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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stuyvesant, by Jacob Abbott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Stuyvesant
+       A Franconia Story
+
+Author: Jacob Abbott
+
+Release Date: May 12, 2009 [EBook #28776]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUYVESANT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Stuyvesant
+
+ _A FRANCONIA STORY_
+
+ BY JACOB ABBOTT
+
+ ILLUSTRATED
+
+ NEW YORK AND LONDON
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+
+ 1904
+
+
+
+
+ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by
+
+ HARPER & BROTHERS,
+
+ In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York.
+
+ Copyright, 1881, by BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ABBOTT, AUSTIN
+ ABBOTT, LYMAN ABBOTT, and EDWARD ABBOTT.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE BOYS AT THE MILL.]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The development of the moral sentiments in the human heart, in early
+life,--and every thing in fact which relates to the formation of
+character,--is determined in a far greater degree by sympathy, and by
+the influence of example, than by formal precepts and didactic
+instruction. If a boy hears his father speaking kindly to a robin in
+the spring,--welcoming its coming and offering it food,--there arises
+at once in his own mind, a feeling of kindness toward the bird, and
+toward all the animal creation, which is produced by a sort of
+sympathetic action, a power somewhat similar to what in physical
+philosophy is called _induction_. On the other hand, if the father,
+instead of feeding the bird, goes eagerly for a gun, in order that he
+may shoot it, the boy will sympathize in that desire, and growing up
+under such an influence, there will be gradually formed within him,
+through the mysterious tendency of the youthful heart to vibrate in
+unison with hearts that are near, a disposition to kill and destroy
+all helpless beings that come within his power. There is no need of
+any formal instruction in either case. Of a thousand children brought
+up under the former of the above-described influences, nearly every
+one, when he sees a bird, will wish to go and get crumbs to feed it,
+while in the latter case, nearly every one will just as certainly look
+for a stone. Thus the growing up in the right atmosphere, rather than
+the receiving of the right instruction, is the condition which it is
+most important to secure, in plans for forming the characters of
+children.
+
+It is in accordance with this philosophy that these stories, though
+written mainly with a view to their moral influence on the hearts and
+dispositions of the readers, contain very little formal exhortation
+and instruction. They present quiet and peaceful pictures of happy
+domestic life, portraying generally such conduct, and expressing such
+sentiments and feelings, as it is desirable to exhibit and express in
+the presence of children.
+
+The books, however, will be found, perhaps, after all, to be useful
+mainly in entertaining and amusing the youthful readers who may peruse
+them, as the writing of them has been the amusement and recreation of
+the author in the intervals of more serious pursuits.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+    I.--THE CAVERN,                                11
+
+   II.--BOYISHNESS,                                30
+
+  III.--THE PLOWING,                               47
+
+   IV.--NEGOTIATIONS,                              66
+
+    V.--PLANS FOR THE SQUIRREL,                    85
+
+   VI.--DIFFICULTY,                                96
+
+  VII.--THE WORK SHOP,                            111
+
+ VIII.--A DISCOVERY,                              130
+
+   IX.--THE ACCIDENT,                             148
+
+    X.--GOOD ADVICE,                              165
+
+   XI.--THE JOURNEY HOME,                         181
+
+
+
+
+ENGRAVINGS
+
+
+                                                  PAGE
+ THE BOYS AT THE MILL--FRONTISPIECE.
+
+ GOING OUT THE GATE,                               18
+
+ THE CAVERN,                                       27
+
+ THE TRAP,                                         40
+
+ THE HORNET'S NEST,                                57
+
+ OXEN DRINKING,                                    60
+
+ BEECHNUT'S ADVICE,                                89
+
+ THE APPEAL,                                      105
+
+ FRINK ON THE BEAM,                               119
+
+ DOROTHY'S FIRE,                                  140
+
+ THE DOCTOR'S VISIT,                              163
+
+ THE EFFIGY,                                      168
+
+ FRINK IN THE PARLOR,                             179
+
+ THE DEPARTURE,                                   190
+
+
+
+
+SCENE OF THE STORY.
+
+
+Franconia, a place among the mountains at the North. The time is
+summer.
+
+
+PRINCIPAL PERSONS.
+
+MRS. HENRY, a lady residing at Franconia.
+
+ALPHONZO, commonly called Phonny, about nine years old.
+
+MALLEVILLE, Phonny's cousin from New York, seven years old.
+
+WALLACE, Malleville's brother, a college student, visiting Franconia
+at this season.
+
+STUYVESANT, Wallace's brother, about nine years old.
+
+ANTOINE BIANCHINETTE, commonly called Beechnut, a French boy, now
+about fourteen years old, living at Mrs. Henry's.
+
+
+
+
+STUYVESANT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE CAVERN.
+
+
+One pleasant summer morning Alphonzo was amusing himself by swinging
+on a gate in front of his mother's house. His cousin Malleville, who
+was then about eight years old, was sitting upon a stone outside of
+the gate, by the roadside, in a sort of corner that was formed between
+the wall and a great tree which was growing there. Malleville was
+employed in telling her kitten a story.
+
+The kitten was sitting near Malleville, upon a higher stone.
+Malleville was leaning upon this stone, looking the kitten in the
+face. The kitten was looking down, but she seemed to be listening very
+attentively.
+
+"Now, Kitty," said Malleville, "if you will sit still and hark, I will
+tell you a story,--a story about a mouse. I read it in a book. Once
+there was a mouse, and he was white, and he lived in a cage. No I
+forgot,--there were three mice. I'll begin again.
+
+"Once there was a boy, and he had three white mice, and he kept them
+in a cage."
+
+Here Malleville's story was interrupted by Phonny, who suddenly called
+out:
+
+"Here comes Beechnut, Malleville."
+
+"I don't care," said Malleville, "I'm telling a story to Kitty, and
+you must not interrupt me."
+
+Here the kitten jumped down from the stone and ran away.
+
+"Now Phonny!" said Malleville, "see what you have done;--you have made
+my Kitty go away."
+
+"I didn't make her go away," said Phonny.
+
+"Yes you did," said Malleville, "you interrupted my story, and that
+made her go away."
+
+Phonny laughed aloud at this assertion, though Malleville continued to
+look very serious. Phonny then repeated that he did not make the
+kitten go away, and besides, he said, he thought that it was very
+childish to pretend to tell a story to a kitten.
+
+Malleville said that she did not think it was childish at all; for
+_her_ kitten liked to hear stories. Phonny, at this, laughed again,
+and then Malleville, appearing to be still more displeased, said that
+she was not any more childish than Phonny himself was.
+
+By this time Beechnut, as Phonny called him, had come up. He was
+driving a cart. The cart was loaded with wood. The wood consisted of
+small and dry sticks, which Beechnut had gathered together in the
+forest.
+
+"Beechnut," said Phonny, "are you going into the woods again for
+another load?"
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut.
+
+"And may I go with you?" said Phonny.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut.
+
+"And I?" said Malleville.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut.
+
+Beechnut drove on into the yard, and at length stopped near a great
+woodpile. Beechnut began to throw off the wood. Phonny climbed up into
+the cart too, to help Beechnut unload. Malleville sat down upon a log
+lying near to see.
+
+While they were at work thus, throwing off the wood, Phonny, instead
+of taking the smallest sticks that came in his way, tried always to
+get hold of the largest. He had three motives for doing this, all
+mingled together. The first was a pleasure in exercising his own
+strength; the second, a desire to show Malleville that he was no
+child; and the third, to make a display of his strength to Beechnut.
+
+After a while, when the load had been about half thrown off, Phonny
+stopped his work, straightened himself up with an air of great
+self-satisfaction and said,
+
+"Malleville says I am childish; do you think I am, Beechnut?"
+
+"No," said Malleville, "I did not say so." She began to be a little
+frightened at this appeal to Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "you certainly did."
+
+"No," said Malleville.
+
+"What did you say?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I said I was not childish myself, any more than you."
+
+"Well, that is the same thing," said Phonny.
+
+Malleville was silent. She thought that it was a different thing, but
+she did not know very well how to explain the difference.
+
+In the mean time Beechnut went on unloading the wood.
+
+"Do _you_ think I am childish at all, Beechnut," said Phonny.
+
+"Why I don't know," said Beechnut, doubtfully. "I don't know how many
+childish things it is necessary for a boy to do, in order to be
+considered as childish in character; but I have known you to do _two_
+childish things within half an hour."
+
+Phonny seemed a little surprised and a little confused at this, and
+after a moment's pause he said:
+
+"I know what one of them is, I guess."
+
+"What?" asked Beechnut.
+
+"Swinging on the gate."
+
+"No," said Beechnut, "I did not mean that. You have done things a
+great deal more childish than that."
+
+"What?" said Phonny.
+
+"The first was," said Beechnut, "making a dispute with Malleville, by
+appealing to me to decide whether you were childish."
+
+"Why I ought to know if I am childish," said Phonny, "so that if I am,
+I may correct the fault."
+
+"I don't think that that was your motive," said Beechnut, "in asking.
+If you had wished to know my opinion in order to correct yourself of
+the fault, you would have asked me some time privately. I think that
+your motive was a wish to get a triumph over Malleville."
+
+"Oh, Beechnut!" said Phonny.
+
+Although Phonny said Oh Beechnut, he still had a secret conviction
+that what Beechnut had said was true. He was silent a moment, and then
+he asked what was the other childishness which Beechnut had seen
+within half an hour.
+
+"In unloading this wood," said Beechnut, "you tried to get hold of the
+biggest sticks, even when they were partly buried under the little
+ones, and thus worked to great disadvantage. _Men_ take the smaller
+ones off first, and so clear the way to get at the larger ones. But
+boys make a great ado in getting hold of the largest ones they can
+see, by way of showing the by-standers how strong they are."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will throw off the little ones after this."
+
+So Phonny went to work again, and in throwing off the remainder of the
+load, he acted in a much more sensible and advantageous manner than he
+had done before. The cart was soon empty. Beechnut then went into the
+house and brought out a small chair; this he placed in the middle of
+the cart, for Malleville. He also placed a board across the cart in
+front, in such a manner that the ends of the board rested upon the
+sides of the cart. The board thus formed a seat for Beechnut and
+Phonny. Beechnut then gave the reins to Phonny, who had taken his seat
+upon the board, while he, himself, went to help Malleville in.
+
+He led Malleville up to the cart behind, and putting his hands under
+her arms, he said "Jump!" Malleville jumped--Beechnut at the same time
+lifting to help her. She did not however quite get up, and so Beechnut
+let her down to the ground again.
+
+"Once more," said Beechnut.
+
+So Malleville tried again. She went a little higher this time than
+before, but not quite high enough.
+
+"That makes twice," said Beechnut. "The rule is,
+
+     "Try it once, try it twice,
+     And then once more, and that makes thrice."
+
+The third time Malleville seemed to be endowed with some new and
+supernatural strength in her jumping: for she bounded so high that her
+feet rose almost to a level with the top of the seat, and then, as she
+came down gently upon the floor of the cart, Beechnut released his
+hold upon her, and she walked to her chair and sat down. Beechnut then
+mounted to his place by the side of Phonny, and the whole party rode
+away.
+
+[Illustration: GOING OUT THE GATE.]
+
+After riding along for some distance, Phonny asked Beechnut if he
+really thought that he was childish.
+
+"Why no," said Beechnut, "not particularly. You are a little boyish
+sometimes, and I suppose that that is to be expected, since you are
+really a boy. But you are growing older every year, and I see some
+marks of manliness in you, now and then. How old are you now?"
+
+"I am nine years and five months," said Phonny. "That is, I am about
+half-past nine."
+
+"That is pretty old," said Beechnut, "but then I suppose I must expect
+you to be a boy some time longer."
+
+"Beechnut," said Phonny, "did you know that my cousin Wallace was
+coming here pretty soon?"
+
+"Is he?" said Beechnut. "From college?"
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "it is his vacation. He is coming here to spend
+his vacation."
