+and leaves. His basket was small, and he intended, as soon as he got it
+full, to carry it carefully to his mother, and pour his berries into
+her large tin pail. He was succeeding finely in this, but then he had
+insensibly strayed away so far from his father, that now he was
+entirely out of his sight.
+
+At length, as Jim was sitting on a log to rest himself, as he said, he
+saw a little bird alight on the branch of a black stump near.
+
+“Hash,” said he; “there is a Bob-a-link. See how I will fix him.”
+
+So saying, he picked up a stone, and was going to throw it.
+
+Rollo begged him not to kill that pretty little bird but he paid no
+attention to what Rollo said. He threw the stone with all his force;
+but fortunately it did not hit the bird. It struck the limb that the
+bird was perched upon, and shivered it to fragments, and the bird flew
+away, terrified.
+
+“Now, what did you do that for?” said Rollo; “you might have hit him.”
+
+“Hit him!” said he; “I meant to hit him, to be sure.”
+
+“But what good does it do to kill little birds? I found one this
+morning, and I would not kill him for any thing.”
+
+“Where did you find him?” said Jim.
+
+Rollo then told the boys all about his finding a little bird, in its
+nest floating in the brook, and about their naming him Mosette; as is
+described in the story called “BLUEBERRYING;” and Jim said, if he had
+found him, he would have put him on a fence, for a mark to fire stones
+at. “I would have made him peep, I tell you,” said he.
+
+Rollo said he would not have him killed on any account. He was going to
+carry him home, and feed him, and tame him.
+
+“But where is he now?” said Jim.
+
+“O, we hid him behind a stone, down at the foot of the mountain, where
+our horses are tied.”
+
+“But how can you find him again?” said Jim.
+
+“O,” said Rollo, “we know; it was behind the corner of a stone, just in
+the bushes, where we tied the horse.”
+
+Jim winked at the other boys when Rollo said this, though Rollo did not
+see it. He was vexed with Rollo, because he reproved him for stoning
+the bird.
+
+“I would set him up for a mark, if I had him,” said Jim. “I wish I had
+been there when you found him; I would have taken him away from you.”
+
+“No, you would not have taken him away. Jonas would not let you.”
+
+“Jonas! who is Jonas? and what do you think I care for Jonas?” said he.
+
+He then came up to Rollo, and looked into his basket, and saw it nearly
+full of large ripe blueberries.
+
+“And I believe,” said he, “that you have stolen some of my berries out
+of my basket, while I have been sitting here.”
+
+“No, I have not,” said Rollo. “I have not touched your basket.”
+
+“You have,” said Jim, fiercely, “and I will have them back again.
+Besides, I put some into yours, while you went to your father. So half
+the berries in your basket are mine.”
+
+This was a lie; but bad boys, like Jim, will always lie, when they have
+any thing to gain by it. He came up to Rollo, and began to pull his
+basket away from him. Rollo struggled against him, and began to cry.
+But Jim was too strong for him: he tipped his basket over, poured a
+great many of the berries into his own basket, and the rest were
+spilled over on to the ground. Then, angry at Rollo’s screams and
+cries, he trampled on all the berries that were on the ground, and was
+beginning to run away. Rollo caught hold of the skirt of his coat,
+screaming all the time for his father. Jim turned round, and struck
+Rollo with his fist, knocked him down, and then he and the other boys
+set off, as fast as they could run, through the bushes; and they
+disappeared just as Rollo’s father and Jonas came hastening to his aid.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+They raised Rollo up, and his father took him in his arms to carry him
+away. He saw that there had been some serious difficulty with the bad
+boys, but he did not ask Rollo any thing about it, then; for he knew
+that he could not talk intelligibly till he had done crying. Rollo laid
+his head down on his father’s shoulder, as he walked along, and sobbed
+bitterly.
+
+
+
+
+A TEST OF PENITENCE.
+
+
+His father carried him back to where his mother and uncle were, who
+were coming towards him looking anxiously.