+
+"I am glad of that," said Beechnut. "I like to have him here."
+
+"And my cousin Stuyvesant is coming too," said Phonny.
+
+"Stuyvesant is my brother," said Malleville.
+
+"How old is he?" asked Beechnut.
+
+"He is only nine," said Phonny.
+
+"Then he is not so old as you are," said Beechnut.
+
+"Not quite," said Phonny.
+
+"And I suppose of course, he will be more of a boy than you," said
+Beechnut.
+
+"I don't know," said Phonny.
+
+"We shall see," said Beechnut.
+
+Just then, Phonny heard the sound of wheels behind him. He turned
+round and saw a wagon coming along the road.
+
+"Here comes a wagon," said he. "I am going to whip up, so that they
+shall not go by us."
+
+"No," said Beechnut, "turn out to one side of the road, and walk the
+horse, and let them go by."
+
+"Why?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I'll tell you presently," said Beechnut, "after the wagon has got
+before us."
+
+Phonny turned out of the road and let the wagon drive by, and then
+Beechnut told him that the reason why he was not willing to have him
+whip up and keep ahead was, that he wanted to use the strength of the
+horse that day, in hauling wood, and not to waste it in galloping
+along the road, racing with a wagon.
+
+At length the party reached a place where there was a pair of bars by
+the roadside, and a way leading in, to a sort of pasture. Phonny knew
+that this was where Beechnut was going, and so he turned in. The road
+was rough, and Malleville had to hold on very carefully to the side of
+the cart as they went along. Presently the road went into a wood, and
+after going on some way in this wood, Beechnut directed Phonny to
+stop, and they all got out.
+
+"Now, Phonny," said Beechnut, "you can have your choice either to work
+or play."
+
+"What do you think that I had better do?" said Phonny.
+
+"Play, I rather think," said Beechnut.
+
+"I thought you would say work," said Phonny.
+
+"You had better play, in order to keep Malleville company," said
+Beechnut.
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will."
+
+So while Beechnut went to work to get a new load of wood, Phonny and
+Malleville went away to play.
+
+There was a precipice of rocks near the place where Beechnut was
+loading his cart, with a great many large rocks at the foot of it. The
+top of the precipice was crowned with trees, and there were also a
+great many bushes and trees growing among the rocks below. It was a
+very wild and romantic place, and Phonny and Malleville liked to play
+there very much indeed.
+
+After a time Phonny called out to Beechnut to inquire whether he had
+any matches in his pocket. He said that he and Malleville were going
+to build a fire.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "I have. Come here and I will give you some."
+
+So Phonny sent Malleville after the matches, while he collected dry
+wood for a fire. When Malleville returned, she gave Phonny the
+matches, and told him that Beechnut said that they must make the fire
+on the _rocks_ somewhere, or in some other safe place, so that it
+should not spread into the woods.
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will look about and find a good place."
+
+Accordingly, he began to walk along at the foot of the precipice,
+examining every recess among the rocks, and all the nooks and corners
+which seemed to promise well, as places of encampment. Malleville
+could not quite keep up with him on account of the roughnesses and
+inequalities of the way.
+
+At last Malleville, who had fallen a little behind, heard Phonny
+calling to her in tones of great delight. She hastened on. In a
+moment she saw Phonny before her just coming out from among the bushes
+and calling to her,
+
+"Malleville! Malleville! come here quick!--I have found a cavern."
+
+Malleville went on, and presently she came in view of what Phonny
+called a cavern. It was a place where two immense fragments of rock
+leaned over toward each other, so as to form a sort of roof, beneath
+which was an inclosure which Phonny called a cavern. He might perhaps
+have more properly called it a grotto. There was a great flat stone at
+the bottom of the cavern, which made an excellent floor, and there was
+an open place in the top behind, where Phonny thought that the smoke
+would go out if he should make a fire.
+
+"There, Malleville," said Phonny, when she came where she could see
+the cavern, "that is what I call a discovery. We will play that we are
+savages, and that we live in a cavern."
+
+Phonny rolled two large stones into the cavern, and placed them in the
+back part of it, where he intended to build his fire. These stones
+were for andirons. Then he began to bring in logs, and sticks, and
+branches of trees, such as he found lying upon the ground dead and
+dry. These he piled up inside of the cavern in a sort of corner, where
+there was a deep recess or crevice, which was very convenient for
+holding the wood.
+
+Malleville helped him do all this. When a sufficient supply of wood
+was gathered, Phonny laid some of it across his stone andirons, and
+then prepared to light the fire.
+
+He rubbed one of his matches against a dry log, and the match
+immediately kindled. Phonny looked at the blue flame a moment, and
+then, as if some sudden thought had struck him, he blew it out again,
+and said,
+
+"On the whole, I will go and ask Beechnut. We may as well be sure."
+
+So he ran down from the entrance of the cavern, and thence along by
+the way that they had come, through the thicket, until he came in
+sight of Beechnut.
+
+"Beechnut," said he, calling out very loud, "we have found a
+cavern;--may we build a fire in it?"
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut.
+
+Then Phonny went back, and telling Malleville that Beechnut had said
+yes, he proceeded to kindle his fire.
+
+It happened that there were two large stones, tolerably square in
+form, each of them, and flat upon the upper side, which were lying in
+the cavern in such places as to be very convenient for seats. When the
+fire began to burn, Phonny sat down upon one of these seats, and gave
+Malleville the other. The fire blazed up very cheerily, and the smoke
+and sparks, winding their way up the side of the rock, which formed
+the back of the cavern, escaped out through the opening at the top in
+a very satisfactory manner.
+
+"There," said Phonny, "this is what I call comfortable. If we only now
+had something to eat, it is all I should want."
+
+"I'll tell you what," said he again, after a moment's pause, "we will
+send home by Beechnut, when he goes with his next load, to get us
+something to eat."
+
+"Well," said Malleville, "so we will."
+
+Beechnut very readily undertook the commission of bringing Phonny and
+Malleville something to eat. Accordingly, when his cart was loaded he
+went away, leaving Phonny and Malleville in their cavern. While he was
+gone the children employed themselves in bringing flat stones, and
+making a fireplace by building walls on each side of their fire.
+
+In due time Beechnut returned, bringing with him a large round box,
+which he said that Mrs. Henry had sent to Phonny and Malleville. It
+was too heavy for Phonny to lift easily, and so Beechnut drove his
+cart along until it was nearly opposite the cavern. Then he took the
+box out of the cart and carried it into the cavern, and laid it down
+upon Malleville's seat.
+
+Phonny opened it, and he found that it contained a variety of stores.
+There were four potatoes and four apples, each rolled up in a separate
+paper. There were also two crackers. These crackers were in a tin mug,
+just big enough to hold them, one on the top of the other. The mug,
+Phonny said, was for them to drink from, and as there was a spring by
+the side of the cavern they had plenty of water.
+
+"One cracker is for me," said Phonny, "and the other for you,
+Malleville. I mean to split my cracker in two, and toast the halves."
+
+At the bottom of the box there was half a pie.
+
+[Illustration: THE CAVERN.]
+
+Beechnut stopped to see what the box contained, and then he went away
+to his work again. As he went away, he told the children that Mrs.
+Henry said that they need not come home to dinner that day, unless
+they chose to do so,--but might make their dinner, if they pleased, in
+the cavern, from what she had sent them in the box.
+
+The children were very much pleased with this plan. They remained in
+the cavern a long time. They roasted their potatoes in the fire, and
+their apples in front of it. They toasted their crackers and warmed
+their pie, by placing them against a stone between the andirons; and
+they got water, whenever they were thirsty, in the dipper from the
+spring.
+
+At length, about the middle of the afternoon, when their interest in
+the cavern was beginning to decline, their thoughts were suddenly
+turned away from it altogether, by the news which Beechnut announced
+to them on his return from the house, after his eighth load, that
+Wallace had arrived.
+
+"And has my brother Stuyvesant come too?" asked Malleville.
+
+"I suppose so," said Beechnut, "there was a boy with him, about as
+large as Phonny, but I did not hear what his name was."
+
+"Oh, it is he! it is he!" said Malleville, clapping her hands.
+
+Phonny and Malleville mounted upon the top of the load as soon as
+Beechnut got it ready, and rode home. They ran into the house, while
+Beechnut went to unload his wood. Just as Beechnut was ready to go out
+of the yard again with his empty cart, Phonny came out.
+
+"Cousin Wallace has really come," said Phonny.
+
+"Ah!" said Beechnut, "and what does he have to say?"
+
+"Why, he says," replied Phonny, "that he is going to make a man of
+me."
+
+"Is he?" said Beechnut. "Well, I hope he will take proper time for it.
+I have no great opinion of the plan of making men out of boys before
+their time."
+
+So saying, Beechnut drove away, and Phonny went in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BOYISHNESS.
+
+
+Two or three days after Wallace arrived at Franconia, he and Phonny
+formed a plan to go and take a ride on horseback. They invited
+Stuyvesant to go with them, but Stuyvesant said that Beechnut was
+going to plow that day, and had promised to teach him to drive oxen.
+He said that he should like better to learn to drive oxen than to take
+a ride on horseback.
+
+There was another reason which influenced Stuyvesant in making this
+decision, and that was, that he had observed that there were only two
+horses in the stable, and although he knew that Beechnut could easily
+obtain another from some of the neighbors, still he thought that this
+would make some trouble, and he was always very considerate about
+making trouble. This was rather remarkable in Stuyvesant, for he was a
+city boy, and city boys are apt to be very inconsiderate.
+
+So Wallace and Phonny concluded to go by themselves. They mounted
+their horses and rode together out through the great gate.
+
+"Now," said Phonny, when they were fairly on the way, "we will have a
+good time. This is just what I like. I would rather have a good ride
+on horseback than any thing else. I wish that they would let me go
+alone sometimes."
+
+"Won't they?" asked Wallace.
+
+"No, not very often," said Phonny.
+
+"Do you know what the reason is?" asked Wallace.
+
+"I suppose because they think that I am not old enough," replied
+Phonny, "but I am."
+
+"I don't think that that is the reason," said Wallace. "Stuyvesant is
+not quite so old as you are, and yet I shall let _him_ go and ride
+alone whenever he pleases."
+
+"What _is_ the reason then?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Because you are not _man_ enough I suppose," said Wallace. "You might
+be more manly, without being any older, and then people would put more
+trust in you, and you would have a great many more pleasures."
+
+Phonny was rather surprised to hear his cousin Wallace speak thus. He
+had thought that he _was_ manly--very manly; but it was evident that
+his cousin considered him boyish.
+
+"I do not know," continued Wallace, "but that you are as manly as
+other boys of your years."
+
+"Except Stuyvesant," said Phonny.
+
+"Yes, except Stuyvesant," said Wallace, "I think that he is rather
+remarkable. I do not think that you are _very_ boyish,--but you are
+growing up quite fast and you are getting to be pretty large. It is
+time for you to begin to evince some degree of the carefulness, and
+considerateness, and sense of responsibility, that belong to men.
+
+"There are two kinds of boyishness," continued Wallace. "One kind is
+very harmless."
+
+"What kind is that?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Why if a boy continues," said Wallace, "when he is quite old, to take
+pleasure in amusements which generally please only young children,
+that is boyishness of a harmless kind. For example, suppose we should
+see a boy, eighteen years old, playing marbles a great deal, we should
+say that he was boyish. So if _you_ were to have a rattle or any other
+such little toy for a plaything, and should spend a great deal of
+time in playing with it, we should say that it was very boyish or
+childish. Still that kind of boyishness does little harm, and we
+should not probably do any thing about it, but should leave you to
+outgrow it in your own time."
+
+"What kind of boyishness do you mean then, that is not harmless?"
+asked Phonny.
+
+"I mean that kind of want of consideration, by which boys when young,
+are always getting themselves and others into difficulty and trouble,
+for the sake of some present and momentary pleasure. They see the
+pleasure and they grasp at it. They do not see the consequences, and
+so they neglect them. The result is, they get into difficulty and do
+mischief. Other people lose confidence in them, and so they have to be
+restricted and watched, and subjected to limits and bounds, when if
+they were a little more considerate and manly, they might enjoy a much
+greater liberty, and many more pleasures."
+
+"I don't think that I do so," said Phonny.
+
+"No," rejoined Wallace, "I don't think that you do; that is I don't
+think that you do so more than other boys of your age. But to show you
+exactly what I mean, I will give you some cases. Perhaps they are
+true and perhaps they are imaginary. It makes no difference which they
+are.
+
+"Once there was a boy," continued Wallace, "who came down early one
+winter morning, and after warming himself a moment by the sitting-room
+fire, he went out in the kitchen. It happened to be ironing day, and
+the girl was engaged in ironing at a great table by the kitchen fire.
+We will call the girl's name Dorothy.
+
+"The boy seeing Dorothy at this work, wished to iron something,
+himself. So Dorothy gave him a flat-iron and also something to iron."
+
+"What was it that she gave him to iron?" said Phonny.
+
+"A towel," said Wallace.
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "go on."
+
+"The boy took the flat-iron and went to work," continued Wallace.
+"Presently, however, he thought he would go out into the shed and see
+if the snow had blown in, during the night. He found that it had, and
+so he stopped to play with the drift a few minutes. At last he came
+back into the kitchen, and he found, when he came in, that Dorothy
+had finished ironing his towel and had put it away. He began to
+complain of her for doing this, and then, in order to punish her, as
+he said, he took two of her flat-irons and ran off with them, and put
+them into the snow drift."
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "that was me. But then I only did it for fun."
+
+"Was the fun for yourself or for Dorothy?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Why, for me," said Phonny.
+
+"And it made only trouble for Dorothy," said Wallace.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "I suppose it did."
+
+"That is the kind of boyishness I mean," said Wallace, "getting fun
+for yourself at other people's expense; and so making them dislike
+you, and feel sorry when they see you coming, and glad when you go
+away."
+
+Phonny was silent. He saw the folly of such a course of proceeding,
+and had nothing to say.
+
+"There is another case," said Wallace. "Once I knew a boy, and his
+name was--I'll call him Johnny."
+
+"What was his other name?" asked Phonny.
+
+"No matter for that, now," said Wallace. "He went out into the barn,
+and he wanted something to do, and so the boy who lived there, gave
+him a certain corner to take charge of, and keep in order."
+
+"What was that boy's name?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Why, I will call him Hazelnut," said Wallace.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Phonny, "now I know you are going to tell some story
+about me and Beechnut." Here Phonny threw back his head and laughed
+aloud. He repeated the words Johnny and Hazelnut, and then laughed
+again, until he made the woods ring with his merriment.
+
+Wallace smiled, and went on with his story.
+
+"Hazelnut gave him the charge of a corner of the barn where some
+harnesses were kept, and Johnny's duty was to keep them in order
+there. One day Hazelnut came home and found that Johnny had taken out
+the long reins from the harness, and had fastened them to the branches
+of two trees in the back yard, to make a swing, and then he had loaded
+the swing with so many children, as to break it down."
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "that was me too; but I did not think that the
+reins would break."
+
+"I know it," said Wallace. "You did not think. That is the nature of
+the kind of boyishness that I am speaking of. The boy does not
+_think_. Men, generally, before they do any new or unusual thing, stop
+to consider what the results and consequences of it are going to be;
+but boys go on headlong, and find out what the consequences are when
+they come."
+
+While Wallace and Phonny had been conversing thus, they had been
+riding through a wood which extended along a mountain glen. Just at
+this time they came to a place where a cart path branched off from the
+main road, toward the right. Phonny proposed to go into this path to
+see where it would lead. Wallace had no objection to this plan, and so
+they turned their horses and went in.
+
+The cart path led them by a winding way through the woods for a short
+distance, along a little dell, and then it descended into a ravine, at
+the bottom of which there was a foaming torrent tumbling over a very
+rocky bed. The path by this time became quite a road, though it was a
+very wild and stony road. It kept near the bank of the brook,
+continually ascending, until at last it turned suddenly away from the
+brook, and went up diagonally upon the side of a hill. There were
+openings in the woods on the lower side of the road, through which
+Wallace got occasional glimpses of the distant valleys. Wallace was
+very much interested in these prospects, but Phonny's attention was
+wholly occupied as he went along, in looking over all the logs, and
+rocks, and hollow trees, in search of squirrels.
+
+At last, at a certain turn of the road, the riders came suddenly upon
+a pair of bars which appeared before them,--directly across the road.
+
+"Well," said Wallace, "here we are, what shall we do now?"
+
+"It is nothing but a pair of bars," said Phonny. "I can jump off and
+take them down."
+
+"No," said Wallace, "I think we may as well turn about here, and go
+back. We have come far enough on this road."
+
+Just then Phonny pointed off under the trees of the forest, upon one
+side, and said in a very eager voice,
+
+"See there!"
+
+"What is it?" said Wallace.
+
+"A trap," said Phonny. "It is a squirrel trap! and it is sprung!
+There's a squirrel in it, I've no doubt. Let me get off and see."
+
+"Well," said Wallace, "give me the bridle of your horse."
+
+So Phonny threw the bridle over his horse's head and gave it to
+Wallace. He then dismounted--sliding down the side of the horse safely
+to the ground.
+
+As soon as he found himself safely down, he threw his riding-stick
+upon the grass, and ran off toward the trap.
+
+The trap was placed upon a small stone by the side of a larger one. It
+was in a very snug and sheltered place, almost out of view. In fact it
+probably would not have been observed by any ordinary passer-by.
+
+Phonny ran up to the trap, and took hold of it. He lifted it up very
+cautiously. He shook it as well as he could, and then listened. He
+thought that he could hear or feel some slight motion within. He
+became very much excited.
+
+He put the trap down upon the high rock, and began opening up the lid
+a little, very gently.
+
+[Illustration: THE TRAP.]
+
+The trap was of the kind called by the boys a box-trap. It is in the
+form of a box, and the back part runs up high, to a point. The lid of
+the box has a string fastened to it, which string is carried up, over
+the high point, and thence down, and is fastened to an apparatus
+connected with the spindle.
+
+The spindle is a slender rod of wood which passes through the end of
+the box into the interior. About half of the spindle is within the box
+and half without. There is a small notch in the outer part of the
+spindle, and another in the end of the box, a short distance above the
+spindle. There is a small bar of wood, with both ends sharpened, and
+made of such a length as just to reach from the notch in the end of
+the box, to the notch in the spindle. This bar is the apparatus to
+which the end of the string is fastened, as before described.
+
+When the trap is to be set, the bar is fitted to the notches in such a
+manner as to catch in them, and then the weight of the lid, being
+sustained by the string, the lid is held up so that the squirrel can
+go in. The front of the box is attached to the lid, and rises with it,
+so that when the lid is raised a little the squirrel can creep
+directly in. The bait, which is generally a part of an ear of corn, is
+fastened to the end of the spindle, which is within the trap. The
+squirrel sees the bait, and creeps in to get it. He begins to nibble
+upon the corn. The ear is tied so firmly to the spindle that he can
+not get it away. In gnawing upon it to get off the corn, he finally
+disengages the end of the spindle from the bar, by working the lower
+end of the bar out of its notch; this lets the string up, and of
+course the lid comes down, and the squirrel is shut in, a captive.
+
+When the lid first comes down, it makes so loud a noise as to terrify
+the poor captive very much. He runs this way and that, around the
+interior of the box, wondering what has happened, and why he can not
+get out as he came in. He has no more appetite for the corn, but is in
+great distress at his sudden and unaccountable captivity.
+
+After trying in vain on all sides to escape, by forcing his way, and
+finding that the box is too strong for him in every part, he finally
+concludes to gnaw out. He accordingly selects the part of the box
+where there is the widest crack, and where consequently the brightest
+light shines through. He selects this place, partly because he
+supposes that the box is thinnest there, and partly because he likes
+to work in the light.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: To prevent the squirrels that are caught from gnawing
+out, the boys sometimes line the inside of their traps with tin.]
+
+There was a squirrel in the trap which Phonny had found. It was a
+large and handsome gray squirrel. He had been taken that morning.
+About an hour after the trap sprung upon him, he had begun to gnaw
+out, and he had got about half through the boards in the corner when
+Phonny found him. When Phonny shook the trap the squirrel clung to the
+bottom of it by his claws, so that Phonny did not shake him about
+much.
+
+When Phonny had put the trap upon the great stone, he thought that he
+would lift up the lid a little way, and peep in. This is a very
+dangerous operation, for a squirrel will squeeze out through a very
+small aperture, and many a boy has lost a squirrel by the very means
+that he was taking to decide whether he had got one.
+
+Phonny was aware of this danger, and so he was very careful. He raised
+the lid but very little, and looked under with the utmost caution. He
+saw two little round and very brilliant eyes peeping out at him.
+
+"Yes, Wallace," said he. "Yes, yes, here he is. I see his eyes."
+
+Wallace sat very composedly upon his horse, holding Phonny's bridle,
+while Phonny was uttering these exclamations, without appearing to
+share the enthusiasm which Phonny felt, at all.
+
+"He is here, Wallace," said Phonny. "He is, truly."
+
+"I do not doubt it," said Wallace, "but what are we to do about it?"
+
+"Why--why--what would you do?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I suppose that the best thing that we could do," said Wallace, "is to
+ride along."
+
+"And leave the squirrel?" said Phonny, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"Yes," said Wallace. "I don't see any thing else that we can do."
+
+"Why, he will gnaw out," said Phonny. "He will gnaw out in half an
+hour. He has gnawed half through the board already. Espy ought to have
+tinned his trap." So saying, Phonny stooped down and peeped into the
+trap again, through the crack under the lid.
+
+"Who is Espy?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Espy Ransom," said Phonny. "He lives down by the mill. He is always
+setting traps for squirrels. I suppose that this road goes down to the
+mill, and that he came up here and set his trap. But it won't do to
+leave the squirrel here," continued Phonny, looking at Wallace in a
+very earnest manner. "It never will do in the world."
+
+"What shall we do, then?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Couldn't we carry him down to Espy?" said Phonny.
+
+"I don't think that we have any right to carry him away. It is not our
+squirrel, and it may be that it is not Espy's."
+
+Phonny seemed perplexed. After a moment's pause he added, "Couldn't we
+go down and tell Espy that there is a squirrel in his trap?"
+
+"Yes," said Wallace, "that we can do."
+
+Phonny stooped down and peeped into the trap again.
+
+"The rogue," said he. "The moment that I am gone, he will go to
+gnawing again, I suppose, and so get out and run away. What a little
+fool he is."
+
+"Do you think he is a fool for trying to gnaw out of that trap?" asked
+Wallace.
+
+"Why no,"--said Phonny, "but I wish he wouldn't do it. We will go down
+quick and tell Espy."
+
+So Phonny came back to the place where Wallace had remained in the
+road, holding the horses. Phonny let down the bars, and Wallace went
+through with the horses. Phonny immediately put the bars up again,
+took the bridle of his own horse from Wallace's hands, threw it up
+over the horse's head, and then by the help of a large log which lay
+by the side of the road, he mounted. He did all this in a hurried
+manner, and ended with saying:
+
+"Now, Cousin Wallace, let's push on. I don't think it's more than half
+a mile to the mill."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE PLOWING.
+
+
+While Wallace and Phonny were taking their ride, as described in the
+last chapter, Stuyvesant and Beechnut were plowing.
+
+Beechnut told Stuyvesant that he was ready to yoke up, as he called
+it, as soon as the horses had gone.
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant, "I will come. I have got to go up to my room
+a minute first."
+
+So Stuyvesant went up to his room, feeling in his pockets as he
+ascended the stairs, to find the keys of his trunk. When he reached
+his room, he kneeled down before his trunk and unlocked it.