+
+They presently got pretty near them, Rollo still continuing to cry. His
+father then said to him,
+
+“Rollo, be still a moment. I want to speak to you.”
+
+When he first took Rollo up, he did not command him to be still, for he
+knew that it would do no good. He was then so overwhelmed with pain and
+terror, that he could not help crying; and his father never commanded
+impossibilities. By this time, however, the pain, and the immediate
+terror, had so far subsided, that his father knew he could now control
+himself, and Rollo knew that he must obey. He accordingly stopped
+crying aloud, and tried to listen to his father.
+
+“Rollo,” said his father, “I pity you very much. I warned you against
+this bad company, and now I perceive you have got into some difficulty
+with them; but I cannot hear your story about it till we get home. It
+is your own fault that has brought you into trouble; and now you must
+not extend your trouble over all our party, and spoil our happiness, as
+you have your own. I must go and put you by yourself, until you get
+entirely composed and pleasant, and then you may join us again.”
+
+“But, father,” said Rollo, beginning to cry afresh at the thoughts of
+the boys’ treatment of him, “they came up to me, and—and—”
+
+“Stop, Rollo,” said his father. “Be still. You cannot tell the story
+intelligibly now, and if you could, I should not be willing to listen
+to it. You must not say any thing about it, unless you are questioned,
+until we get home.”
+
+By this time they came up pretty near the place where the rest of the
+party were; but his father did not take him there. He turned aside,
+and, putting Rollo down, he led him along to a smooth log, which lay
+among some old trees, close by, and told him to sit there, until he was
+entirely composed and pleasant again, and then to come to him, or to go
+to picking berries again, just as he pleased.
+
+Rollo sat on the log, for some time, with his empty basket by his side,
+mourning over his sorrows. Lucy came to him, and endeavored to console
+him. She begged him not to cry; and she poured out half of her own
+berries into his basket, and told him that they could soon fill it full
+again, if he would come with her to a good thick place she had found.
+Rollo became gradually quiet and composed, and walked along with Lucy.
+
+Lucy had indeed found a place where the berries were very thick and
+large, and Rollo determined to be as industrious as possible. They
+worked away very busily for half an hour, and Rollo gradually recovered
+his spirits.
+
+His mother watched him from time to time, and when she saw that he was
+good-humored again, she said to his father,
+
+“Rollo seems to be picking his berries very pleasantly. I rather think
+he is sorry for his conduct.”
+
+“Yes, I see he is getting _good-humored_ again, but I am afraid he is
+not truly penitent. It is easier _forget_ a sin, than to be sorry for
+it. It is very easy, however, for us to ascertain.”
+
+“How can we ascertain?” asked his mother.
+
+“Why, if you should go and ask him about it, if he is really penitent,
+he will be troubled most to think of his disobedience in going; into
+the bad company; but if he is not penitent, he will not think of that,
+but only go to scolding about the bad boys.”
+
+“That is true,” said she. “I have a great mind to go and try him.”
+
+Rollo’s father thought it would be a good plan, and she, accordingly,
+walked along towards Rollo slowly, gathering berries as she went.
+
+Rollo saw her coming, and said, “Here is mother, Lucy; let us go and
+give her our berries.”
+
+So saying, he carried his basket up to her very pleasantly, and said,
+“Here, mother; see, here are all these berries I have been picking for
+you.”
+
+“Ah,” said she, “did you pick all these for me?”
+
+“E—h—no,” said he; “not all; Lucy gave me some.”
+
+“Well, Lucy, I am very much obliged to you, and I am glad to see that
+you, Rollo, are pleasant again; I am sorry you went and got into
+difficulty with those boys.”
+
+“They came and took away my berries,” said he, “and struck me—that
+great ugly Jim.”
+
+The feelings of vexation and anger against the bad boys began to rise
+again in Rollo’s mind, the moment he began to talk about them, and he
+was just going to cry. His mother stopped him, saying,
+
+“You need not tell me about him any more. I see how it is.”
+
+“How what is?” said Rollo.