+
+He raised the lid and began to take out the things. He took them out
+very carefully, and laid them in order upon a table which was near the
+trunk. There were clothes of various kinds, some books, and several
+parcels, put up neatly in paper. Stuyvesant stopped at one of these
+parcels, which seemed to be of an irregular shape, and began to feel
+of what it contained through the paper.
+
+"What is this?" said he to himself. "I wonder what it can be. Oh, I
+remember now, it is my watch-compass."
+
+What Stuyvesant called his watch-compass, was a small pocket-compass
+made in the form of a watch. It was in a very pretty brass case, about
+as large as a lady's watch, and it had a little handle at the side, to
+fasten a watch-ribbon to. Stuyvesant's uncle had given him this
+compass a great many years before. Stuyvesant had kept it very
+carefully in his drawer at home, intending when he should go into the
+country to take it with him, supposing that it would be useful to him
+in the woods. His sister had given him a black ribbon to fasten to the
+handle. The ribbon was long enough to go round Stuyvesant's neck,
+while the compass was in his waistcoat pocket.
+
+Stuyvesant untied the string, which was around the paper that
+contained his compass, and took it off. He then wound up this
+string into a neat sort of coil, somewhat in the manner in which
+fishing-lines are put up when for sale in shops. He put this coil
+of twine, together with the paper, upon the table. He looked at the
+compass a moment to see which was north in his chamber, and then
+putting the compass itself in his pocket, he passed the ribbon round
+his neck, and afterward went on taking the things out of his trunk.
+
+When he came pretty near to the bottom of his trunk, he said to
+himself,
+
+"Ah! here it is."
+
+At the same moment he took out a garment, which seemed to be a sort of
+frock. It was made of brown linen. He laid it aside upon a chair, and
+then began to put the things back into his trunk again. He laid them
+all in very carefully, each in its own place. When all were in, he
+shut down the lid of the trunk, locked it, and put the key in his
+pocket. Then he took the frock from the chair, and opening it, put it
+on.
+
+It was made somewhat like a cartman's frock. Stuyvesant had had it
+made by the seamstress at his mother's house, in New York, before he
+came away. He was a very neat and tidy boy about his dress, and always
+felt uncomfortable if his clothes were soiled or torn. He concluded,
+therefore, that if he had a good, strong, serviceable frock to put on
+over his other clothes, it would be very convenient for him at
+Franconia.
+
+As soon as his frock was on, he hastened down stairs and went out to
+the barn in search of Beechnut. He found him yoking up the cattle.
+
+"Why, Stuyvesant," said Beechnut, when he saw him, "that is a capital
+frock that you have got. How much did it cost?"
+
+"I don't know," said Stuyvesant; "Mary made it for me."
+
+"Who is Mary?" asked Beechnut.
+
+"She is the seamstress," said Stuyvesant. "She lives at our house in
+New York."
+
+"Do you have a seamstress there all the time?" said Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"And her name is Mary," said Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Well, I wish she would take it into her head to make me such a frock
+as that," said Beechnut.
+
+During this conversation, Beechnut had been busily employed in yoking
+up the oxen. Stuyvesant looked on, watching the operations carefully,
+in order to see how the work of yoking up was done. He wished to see
+whether the process was such that he could learn to yoke up oxen
+himself; or whether any thing that was required was beyond his
+strength.
+
+"Can _boys_ yoke up cattle?" said Stuyvesant at length.
+
+"It takes a pretty stout boy," said Beechnut.
+
+"Could a boy as stout as I am do it?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"It would be rather hard work for you," said Beechnut, "the yoke is
+pretty heavy."
+
+The yoke was indeed quite heavy, and it was necessary to lift it--one
+end at a time--over the necks of the oxen. Stuyvesant observed that
+the oxen were fastened to the yoke, by means of bows shaped like the
+letter U. These bows were passed up under the necks of the oxen. The
+ends of them came up through the yokes and were fastened there by
+little pegs, which Beechnut called keys. There was a ring in the
+middle of the yoke on the under side to fasten the chain to, by which
+the cattle were to draw.
+
+When the oxen were yoked, Beechnut drove them to the corner of the
+yard, where there was a drag with a plow upon it. Beechnut put an axe
+also upon the drag.
+
+"What do you want an axe for," asked Stuyvesant, "in going to plow?"
+
+"We always take an axe," said Beechnut, "when we go away to work. We
+are pretty sure to want it for something or other."
+
+Beechnut then gave Stuyvesant a goad stick, and told him that he might
+drive. Stuyvesant had observed very attentively what Beechnut had done
+in driving, and the gestures which he had made, and the calls which he
+had used, in speaking to the oxen, and though he had never attempted
+to drive such a team before, he succeeded quite well. His success,
+however, was partly owing to the sagacity of the oxen, who knew very
+well where they were to go and what they were to do.
+
+At length, after passing through one or two pairs of bars, they came
+to the field.
+
+"Which is the easiest," said Stuyvesant, "to drive the team or hold
+the plow?"
+
+"That depends," said Beechnut, "upon whether your capacity consists
+most in your strength or your skill."
+
+"Why so?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"Because," said Beechnut, "it requires more skill to drive, than to
+hold the plow, and more strength to hold the plow, than to drive. I
+think, therefore, that you had better drive, for as between you and I,
+it is I that have the most strength, and you that have the most
+skill."
+
+Stuyvesant laughed.
+
+"Why you _ought_ to have the most skill," said Beechnut--"coming from
+such a great city."
+
+Beechnut took the plow off from the drag, and laid the drag on one
+side. He then attached the cattle to the plow. They were standing,
+when they did this, in the middle of one side of the field.
+
+"Now," said Beechnut, "we are going first straight through the middle
+of the field. Do you see that elm-tree, the other side of the fence?"
+
+"I see a large tree," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"It is an elm," said Beechnut.
+
+"There is a great bird upon the top of it," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "it is a crow. Now you must keep the oxen headed
+directly for that tree. Go as straight as you can, and I shall try to
+keep the plow straight behind you. The thing is to make a straight
+furrow."
+
+When all was ready, Stuyvesant gave the word to his oxen to move
+on, and they began to draw. Stuyvesant went on, keeping his eye
+alternately upon the oxen and upon the tree. He had some curiosity to
+look round and see how Beechnut was getting along with the furrow, but
+he recollected that his business was to drive, and so he gave his
+whole attention to his driving, in order that he might go as straight
+as possible across the field.
+
+The crow flew away when he had got half across the field. He had a
+strong desire to know where she was going to fly to, but he did not
+look round to follow her in her flight. He went steadily on attending
+to his driving.
+
+When he was about two thirds across the field, he saw a stump at a
+short distance before him, with a small hornet's nest upon one side of
+it. His course would lead him, he saw, very near this nest. His first
+impulse was to stop the oxen and tell Beechnut about the hornet's
+nest. He did in fact hesitate a moment, but he was instantly reassured
+by hearing Beechnut call out to him from behind, saying,
+
+"Never mind the hornet's nest, Stuyvesant. Drive the oxen right on. I
+don't think the hornets will sting them."
+
+Stuyvesant perceived by this, that Beechnut thought only of the oxen,
+when he saw a hornet's nest, and he concluded to follow his example in
+this respect. So he drove steadily on.
+
+When they got to the end of the field the oxen stopped. Beechnut and
+Stuyvesant then looked round to see the furrow. It was very
+respectably straight.
+
+"You have done very well," said he, "and you will find it easier now,
+for one of the oxen will walk in the furrow, and that will guide him."
+
+So Stuyvesant brought the team around and then went back, one of the
+oxen in returning walking in the furrow which had been made before. In
+this manner they went back to the place from which they had first
+started.
+
+"There," said Beechnut, "now we have got our work well laid out. But
+before we plow any more, we must destroy that hornet's nest, or else
+when we come to plow by that stump, the hornets will sting the oxen.
+I'll go and get some straw. You may stay here and watch the oxen
+while I am gone."
+
+In a short time Beechnut came back, bringing his arms full of hay. He
+walked directly toward that part of the field where the hornet's nest
+was, calling Stuyvesant to follow him. Stuyvesant did so. When he got
+near to the stump, he put the hay down upon the ground. He then
+advanced cautiously to the stump with a part of the hay in his arms
+This hay he put down at the foot of the stump, directly under the
+hornet's nest, extending a portion of it outward so as to form a sort
+of train. He then went back and took up the remaining portion of the
+hay and held it in his hands.
+
+"Now, Stuyvesant," said Beechnut, "light a match and set fire to the
+train."
+
+Beechnut had previously given Stuyvesant a small paper containing a
+number of matches.
+
+"How shall I light it?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"Rub it upon a stone," said Beechnut. "Find one that has been lying in
+the sun," continued Beechnut, "and then the match will catch quicker,
+because the stone will be warm and dry."
+
+So Stuyvesant lighted a match by rubbing it upon a smooth stone which
+was lying upon the ground near by. He then cautiously approached the
+end of the train and set it on fire.
+
+[Illustration: THE HORNET'S NEST.]
+
+Beechnut then came up immediately with the hay that he had in his
+hands, and placed it over and around the hornet's nest, so as to
+envelop it entirely. He and Stuyvesant then retreated together to a
+safe distance, and there stood to watch the result.
+
+A very dense white smoke immediately began to come up through the
+hay. Presently the flame burst out, and in a few minutes the whole
+mass of the hay was in a bright blaze. Stuyvesant looked very
+earnestly to see if he could see any hornets, but he could not. At
+last, however, when the fire was burnt nearly down, he saw two. They
+were flying about the stump, apparently in great perplexity and
+distress. Stuyvesant pitied them, but as he did not see what he could
+do to help them, he told them that he thought they had better go and
+find some more hornets and build another nest somewhere. Then he and
+Beechnut went back to the plow.
+
+Stuyvesant had quite a desire to try and hold the plow, after he had
+been driving the team about an hour, but he thought it was best not to
+ask. In fact he knew himself that it was best for him to learn one
+thing at a time. So he went on with his driving.
+
+When it was about a quarter before twelve, Beechnut said that it was
+time to go in. So he unhooked the chain from the yoke, and leaving the
+plow, the drag, the axe and the chain in the field, he let the oxen
+go. They immediately ran off into a copse of trees and bushes, which
+bordered the road on one side.
+
+"Why, Beechnut!" said Stuyvesant, "the oxen are running away."
+
+"No," said Beechnut, "they are only going down to drink. There is a
+brook down there where they go to drink when they are at work in this
+field."
+
+Oxen appear to possess mental qualifications of a certain kind in a
+very high degree. They are especially remarkable for their sagacity
+in finding good places to drink in the fields and pastures where
+they feed or are employed at work, and for their good memory in
+recollecting where they are. An ox may be kept away from a particular
+field or pasture quite a long time, and yet know exactly where to go
+to find water to drink when he is admitted to it again.
+
+Stuyvesant looked at the oxen as they went down the path, and then
+proposed to follow them.
+
+"Let us go and see," said he.
+
+[Illustration: OXEN DRINKING.]
+
+So he and Beechnut walked along after the oxen. They found a narrow,
+but very pretty road, or rather path, overhung with trees and bushes,
+which led down to the water. The road terminated at a broad and
+shallow place in the stream, where the sand was yellow and the water
+very clear. The oxen went out into the water, and then put their heads
+down to drink. Presently they stopped, first one and then the other,
+and stood a moment considering whether they wanted any more. Finding
+that they did not, they turned round in the water, and then came
+slowly out to the land. They walked up the bank, and finally emerging
+from the wood at the place where they had entered it, they went toward
+home.
+
+When they reached the house the cattle went straight through the yard,
+toward the barn. Beechnut and Stuyvesant followed them. Beechnut was
+going to get them some hay. Stuyvesant went in with Beechnut and stood
+below on the barn floor, while Beechnut went up the ladder to pitch
+the hay down.
+
+During all the time that Beechnut and Stuyvesant had been coming up
+from the field, conversation had been going on between them, about
+various subjects connected with farming. Stuyvesant asked Beechnut if
+Phonny could drive oxen pretty well.
+
+"_Pretty_ well," said Beechnut.
+
+"Does he like to drive?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"He likes to begin to drive," said Beechnut.
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"Why, when there is any driving to be done," replied Beechnut, "he
+thinks that he shall like it, and he wants to take a goad stick and
+begin. But he very soon gets tired of it, and goes away. You seem to
+have more perseverance. In fact, you seem to have a great deal of
+perseverance, which I think is very strange, considering that you are
+a city boy."
+
+Stuyvesant laughed.
+
+"City boys," continued Beechnut, "I have always heard said, are good
+for nothing at all."
+
+"But you said, a little while ago," replied Stuyvesant, "that city
+boys had a great deal of skill."
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "they are bright enough, but they have generally
+no steadiness or perseverance. They go from one thing to another,
+following the whim of the moment. The reason of that is, that living
+in cities, they are brought up without having any thing to do."
+
+"They can go of errands," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "they can go of errands, but there are not many
+errands to be done, so they are brought up in idleness. Country boys,
+on the other hand, generally have a great deal to do. They have to go
+for the cows, and catch the horses, and drive oxen, and a thousand
+other things, and so they are brought up in industry."
+
+"Is Phonny brought up in industry?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"Hardly," said Beechnut. "In fact he is scarcely old enough yet to do
+much work."
+
+"He is as old as I am," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"True," said Beechnut, "but he does not seem to have as much
+discretion. Do you see that long shed out there, projecting from the
+barn?"
+
+This was said just at the time when Beechnut and Stuyvesant were
+passing through the gate which led into the yard, and the barns and
+sheds were just coming into view.
+
+"The one with that square hole by the side of the door?" asked
+Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "that was Phonny's hen house. He bought some
+hens, and was going to be a great poulterer. He was going to have I
+don't know how many eggs and chickens,--but finally he got tired of
+his brood, and neglected them, and at last wanted to sell them to me.
+I bought them day before yesterday."
+
+"How many hens are there?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"About a dozen," said Beechnut. "I gave him a dollar and a half for
+the whole stock. I looked into his hen-house when I bought him out,
+and found it all in sad condition. I have not had time to put it in
+order yet."
+
+"I will put it in order," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Will you?" said Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "and I should like to buy the hens of you, if
+I were only going to stay here long enough."
+
+"I don't think it is worth while for you to buy them," said Beechnut,
+"but I should like to have you take charge of them. I would pay you by
+giving you a share of the eggs."
+
+"What could I do with the eggs?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"Why you could sell them, or give them away, just as you pleased. You
+might give them to Mrs. Henry, or sell them to her, or sell them to
+me. If you will take the whole care of them while you are here, I will
+give you one third of the eggs, after all expenses are paid."
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"Why, if we have to buy any grain, for instance, to give the hens, we
+must sell eggs enough first to pay for the grain, and after that, you
+shall have one third of the eggs that are left."
+
+Stuyvesant was much pleased with this proposal, and was just about to
+say that he accepted it, when his attention was suddenly turned away
+from the subject, by hearing a loud call from Phonny, who just then
+came running round a corner, with a box-trap under his arm, shouting
+out,
+
+"Stuyvesant! Stuyvesant! Look here! I've got a gray squirrel;--a
+beautiful, large gray squirrel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+NEGOTIATIONS.
+
+
+It is necessary in this chapter to return to Phonny and Wallace, in
+order to explain how Phonny succeeded in getting his squirrel.
+
+He was quite in haste, as he went on after leaving the squirrel, in
+order to get down to the mill where Espy lived, before the squirrel
+should have gnawed out. The road, he was quite confident, led to the
+mill.
+
+"I should like to buy the squirrel, if Espy will sell him," said
+Phonny.
+
+"Do you think that your mother would be willing?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Why yes," said Phonny, "certainly. What objection could she have?"
+
+"None, only the trouble that it would occasion her," replied Wallace.
+
+"Oh, it would not make her any trouble," said Phonny. "I should take
+care of it myself."
+
+"It would not make her much trouble, I know," said Wallace, "if you
+were only considerate and careful. As it is I think it may make her a
+great deal."
+
+"No," said Phonny, "I don't think that it will make her any trouble at
+all."
+
+"Where shall you keep your squirrel?" asked Wallace.
+
+"In a cage, in the back room," said Phonny, promptly.
+
+"Have you got a cage?" asked Wallace.
+
+"No," said Phonny, "but I can make one."
+
+"I think that in making a cage," replied Wallace, "you would have to
+give other people a great deal of trouble. You would be inquiring all
+about the house, for tools, and boards, and wire,--that is unless you
+keep your tools and materials for such kind of work, in better order
+than boys usually do."
+
+Phonny was silent. His thoughts reverted to a certain room in one of
+the out-buildings, which he called his shop, and used for that
+purpose, and which was, as he well knew, at this time in a state of
+great confusion.
+
+"Then," continued Wallace, "you will leave the doors open, going and
+coming, to see your squirrel, and to feed him."
+
+"No," said Phonny, "I am very sure that I shall not leave the doors
+open."
+
+"And then," continued Wallace, "after a time you will get a little
+tired of your squirrel, and will forget to feed him, and so your
+mother or somebody in the house, must have the care of reminding you
+of it."
+
+"Oh, no," said Phonny, "I should not forget to feed him, I am sure."
+
+"Did not you forget to feed your hens?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Why--yes," said Phonny, hesitatingly, "but that is a different
+thing."
+
+"Then, besides," said Wallace, "you will have to go and beg some money
+of your mother to buy the squirrel with. For I suppose you have not
+saved any of your own, from your allowance. It is very seldom that
+boys of your age have self-control enough to lay up any money."
+
+As Wallace said these words Phonny, who had been riding along, with
+the bridle and his little riding stick both in his right hand, now
+shifted them into his left, and then putting his right hand into his
+left vest pocket, he drew out a little wallet. He then extended his
+hand with the wallet in it to Wallace saying,
+
+"Look in there."
+
+Wallace took the wallet, opened it as he rode along, and found that
+there was a quarter of a dollar in one of the pockets.
+
+"Is that your money?" said Wallace.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+"Then you are not near as much of a boy as I thought you were. To be
+able to save money, so as to have a stock on hand for any unexpected
+emergency, is one of the greatest proofs of manliness. I had no idea
+that you were so much of a man."
+
+Phonny laughed. At first Wallace supposed that this laugh only
+expressed the pleasure which Phonny felt at having deserved these
+praises, but as he gave back the wallet into Phonny's hands, he
+perceived a very mysterious expression upon his countenance.
+
+"That's the money," said Phonny, "that my mother just gave me for my
+next fortnight's allowance."
+
+"Then you have had no opportunity to spend it at all?"
+
+"No," said Phonny.
+
+Phonny thought that he was sinking himself in his cousin's estimation
+by this avowal, but he was in fact raising himself very much by
+evincing so much honesty.
+
+"He is not willing to receive commendation that he knows he does not
+deserve," thought Wallace to himself. "That is a good sign. That is a
+great deal better trait of character than to be able to lay up money."
+
+Wallace thought this to himself as he rode along. He did not, however,
+express the thought, but went on a minute or two in silence. At length
+he said,
+
+"So, then, you have got money enough to buy the squirrel?"
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "if a quarter is enough."
+
+"It is enough," said Wallace, "I have no doubt. So that one difficulty
+is disposed of. As to the second difficulty," he continued, "that is,
+troubling the family about making the cage, we can dispose of that
+very easily, too, for I can help you about that myself. What shall we
+do about the third, leaving the doors open and making a noise when you
+go back and forth to feed him?"
+
+"Oh, I will promise not to do that," said Phonny.
+
+"Promise!" repeated Wallace, in a tone of incredulity.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "I'll promise, positively."
+
+"Is it safe to rely on boys' promises about here?" said Wallace. "They
+would not be considered very good security in Wall Street, in New
+York."
+
+"I don't know," said Phonny; "I always keep _my_ promises."
+
+"Are you willing to agree, that if you make any noise or disturbance
+in the family with your squirrel, that he is to be forfeited?"
+
+"Forfeited!" said Phonny, "how do you mean?"
+
+"Why, given up to me, to dispose of as I please," said Wallace.
+
+"And what should you do with him?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I don't know," said Wallace. "I should dispose of him in some way, so
+that he should not be the means of any more trouble. Perhaps I should
+give him away; perhaps I should open the cage and let him run."
+
+"Then I think you ought to pay me what I gave for him," said Phonny.
+
+"No," said Wallace, "because I don't take him for any advantage to
+myself, but only to prevent your allowing him to make trouble. If you
+make noise and disturbance with him, it is your fault, and you lose
+the squirrel as the penalty for it. If you do your duty and make no
+trouble with him, then he would not be forfeited."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I agree to that. But perhaps you will say that I
+make a disturbance with him when I don't."
+
+"We will have an umpire, then," said Wallace.
+
+"What is an umpire?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Somebody to decide when there is a dispute," replied Wallace. "Who
+shall be the umpire?"
+
+"Beechnut," said Phonny.
+
+"Agreed," said Wallace.
+
+"And now there is one point more," he continued, "and that is, perhaps
+you will neglect to feed him, and then we shall be uncomfortable, for
+fear that the squirrel is suffering."
+
+"No," said Phonny, shaking his head; "I shall certainly feed him every
+day, and sometimes twice a day."
+
+"Are you willing to agree to forfeit him, if you fail to feed him?"
+
+"Why--I don't know," said Phonny. "But I certainly shall feed him, I
+know I shall."
+
+"Then there will be no harm in agreeing to forfeit him if you fail,"
+rejoined Wallace; "for if you certainly do feed him, then your
+agreement to forfeit him will be a dead letter."
+
+"But I might accidentally omit to feed him some one day," said Phonny.
+"I might be sick, or I might be gone away, and I might ask Stuyvesant
+to feed him, and he forget it, and then I should lose my squirrel
+entirely."
+
+"No," said Wallace, "you are not to forfeit him except for _neglect_.
+It must be a real and inexcusable neglect on your part, Beechnut being
+judge."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I agree to it."
+
+"And I will give you three warnings," said Wallace, "both for making
+trouble and disturbance with your squirrel, and for neglecting to feed
+him. After the third warning, he is forfeited, and I am to do what I
+please with him."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I agree to it."
+
+A short time after this conversation, the road in which Wallace and
+Phonny were riding emerged from the wood, and there was opened before
+them the prospect of a wide and beautiful valley. A short distance
+before them down the valley, there was a stream with a mill. By the
+side of the mill, under some large spreading elms, was a red house,
+which Phonny said was the one where Espy lived.
+
+They rode on rapidly, intending to go to the house and inquire for
+Espy. Just before reaching the place, however, Phonny's attention was
+arrested by his seeing some boys fishing on the bank of the stream,
+just below the mill. It was at a place where the road lay along the
+bank of the stream, at a little distance from it. The stream was very
+broad at this place, and the water quite deep and clear. The ground
+was smooth and green between the road and the water, and there were
+large trees on the bank overshadowing the shore, so that it was a very
+pleasant place.[B]
+
+[Footnote B: See Frontispiece.]
+
+There were two boys standing upon the bank in one place fishing. Two
+other boys were near the water at a little distance, trying to make a
+dog jump in, by throwing in sticks and stones.
+
+Just as Wallace and Phonny came along, one of the boys who was
+fishing, called out in a loud and authoritative tone to one of those
+who were trying to make the dog jump in, saying,
+
+"Hey-e-e, there! Oliver, don't throw sticks into the water; you scare
+away all the fish."
+
+"Ned!" said Phonny, calling out to the boy who was fishing.
+
+The boy looked round, without, however, moving his fishing-pole.
+
+"Is Espy down there anywhere?" said Phonny.