+
+“How it is about your being sorry. Your father told me that, if you
+were truly penitent for what happened about those boys, I should find
+you, when I came to talk with you about it, grieved for _your own_
+fault, and if you were not penitent, you would only be angry at
+_theirs_. I see which it is.”
+
+Rollo was silent a moment. He felt the truth and justice of the
+distinction; but, like all boys who are not sorry for the wrong they
+have done, he could not resist the temptation to try to justify himself
+by throwing the blame on others. So he began to tell her something more
+about “that cross old Jim,” but she interrupted him, and told him she
+did not wish to hear any thing about that “cross old Jim.” He was not
+her boy, she said, and she had nothing to do with him or his faults.
+
+She then went to talking about other things, and helped Rollo begin to
+fill his basket again. He showed her where the berries were thickest,
+and led her round behind a rock to show her a beautiful wild flower
+that he had found; he said he did not bring it to her, for his father
+had told him not to touch any flowers or berries that they did not
+know, for fear they might be poisonous.
+
+After a little while, Rollo’s mother left him and Lucy together, and
+went back lo where his father and uncle were.
+
+“Well,” said they, “how did you find Rollo?”
+
+“Pleasant, but not _penitent_,” said she Lucy and Rollo went on
+gathering berries some time after Rollo’s mother left him, in silence.
+Rollo felt rather unhappy, but he was not subdued. His heart was still
+proud and unhumbled, and after a time, he said to Lucy,
+
+“It seems to me very strange that my mother does not think those boys
+were to blame any for doing so.”
+
+“She does think they were to blame, Rollo, I know.”
+
+“No, she does not; she will not hear me say any thing about them.”
+
+Lucy did not answer, because she knew it would do no good to dispute
+with Rollo, while he was so unreasonable. Rollo ought to have been
+willing to have seen his fault, and to have felt truly sorry for it;
+but he was not, and so Lucy thought it was better not to talk with him
+about it at all. If he had been truly sorry, and had gone and told his
+father so, and asked his forgiveness, he would have been happy again.
+
+But as it was, he was not happy. The recollection of his disobedience
+and sin would remain in his mind, and though he tried to talk, and
+laugh, and play, as usual, his mind was not much at ease. In fact, he
+was secretly glad when the time arrived for going home.
+
+The party all gathered together on a smooth piece of ground, about the
+middle of the afternoon, to make their arrangements for going down the
+mountain. They put their baskets, filled beautifully with blueberries,
+together on the grass, while they sat on the stones and logs around, to
+rest a little before walking down.
+
+Then Rollo’s father arranged the order of march. Jonas was to go first,
+with two of the heaviest baskets of berries. Next came Lucy, with her
+little basket about two thirds full, and with leaves and some beautiful
+pieces of moss she had found, put in upon the top. Then came Rollo’s
+mother leaning on his uncle’s arm. His uncle had a basket of berries in
+his other hand. Finally, Rollo and his father walked together behind,
+with each a basket in his hand.
+
+Thus they walked along down the steep path, until they began to enter
+the bushes. Rollo’s father had made this arrangement so that he might
+have an opportunity to talk with him about the difficulty with the
+boys, for he thought, on the whole, it would be better to talk with him
+now than to wait till they got home.
+
+After they had walked along a little way, Rollo’s father asked him
+whether he had a good time blueberrying?
+
+“Why, yes, sir,” said Rollo, “pretty good.”
+
+“Have you seen any thing more of those boys?”
+
+“No, sir.”
+
+“Your mother went to talk with you, and said you did not seem very
+sorry for your fault.”
+
+“Why, father,” said Rollo, “I did not do any thing to the boys at all:
+it was all their fault, entirely.”
+
+“I don’t suppose you did do any thing wrong towards _them_, but you
+committed a great fault in respect to me.”
+
+“What fault?” said Rollo.
+
+“Disobedience.”
+
+“Why, father, how? You did not tell me to stay close by you.”
+
+“And is a boy guilty of disobedience only when he does what his father
+forbids in words?”
+
+“I suppose so,” said Rollo.
+
+“What is disobedience?” asked his father.