+
+Here the boy turned his head again toward the water, without directly
+answering Phonny, though he called out at the same time in an audible
+voice,
+
+"Espy!"
+
+In answer apparently to his call, a boy came suddenly out of a little
+thicket which was near the water, just below where Ned was fishing,
+and asked Ned what he wanted.
+
+"There's a fellow out here in the road," said Ned, "calling for you."
+
+Hearing this, the boy came out of the thicket entirely, and scrambled
+up the bank. He stood at the top of the bank, looking toward Wallace
+and Phonny, but did not advance. His hand was extended toward a
+branch of the tree which he had taken hold of to help him in climbing
+up the bank. He continued to keep hold of this tree, showing by his
+attitude that he did not mean to come any farther.
+
+He was in fact a little awed at the sight of Wallace, who was a
+stranger to him. He did not know whether he was wanted for any good
+purpose, or was going to be called to account for some of his
+misdeeds.
+
+"Come here a minute," said Phonny.
+
+Espy did not move.
+
+"Is that your trap up in the woods?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Yes," said Espy.
+
+"There is a squirrel in it," rejoined Phonny, "and I want to buy him."
+
+Hearing this, the boys who had been playing with the dog began to move
+up toward Wallace and Phonny. Espy himself taking his hand down from
+the tree, came forward a few steps. Wallace and Phonny too advanced a
+little with their horses toward the stream, and thus the whole party
+came nearer together.
+
+"There is a squirrel in your trap," repeated Phonny, "if he has not
+gnawed out;--and I want to buy him. What will you sell him for?"
+
+"What kind of a squirrel is it?" asked Espy.
+
+"I don't know," said Phonny. "I couldn't see any thing but his eyes."
+
+"If it's a gray squirrel," said Espy, "he is worth a quarter. If it's
+a red squirrel you may have him for four pence--
+
+"Or for nothing at all," continued Espy, after a moment's pause, "just
+as you please."
+
+Wallace laughed.
+
+"What will you sell him for just as he is," asked Wallace, "and we
+take the risk of his being red or gray?"
+
+"Don't you know which it is?" asked Espy.
+
+"No," said Wallace, "_I_ do not. I did not go near the cage, and
+Phonny did not open it. He says he could only see his eyes."
+
+"And his nose," said Phonny, "I saw his nose,--but I don't know at
+all, what kind of a squirrel it is."
+
+"You may have him for eighteen cents," said Espy.
+
+"But perhaps he has gnawed out," said Phonny. "He was gnawing out as
+fast as he could when we saw him."
+
+"Why, if he has gnawed out," said Espy, "you will not have anything to
+pay, of course; because then you won't get him.
+
+"Or," continued Espy, "you may have him for ten cents, and you take
+the risk of his gnawing out. You give me ten cents now, and you may
+have him if he is there, red or gray. If he is not there, I keep the
+ten cents, and you get nothing."
+
+"Well," said Phonny. "Would you, Wallace?"
+
+"I don't know," said Wallace. "You must decide. There is considerable
+risk. I can't judge."
+
+"I have not got any ten cents," said Phonny--"only a quarter of a
+dollar."
+
+"Oh, I can pay," said Wallace, "and then you can pay me some other
+time."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I believe I will take him."
+
+"You must lend me the trap," said Phonny, again addressing Espy,--"to
+carry the squirrel home in, and I will bring it back here some day."
+
+"Well," said Espy.
+
+So Wallace took a ten cent piece from his pocket, and gave it to Espy,
+and then he and Phonny rode away.
+
+"Now," said Phonny, "we must go ahead."
+
+They rode on rapidly for some time. At length, on ascending a hill,
+they were obliged to slacken their pace a little.
+
+"If it should prove to be a gray squirrel," said Phonny, "what a
+capital bargain I shall have made. A squirrel worth a quarter of a
+dollar, for ten cents."
+
+"I don't see why a gray squirrel is so much more valuable than a red
+one," said Wallace. "Is gray considered prettier than red?"
+
+"Oh, it is not his color," said Phonny, "it is the shape and size. The
+gray squirrels are a great deal larger, and then, they have a
+beautiful bushy tail, that lays all the time over their back, and
+curls up at the end, like a plume. The red squirrels are very small."
+
+"Besides," continued Phonny, "they are not red exactly. They are a
+kind of reddish brown, so that they are not very pretty, even in
+color. I am afraid that my squirrel will be a red one."
+
+"I am afraid so, too," said Wallace.
+
+"The red squirrels are altogether the most common," said Phonny.
+
+"There are the bars," said Wallace, "now we shall soon see."
+
+They had arrived in fact, at the bars. Phonny jumped off his horse and
+gave Wallace the bridle, and then went to take down the bars. As soon
+as he had got them down, he left Wallace to go through with the
+horses, at his leisure, and he himself ran off toward the rock where
+he had left the trap, to see what sort of a squirrel he had.
+
+Wallace went through the bars in a deliberate manner, as it was in
+fact necessary to do in conducting two horses, and then dismounted,
+intending to put the bars up. He had just got off his horse when he
+saw Phonny coming from the direction of the place where the trap had
+been left, with a countenance expressive of great surprise and
+concern.
+
+"Wallace," exclaimed Phonny, "the squirrel has gone, trap and all."
+
+"Has it?" said Wallace.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny; "I left it on that rock, and it is gone."
+
+So saying Phonny ran to the place and put his foot upon the rock,
+looking up to Wallace, and added,
+
+"There is the very identical spot where I put it, and now it is gone."
+
+Wallace seemed at a loss what to think.
+
+"Somebody must have taken him away," said he.
+
+"Hark!" said Phonny.
+
+Wallace and Phonny listened. They heard the voices of some boys in the
+woods.
+
+"There they are now," said Phonny.
+
+"Mount the horse," said Wallace, "and we will go and see."
+
+Phonny mounted his horse as expeditiously as possible, and he and
+Wallace rode off through the woods in the direction of the voices.
+They followed a path which led down a sort of glen, and after riding a
+short distance they saw the boys before them, standing in a little
+open space among the trees. The boys had stopped to see who was
+coming.
+
+There were three boys, one large and two small. The large boy had the
+trap under his arm.
+
+"Halloa!" said Phonny, calling out aloud to the boys, "stop carrying
+off that trap."
+
+The boys did not answer.
+
+"I have bought that squirrel," said Phonny, "you must give him to me."
+
+"No," said the great boy; "it belongs to Espy, and I am going to keep
+it for him."
+
+"Hush," said Wallace, in a low tone to Phonny; "_I_ will speak to
+him."
+
+Then calling out aloud again, he said, "We have just been down to
+Espy's and have bought the squirrel, and have now come to take him
+home."
+
+The boy did not move from the place where he stood, and he showed very
+plainly by his countenance and his manner, that he did not mean to
+give the squirrel up. Presently they heard him mutter to the small
+boys,
+
+"I don't believe they have bought him, and they shan't have him."
+
+"Let us go down and take the squirrel away from them," said Phonny, in
+a low tone to Wallace; "I don't believe they will give him up, unless
+we do."
+
+"We can not do that," said Wallace. "We might take the trap away,
+perhaps, but they would first open the trap and let the squirrel go."
+
+"What shall we do, then?" asked Phonny.
+
+Wallace did not answer this question, directly, but called out again
+to the boy who held the trap, saying,
+
+"We found the squirrel here in the woods, and then went down to tell
+Espy, and we bought the squirrel of him. But we can't carry him home
+very well on horseback, at least till we get out of the woods, because
+the road is so steep and rough. Now if you will carry him down the
+road for us, till we get out of the woods, I will give you six cents."
+
+"Well," said the boy, "I will."
+
+He immediately began to come toward Wallace and Phonny, so as to go
+back with them into the road which they were to take. Wallace and
+Phonny led the way, and he followed. As soon as he came within
+convenient distance for talking, Phonny asked him what sort of a
+squirrel it was.
+
+"A gray squirrel," said he. "The prettiest gray squirrel that ever I
+saw."
+
+Phonny was very much elated at hearing this intelligence, and wanted
+to get off his horse at once, and take a peep at the squirrel; but
+Wallace advised him to do no such thing. In due time the whole party
+got out of the woods. Wallace gave the boy his six cents, and the boy
+handed the trap up to Phonny. Phonny held it upon the pommel of the
+saddle, directly before him. He found that the squirrel had gnawed
+through the board so as to get his nose out, but he could not gnaw any
+more, now that the box was all the time in motion. So he gave it up in
+despair, and remained crouched down in a corner of the trap during the
+remainder of the ride, wondering all the time what the people outside
+were doing with him.
+
+"You managed that boy finely," said Phonny. "He is one of the worst
+boys in town."
+
+"It is generally best," said Wallace, "in dealing with people, to
+contrive some way to make it for their interest to do what you want,
+rather than to quarrel with them about it."
+
+For the rest of the way, Phonny rode on without meeting with any
+difficulty, and arrived at home, with his squirrel all safe, just at
+the time when Beechnut and Stuyvesant were talking about the poultry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+PLANS FOR THE SQUIRREL.
+
+
+As soon as Phonny had told Stuyvesant about his squirrel and had
+lifted up the lid of the trap a little, so as to allow him to peep in
+and see, he said that he was going in to show the squirrel to the
+people in the house, and especially to Malleville. He accordingly
+hurried away with the box under his arm. Stuyvesant went back toward
+the barn.
+
+Phonny hastened along to the house. From the yard he went into a shed
+through a great door. He walked along the platform in the shed, and at
+the end of the platform he went up three steps, to a door leading into
+the back kitchen. He passed through this back kitchen into the front
+kitchen, hurrying forward as he went, and leaving all the doors open.
+
+Dorothy was at work at a table ironing.
+
+"Dorothy," said Phonny, "I've got a squirrel--a beautiful squirrel. If
+I had time I would stop and show him to you."
+
+"I wish you had time to shut the doors," said Dorothy.
+
+"In a minute," said Phonny, "I am coming back in a minute, and then I
+will."
+
+So saying Phonny went into a sort of hall or entry which passed
+through the house, and which had doors in it leading to the principal
+rooms. There was a staircase here. Phonny supposed that Malleville was
+up in his mother's chamber. So he stood at the foot of the stairs and
+began to call her with a loud voice.
+
+"Malleville!" said he, "Malleville! Where are you? Come and see my
+squirrel."
+
+Presently a door opened above, and Phonny heard some one stepping out.
+
+"Malleville," said Phonny, "is that you?"
+
+"No," said a voice above, "it is Wallace. I have come to give you your
+first warning."
+
+"Why, I only wanted to show my squirrel to Malleville," said Phonny.
+
+"You are making a great disturbance," said Wallace, "and besides,
+though I don't _know_ any thing about it, I presume that you came in a
+noisy manner through the kitchen and left all the doors open there."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will be still."
+
+So Phonny turned round and went away on tiptoe. When he got into the
+kitchen, he first shut the doors, and then carried the trap to
+Dorothy, and let her peep through the hole which the squirrel had
+gnawed and see the squirrel inside.
+
+"Do you see him?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I see the tip of his tail," said Dorothy, "curling over. The whole
+squirrel is there somewhere, I've no doubt."
+
+Phonny then went out again to find Stuyvesant. He was careful to walk
+softly and to shut all the doors after him.
+
+He found Stuyvesant and Beechnut in the barn. Beechnut was raking up
+the loose hay which had been pitched down upon the barn floor, and
+Stuyvesant was standing beside him.
+
+"Beechnut," said Phonny, "just look at my squirrel. You can peep
+through this little hole where he was trying to gnaw out."
+
+Phonny held the trap up and Beechnut peeped through the hole.
+
+"Yes," said he, "I see the top of his head His name is Frink."
+
+"Frink?" repeated Phonny, "how do you know?"
+
+"I think that must be his name," said Beechnut. "If you don't believe
+it, try and see if you can make him answer to any other name. If you
+can I'll give it up."
+
+"Nonsense, Beechnut," said Phonny. "That is only some of your fun. But
+Frink will be a very good name for him, nevertheless. Only I was going
+to call him Bunny."
+
+"I don't think his name is Bunny," said Beechnut. "I knew Bunny. He
+was a squirrel that belonged to Rodolphus. He got away and ran off
+into the woods, but I don't think that this is the same one."
+
+"I'll call him Frink," said Phonny. "But what would you do with him if
+you were in my place?"
+
+"Me?" said Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+"Well, I think," said Beechnut, stopping his work a moment, and
+leaning on his rake, and drawing a long breath, as if what he was
+about to say was the result of very anxious deliberation, "I think
+that on the whole, if that squirrel were mine, I should put two large
+baskets up in the barn-chamber, and send him into the woods this fall
+to get beechnuts, and hazelnuts, and fill the baskets. One basket for
+beechnuts and one for hazelnuts, and I would give him a month to fill
+them."
+
+[Illustration: BEECHNUT'S ADVICE.]
+
+"Nonsense, Beechnut," said Phonny, "you are only making fun. If I were
+to let him go off into the woods, he never would come back again."
+
+"Why, do you suppose," said Beechnut, "that he would rather be running
+about in the woods than to live in that trap?"
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+"Then," said Beechnut, "you must make him a beautiful cage, and have
+it so convenient and comfortable for him, that he shall like it better
+than he does the woods. That would not be difficult, one would
+suppose, because he has nothing but holes in the ground and old hollow
+logs in the woods."
+
+"I know that," said Phonny; "but then I don't think he would like any
+house that I could make him, so well as he does the old logs."
+
+"Then I don't know what you will do," said Beechnut, "to make him
+contented."
+
+So saying Beechnut went away, leaving Phonny and Stuyvesant together.
+They talked a few minutes about the squirrel, and then began to walk
+along toward the house.
+
+As they walked along, they heard the bell ring for dinner.
+
+"There," said Phonny, "there is the dinner-bell, what shall we do now?
+Where shall I put my squirrel while we are in at dinner?"
+
+"Haven't you got some sort of cage to put him in?" said Stuyvesant.
+
+"No," said Phonny, "I was going to make one after dinner in my shop.
+I have got a shop, did you know it?"
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "Beechnut told me."
+
+"Only my tools are rather dull," added Phonny. "But I think I can make
+a cage with them."
+
+"You might put the trap in the shop, on the bench," said Stuyvesant,
+"till after dinner, and then make your cage."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "so I will."
+
+So the two boys went into the shop. The room was indeed in great
+confusion. The floor was covered with chips and shavings. The tools
+were lying in disorder on the bench. There was a saw-horse in the
+middle of the room, tumbled over upon one side, because one of the
+legs was out. The handle was out of the hatchet, and one of the claws
+of the hammer was broken.
+
+While Stuyvesant was surveying this scene of disorder, Phonny advanced
+to the bench, and pushing away the tools from one corner of it, he put
+the trap down.
+
+"There!" said he, "he will be safe there till after dinner."
+
+"Only," said Stuyvesant, "he may finish gnawing out."
+
+"I will stop him up," said Phonny.
+
+So saying he took the foreplane, which is a tool formed of a steel
+cutter, set in a pretty long and heavy block of wood, and placed it
+directly before the hole in the trap. "There!" said he, "now if he
+does gnaw the hole big enough, he can't get out, for he can't push the
+plane away."
+
+"Perhaps he will be hungry," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"No," said Phonny, "for there was half an ear of corn tied to the
+spindle for bait, and he has not eaten but a very little of it yet, I
+can see by peeping in."
+
+"Then, perhaps, he will be thirsty," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"I will give him something to drink," said Phonny.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut.
+
+The boys turned and saw Beechnut standing at the door of the shop,
+looking at them. He continued,
+
+     "His name is Frink,
+     And so I think,
+     I'd give him a little water to drink."
+
+So saying, Beechnut went away. Phonny took up an old tin cover which
+lay upon a shelf behind the bench, and which had once belonged to a
+tin box. The box was lost, but Phonny had kept the cover to put nails
+in. He now poured the nails out upon the bench, and went out to the
+pump to fill the cover with water.
+
+In a minute or two he came back, walking carefully, so as not to spill
+the water. He raised the lid of the trap a little, very cautiously,
+and then pushed the cover in underneath it, in such a manner that
+about half of it was inside the trap.
+
+"There! That's what I call complete. Now he can have a drink when he
+pleases, and we will go in to dinner."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the dinner table, Phonny and Stuyvesant sat upon one side of the
+table, and Malleville sat on the other side, opposite to them. Mrs.
+Henry sat at the head, and Wallace opposite to her, at the foot of the
+table. The dinner consisted that day, of roast chickens, and after it,
+an apple pudding.
+
+Wallace carved the chickens, and when all had been helped, Phonny
+began to talk about the squirrel.
+
+"I suppose you consider it as boyishness in me, Cousin Wallace, to
+like to have a squirrel," said he.
+
+"It is a very harmless _kind_ of boyishness, at any rate," replied
+Wallace.
+
+"Then you have no objection to it," said Phonny.
+
+"None at all," said Wallace. "In one sense it is boyishness, for it is
+boys, and not men, that take pleasure in possessing useless animals."
+
+"Useless!" said Phonny, "do you call a gray squirrel useless?"
+
+"He is not useful in the sense in which the animals of a farm-yard are
+useful," said Wallace. "He gives pleasure perhaps, but cows, sheep,
+and hens, are a source of profit. Boys don't care much about profit;
+but like any kind of animals, if they are pretty, or cunning in their
+motions and actions."
+
+"I like gray squirrels," said Phonny, "very much indeed, if it _is_
+boyishness."
+
+"It is a very harmless kind of boyishness at all events," replied
+Wallace. "It is not like some other kinds of boyishness, such as I
+told you about the other day."
+
+"Well, Cousin Wallace," said Phonny, "what would you do, if you were
+in my case, for a cage?"
+
+"I would take some kind of box, without any top to it," replied
+Wallace, "and lay it down upon its side, and then make a front to it
+of wires."
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "that will be an excellent plan. But how can I
+make the front of wires?"
+
+"I will come and show you," said Wallace, "when you get the box all
+ready. You must look about and find a box, and carry it into the shop.
+Is your shop in order?"
+
+"No," said Phonny, "not exactly; but I can put it in order in a few
+minutes."
+
+"Very well," said Wallace. "Put your shop all in order, and get the
+box, and then come and call me."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+DIFFICULTY.
+
+
+After dinner, Stuyvesant told Phonny that he should be glad to help
+him about his cage, were it not that he was engaged to go with
+Beechnut that afternoon, to plow. Phonny was very sorry to hear this.
+In fact he had a great mind to go himself, and help plow, and so put
+off making his cage until the next day. It is very probable that he
+would have decided upon this plan, but while he was hesitating about
+it, Beechnut came to tell Stuyvesant that he should not be able to
+finish the plowing that day, for he was obliged to go away. Then
+Stuyvesant said that he would help Phonny. So they went together into
+the shop.
+
+They found the squirrel safe. Phonny examined the water very
+attentively, to see whether Frink had been drinking any of it. He was
+very confident that the water had diminished quite sensibly.
+Stuyvesant could not tell whether it had diminished or not.
+
+"And now," said Phonny, "the first thing is to put the shop in order."
+
+So saying, he took the plane away from before the trap, and looked at
+the hole to see whether Frink had gnawed it any bigger. He had not.
+Phonny then carried the trap to the back side of the shop and put it
+upon a great chopping-block which stood there. He did this for the
+purpose of having the bench clear, so as to put the tools in order
+upon it.
+
+"I am glad that you are going to put this shop in order," said
+Stuyvesant,--"that is, if you will let me use it afterward."
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "I will let you use it. But what should you want
+to make in it?"
+
+"Why, Beechnut has given me charge of the hen-house," said Stuyvesant,
+"and I am to have one third of the eggs."
+
+Here Phonny stopped suddenly in his work and looked up to Stuyvesant
+as if surprised.
+
+"What, _my_ hen-house!" said he.
+
+"The one that you used to have," said Stuyvesant. "He said that you
+sold it to him."
+
+"So I did," said Phonny, thoughtfully. As he said this, he laid down
+his saw, which he had just taken to hang upon a nail where it
+belonged, and ran off out of the shop.
+
+He was in pursuit of Beechnut. He found him harnessing a horse into a
+wagon.
+
+"Beechnut," said he, "have you given Stuyvesant the charge of my
+hen-house?"
+
+"I have offered it to him," said Beechnut, "but he has not told me yet
+whether he accepted the offer or not."
+
+"You are going to let him have half the eggs if he takes care of the
+house and the hens?" inquired Phonny.
+
+"One third of them," said Beechnut.
+
+"I did not know that you would do that," said Phonny. "If I had known
+that you would be willing to let it out in that way, I should have
+wanted it myself."
+
+"I am not certain that it would be safe to let it to _you_," said
+Beechnut.
+
+"Why not?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I am not sure that you would be persevering and faithful in taking
+care of the hens."
+
+"Why should not I as well as Stuyvesant?" asked Phonny. "Stuyvesant is
+not so old as I am."
+
+"He may have more steadiness and perseverance, for all that," said
+Beechnut.
+
+"I think you might let me have it as well as him," said Phonny.
+
+"Very well," said Beechnut, "either of you. It shall go to the one who
+has the first claim."
+
+"You say he did not accept your offer of it to him?"
+
+"No," said Beechnut, "I believe he did not."
+
+"Then I agree to accept it now," said Phonny, "and that gives me the
+first claim."
+
+Beechnut did not answer to this proposal, but went on harnessing the
+horse. When the horse was all ready, he gathered up the reins and
+stood a moment, just before getting into the wagon, in a thoughtful
+attitude.
+
+"Well now, Phonny," said he, "here is a great law question to be
+settled, whether you or Stuyvesant has the best right to the contract.
+Go and ask Stuyvesant to come to the shop-door."
+
+So Beechnut got into the wagon and drove out of the shed, and along
+the yard, until he came to the shop-door, and there he stopped. Phonny
+and Stuyvesant were standing in front of the door.
+
+"Stuyvesant," said Beechnut, "here is a perplexing case. Phonny wants
+to have the care of the hen-house on the same terms I offered it to
+you. You did not tell me whether you would take it or not."
+
+"No," said Stuyvesant, "I was going to tell you that I would take it,
+but if Phonny wants it, I am willing to give it up to him."
+
+"And you, Phonny," said Beechnut, "are willing, I suppose, if
+Stuyvesant wants it, to give it up to him?"
+
+"Why--yes," said Phonny. In saying this, however, Phonny seemed to
+speak quite reluctantly and doubtfully.
+
+"That's right," said Beechnut. "Each of you is willing to give up to
+the other. But now before we can tell on which side the giving up is
+to be, we must first decide on which side the right is. So that you
+see we have got the quarrel into a very pretty shape now. The question
+is, which of you can have the pleasure and privilege of giving up to
+the other, instead of which shall be _compelled_ to give up against
+his will. So you see it is now a very pleasant sort of a quarrel."
+
+"No," said Phonny, "it is not any such thing. A quarrel is not
+pleasant, ever."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Beechnut, "one of the greatest pleasures of life is to
+quarrel. We can not possibly get along, without quarrels. The only
+thing that we can do is to get them in as good shape as possible."
+
+"Have you got a pencil and paper in your shop?" continued Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+"Bring them out to me."
+
+Phonny brought out a pencil and a small piece of paper, and held them
+up to Beechnut in the wagon.
+
+"Now boys," said Beechnut, "are you willing to submit this case to Mr.
+Wallace, for his decision?"
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+"I am too," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Then I'll write a statement of it," said Beechnut.