+
+“Why, it is doing what you tell me not to do; is it not?”
+
+“That is not a sufficient definition of it; for suppose you were out
+there in the bushes, and I was to beckon you to come here, and you
+should not come, would not that be disobedience?”
+
+“Why, yes, sir.”
+
+“And yet I should not _tell_ you to come.”
+
+“No, sir.”
+
+“And so, if I were to shake my head at you when you were doing any
+thing wrong, and you wore to continue doing it, that would be
+disobedience.”
+
+Rollo admitted that it would. “So that it is not necessary that I
+should tell you _in words_ what my wishes are: if I express them in any
+way so that you plainly understand it, that is enough. The most
+important orders that are given by men, are often given without any
+words.”
+
+“How, father?”
+
+“Why, at sea, sometimes, where there is a great fleet of ships, and the
+admiral, who commands them all, is in one of them. Now, if he wants all
+the fleet to sail in any way; or if he wishes to have some one, vessel
+come near to his, or go back home, or go away to any other part of the
+world; or if he wants any particular person in the fleet to come on
+board his vessel,—he does not send an order in _words_; he only hoists
+flags of a particular kind upon the masts of his vessel, and they all
+obey them.
+
+“Now, suppose,” continued he, “one of the ships did not sail as he
+wished, and when he called the captain to account for it, he should say
+that he was not guilty of disobedience, because he did not _tell_ him
+to sail so.”
+
+Rollo laughed, and said he thought that would not be a very good
+excuse.
+
+“Well, it is just such an excuse as yours. I did not positively command
+you not to go near the boys, or not to have any conversation with them
+at all, though I expressed my wish that you would not, so that you
+could not help understanding it.”
+
+Rollo could not deny that this was so.
+
+“But that is not the only case of disobedience. For you did one thing
+which was contrary to _my express command in words_.”
+
+Rollo looked concerned, and said he was sure he did not know it.
+
+“I told you not to go out of my sight.”
+
+“Well, but, father,” said Rollo eagerly, in reply, “I am sure I did not
+mean to. I was picking berries so busy, I did not observe where I was.”
+
+“I know you were, and that was the disobedience; for when I command you
+to keep in sight of me, that means that you must take good care that
+you _do_ mind where you are. Suppose I were to tell Jonas that he might
+go and take a walk, but that he must be sure to come back in half an
+hour, and he should go, and pay no attention to the time, and so not
+come back until three quarters of an hour; would that be obedience?”
+
+“No, sir; but it would not be so bad as it would be if he should stay
+away when he _knew_ that the time was out.”
+
+“No, it would not be so wilful an act of disobedience, but it would be
+disobedience, notwithstanding. You see, Rollo,” he continued, “when I
+tell you or any boy to come back in half an hour, there are two things
+implied in the command—first, that you should _notice the time_, and,
+secondly, that you should come back when the time is out. Now, you may
+disobey the command by neglecting either of these.”
+
+“Yes, sir,” said Rollo, “I see we may, but I did not think of it
+before.”
+
+“No, I presume you did not,” said his father; “but I want you to
+understand it, and remember it after this forever. You have disobeyed,
+to-day, in two ways, in which boys are very apt to disobey, when they
+do not mean to do it wilfully. I will tell you what the principles are,
+again, so that you can remember and tell me when I ask you.
+
+“1. Boys must take care to comply with their parents’ directions, if
+they are expressed in any way whatsoever; and,
+
+“2. When directed to do any thing in a particular time or way, they
+must see to it themselves, that they _notice_ and _keep in mind the
+circumstances_ which they are required to attend to.”
+
+Rollo said he would try to remember it, and as he seemed attentive and
+docile, his father did not talk with him any more about his fault at
+that time. Besides, they came now to some very rough places in the
+path, and Rollo’s father had to lift Lucy over them.
+
+Lucy spilled some of her berries in one place, and Rollo was going to
+help her pick them up, but Jonas said they had better leave them for
+the birds, and walk on.
+
+“So we will, Lucy,” said Rollo, “and I rather think that Mosette is
+hungry by this time.”
+
+“Yes,” said Jonas, “and what are you going to do with Mosette?”
+
+“O, put him in a cage, and bring him up tame,” said Rollo. “I mean to
+teach him to eat out of my hand. I shall treat him very kindly, though
+he is my little prisoner.”
+
+“I would give: him the liberty of the yard, if I were you,” said some
+one behind, laughing.
+
+Rollo looked round. It was his uncle George, walking close behind him.
+
+“What is the liberty of the yard?” said Rollo.
+
+“Why, when _men_ intend to treat a prisoner kindly, they leave the
+prison door open, and let him walk about the yard; and this is called
+letting him have the liberty of the yard; and sometimes they let them
+go over half the town.”
+
+“Do you think I had better do so with Mosette?” said Rollo.
+
+“Yes,” said his uncle George; “leave his cage open, and let him go
+where he pleases.”
+
+“O, he would fly entirely away,” said Rollo.
+
+“Perhaps not, if you should feed him well, and treat him very kindly.
+He might like his cage better than any nest.”
+
+“I shall treat him as kindly as I can,” said Rollo; “only think, Jonas,
+_that Jim_ said, if he had found him, he should have set him up upon
+the fence for a mark to fire stones at!”
+
+“Jim said so?” said Jonas; “how did Jim know any thing about it?”
+
+“Why—e—h—why—I told him,” said Rollo.
+
+“What did you tell him for?”
+
+“O, because,” said Rollo, “we were talking, and I told him.”
+
+“I hope you did not tell him where we hid Mosette, behind the rock.”
+
+“Why—yes,” said Rollo, “I believe I did.”
+
+“Then I am afraid you will never see poor Mosette again,” said Jonas.
+
+“Why,” said Rollo, “you don’t think that he would go and get him.”
+
+“I don’t know,” said Jonas, “what he would do; but I should not have
+wanted to tell such a boy any thing about him.”
+
+Rollo began to be alarmed. He went back to his father, and asked him to
+let him and Jonas go on before the rest, to see if their bird was safe.
+His father told him he might go. “But,” said he, “I am afraid you have
+lost your bird; when a boy allows himself to get into bad company, he
+does not know how many troubles he plunges himself into.”
+
+Rollo and Jonas ran on, and soon disappeared among the trees. Rollo
+found it hard to keep up, as the road was not very smooth, though they
+had got down the steepest part of the mountain. Jonas kept hold of
+Rollo’s hand, and went on running and walking alternately, until they
+got down to the end of the trees and bushes, and then they came out in
+sight of the place where the horses were tied.
+
+It was fortunate for poor Mosette, and for Rollo too, that they did
+thus run on before, for it happened that Jim, and the boys with him,
+had come down the mountain by another road, and were just going up to
+the place as Jonas and Rollo came out of the woods.
+
+“There they are,” said Jonas. “You stay here; I must run on.” And he
+let go of Rollo’s hand, sprang forward, and ran with all his might.
+Rollo tried to follow, but soon stopped and looked on.
+
+Jim and his boys did not see Jonas coming, and they went to work
+looking around the bushes and stones after Mosette. In a few minutes,
+one smaller boy came out from the bushes, close by the place where
+Rollo recollected the nest was hid, with something in his hand, and
+Rollo could distinctly hear him calling out,
+
+“Here he is, Jim—I have got him, Jim.”
+
+Just that moment, Jonas came running up among the boys, calling out,
+
+“Let that bird alone!—Let that bird alone!” The boys, terrified at this
+unexpected onset, started and ran in every direction. The boy who had
+the nest, dropped it upon the ground, and dodged back into the bushes.
+Jonas took it up carefully, put little Mosette, who had fallen out,
+back in the nest, and walked out into the road to meet Rollo, who was
+coming down as fast as he could come, on the other side.
+
+They saw Jim and his comrades no more, and Rollo said he believed he
+should never again want to have any thing to do with bad boys.
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rollo at Play, by Jacob Abbott
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11140 ***