+
+Beechnut accordingly placed the paper upon the seat of the wagon
+beside him, and began to write. In a few minutes he held up the paper
+and read as follows:
+
+     "A. has a certain contract which he is willing to offer to
+     either B. or C. whichever has the prior right to it. He
+     first offered it to B. but before B. accepted the offer C.
+     made application for it. C. immediately accepted the offer,
+     before A. decided upon B.'s application. Now the question is
+     whose claim is best, in respect simply of priority,--the one
+     to whom it was first _offered_, or the one who first
+     signified his willingness to accept of it."
+
+"There," said Beechnut, "there is a simple statement of the case."
+
+"I don't understand it very well," said Phonny.
+
+"Don't you?" said Beechnut; "then I'll read it again."
+
+So Beechnut began again.
+
+"A. has a certain contract----"
+
+Here Beechnut paused and looked up at the boys.
+
+"A. means Beechnut," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Then why don't you _say_ Beechnut?" said Phonny.
+
+"And the contract," continued Stuyvesant, "is the agreement about the
+hens."
+
+"Which he is willing to offer," continued Beechnut, "to either B. or
+C."
+
+"That is, either to you or me," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "I understand so far. But what is that about
+priority."
+
+"Priority," said Beechnut, "means precedence in respect to time."
+
+"That is harder to understand than priority," said Phonny.
+
+"The question is," continued Beechnut, "which must be considered as
+first in order of time, the one who had the offer first, or the one
+who accepted first."
+
+"The one who accepted first," said Phonny.
+
+"You are not to decide the question," said Beechnut. "I was only
+explaining to you what the question is. You must carry the paper to
+Mr. Wallace and get his opinion."
+
+"But Beechnut," said Phonny, "why don't you tell him all about it,
+just as it was, instead of making up such a story about A. B. and C.
+and priority."
+
+"Why, when we refer a case to an umpire for decision," said Beechnut,
+"it is always best, when we can, to state the principle of the
+question in general terms, so that he can decide it in the abstract,
+without knowing who the real parties are, and how they are to be
+affected by his decision. Here's Mr. Wallace now, who would not like
+very well to decide in favor of his brother and against you, even if
+he thought that his brother was in the right. But by not letting him
+know any thing but the general principle he can decide just as he
+thinks, without fear that you would think him partial."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will carry him the paper."
+
+"You must only give him the paper," said Beechnut, "and not tell him
+any thing about the case yourself."
+
+"No," said Phonny, "I will not."
+
+"For if you do," continued Beechnut, "he will know who the parties
+are, and then he will not like to decide the question."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will not tell him."
+
+"Let Stuyvesant go with you," said Beechnut.
+
+"Well," said Phonny.
+
+Phonny accordingly took the paper and went into the house with
+Stuyvesant. He led the way up into his cousin Wallace's room. He found
+Wallace seated at his table in his alcove, where he usually studied.
+The curtains were both up, which was the signal that Phonny might go
+and speak to him.
+
+Phonny and Stuyvesant accordingly walked up to the table, and Wallace
+asked them if they wished to speak to him.
+
+[Illustration: THE APPEAL.]
+
+Phonny handed him the paper.
+
+"There," said he, "is a case for you to decide."
+
+Wallace took the paper and read it. He said nothing, but seemed for a
+moment to be thinking on the subject, and then he took his pen and
+wrote several lines under the question. Phonny supposed that he was
+writing his answer.
+
+After his writing was finished, Wallace folded up the paper, and told
+Phonny that he must not read it until he had given it to Beechnut.
+
+"How did you know that it was from Beechnut?" said Phonny.
+
+"I knew by the handwriting," said Wallace. "Besides, I knew that there
+was nobody else here who would have referred such a question to me, in
+such a scientific way."
+
+So Phonny took the paper and carried it down to Beechnut.
+
+Beechnut opened it, and read aloud as follows:
+
+     My judgment is, that it would depend upon whether B. had a
+     reasonable time to consider and decide upon the offer,
+     before C. came forward. In all cases of making an offer, it
+     is implied that reasonable time is allowed to consider it.
+
+"The question is, then, boys," said Beechnut, "whether Stuyvesant had
+had a reasonable time to consider my offer, before Phonny came
+forward. What do you think about that, Phonny?"
+
+"Why, yes," said Phonny, "he had an hour."
+
+Stuyvesant said nothing.
+
+"I will think about that while I am riding," said Beechnut, "and tell
+you what I conclude upon it when I return. Perhaps we shall have to
+refer that question to Mr. Wallace, too."
+
+So Beechnut drove away, and the boys went back into the shop. Here
+they resumed their work of putting the tools in order, and while doing
+so, they continued their conversation about the question of priority.
+
+"_I_ think," said Phonny, "that you had abundance of time to consider
+whether you would accept the offer."
+
+"We might leave that question to Wallace, too," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "let's go now and ask him."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant, "I am willing."
+
+"Only," said Phonny, "we must not tell him what the question is
+about."
+
+"No," said Stuyvesant.
+
+So the boys went together up to Wallace's room. They found him in his
+alcove as before. They advanced to the table, and Wallace looked up to
+them to hear what they had to say.
+
+"B. had an hour to consider of his offer," said Phonny, "don't you
+think that that was enough?"
+
+Phonny was very indiscreet, indeed, in asking the question in that
+form, for it showed at once that whatever might be the subject of the
+discussion, he was not himself the person represented by B. It was now
+no longer possible for Wallace to look at the question purely in its
+abstract character.
+
+"Now I know," said Wallace, "which is B., and of course you may as
+well tell me all about it."
+
+Phonny looked at Stuyvesant with an expression of surprise and concern
+upon his countenance.
+
+"No matter," said Stuyvesant, "let us tell him the whole story."
+
+Phonny accordingly explained to Wallace, that the contract related to
+the care of the hen-house and the hens,--that it was first offered to
+Stuyvesant, that Stuyvesant did not accept it for an hour or two, and
+that in the course of that time he, Phonny, had himself applied for
+it. He concluded by asking Wallace if he did not think that an hour
+was a reasonable time.
+
+"The question," said Wallace, "how much it is necessary to allow for a
+reasonable time, depends upon the nature of the subject that the offer
+relates to. If two persons were writing at a table, and one of them
+were to offer the other six wafers in exchange for a steel pen, five
+minutes, or even one minute, might be a reasonable time to allow him
+for decision. On the other hand, in buying a house, two or three days
+would not be more than would be reasonable. Now, I think in such a
+case as this, any person who should receive such an offer as Beechnut
+made, ought to have time enough to consider the whole subject fairly.
+He would wish to see the hen-house, to examine its condition, to
+consider how long it would take him to put it in order, and how much
+trouble the care of the hens would make him afterward. He would also
+want to know how many eggs he was likely to receive, and to consider
+whether these would be return enough for all his trouble. Now, it does
+not seem to me, that one hour, coming too just when Stuyvesant was
+called away to dinner, could be considered a reasonable time. He ought
+to have a fair opportunity when the offer is once made to him, to
+consider it and decide understandingly, whether he would accept it or
+not."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, with a sigh, "I suppose I must give it up."
+
+So he and Stuyvesant walked back to the shop together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE WORK SHOP.
+
+
+When the boys entered the shop door, the first thing for Phonny to do,
+was to look and see if his trap was safe. It _was_ safe. It remained
+standing upon the horse-block where he had placed it.
+
+"And now," said Phonny, "the question is, where I am to find a box for
+a cage. I must go and look about."
+
+"And I must go and look at my hen-house," said Stuyvesant.
+
+Phonny proposed that Stuyvesant should go with him to find a box, and
+then help him make a cage, and after that, he would go, he said, and
+help Stuyvesant about the repairs of the hen-house.
+
+"I must go and _look_ at the hen-house first," said Stuyvesant. "I can
+do that, while you are finding the box, and then I will help you."
+
+"Well," said Phonny. "But--on the whole, I will go with you to look
+at it, and then you can go with me to find the box."
+
+So the boys walked along toward the hen-house together.
+
+When they came to the place, they went in, and Stuyvesant proceeded to
+examine the premises very thoroughly. There were two doors of
+admission. One was a large one, for men and boys to go in at. The
+other was a very small one, a square hole in fact, rather than a door,
+and was intended for the hens.
+
+This small opening had once been fitted with a sort of lid, which was
+attached by leather hinges on its upper edge to a wooden bar or cleat
+nailed to the side of the house, just over the square hole. This lid
+formed, of course, a sort of door, opening outward and upward. When
+up, it could be fastened in that position, by means of a wooden
+button. The button and the bar of wood remained in its place, but the
+door was gone.
+
+"Where is the door?" asked Stuyvesant, after he had examined all this
+very carefully.
+
+"Why, I took it off," said Phonny, "to make a little stool of. I
+wanted a square board just about that size."
+
+"And did you make a stool?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"No," said Phonny. "I found that I could not bore the holes for the
+legs. I _tried_ to bore a hole, but I split the board."
+
+"Then I must find another piece of board, somewhere," said Stuyvesant.
+
+Stuyvesant next turned his attention to the great door. He swung it to
+and fro, to see if the hinges were in order. They were. Next he shut
+it, but he found there was nothing to keep it shut.
+
+"There used to be a button," said Phonny.
+
+"Where is the button now?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"I don't know," said he. "Let me see;--it must be about here
+somewhere."
+
+So saying, Phonny began to look around upon the ground. There was some
+litter upon the ground, formed of sticks, straws, &c., and Phonny
+began to poke this litter about with his foot.
+
+"I saw it lying down here somewhere, once," said he, "but I can't find
+it now."
+
+"Why didn't you pick it up and put it away in some safe place?" said
+Stuyvesant, "or get it put on?"
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Phonny. "You see we don't want to shut up
+the hens much in the summer."
+
+"No," replied Stuyvesant; "but it is a great deal better to have the
+doors all in order."
+
+"Why is it better?" asked Phonny.
+
+"It is more satisfactory," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Satisfactory!" repeated Phonny. "Hoh!"
+
+Stuyvesant went into the hen-house. Phonny followed him in.
+
+It was a small room, with a loft upon one side of it. The floor was
+covered with sticks, straw and litter. In one corner was a barrel,
+three quarters filled with hay. There were two or three bars overhead
+for the hens to roost upon. Stuyvesant looked around upon all these
+objects for a few minutes in silence, and then pointing up to the
+loft, he asked,
+
+"What is up there?"
+
+"That is the loft," replied Phonny. "There is nothing up there."
+
+"How do you get up to see?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"I can't get up, except when Beechnut is here to boost me," said
+Phonny.
+
+"I mean to make a ladder," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Hoh!" said Phonny, "you can't make a ladder."
+
+"I will try, at any rate," said Stuyvesant. Then after a short pause
+and a little more looking around, he added,
+
+"Well, I am ready now to go and help you find your box. I see what I
+have got to do here."
+
+"What is it?" asked Phonny.
+
+"I have got a small door to make, and a button for the large door, and
+a ladder to get up to the loft. Then I have got to clear the hen-house
+all out, and put it in order. What is in this barrel?"
+
+"That is where the hens lay sometimes," said Phonny, "when they don't
+lay in the barn."
+
+So saying, Phonny walked into the corner where the barrel stood, and
+there he found three eggs in the nest.
+
+"Three eggs," said he. "I think Dorothy has not been out here to-day.
+That is the beginning of your profits. You can take two of them; we
+have to leave one for the nest-egg."
+
+Phonny proposed that Stuyvesant should carry the eggs in, and give
+them to Dorothy; but he said he would not do it then. He would leave
+them where they were for the present, and go and look for the box.
+Stuyvesant was intending to look, at the same time, for the materials
+necessary for his door, his ladder, and his button.
+
+Phonny, accordingly, led the way, and Stuyvesant followed, into
+various apartments in the barns and sheds, where lumber was stored, or
+where it might be expected to be found. There were several boxes in
+these places, but some were too large, and others too small, and one,
+which seemed about right in respect to size, was made of rough boards,
+and so Phonny thought that it would not do.
+
+At last he found some boxes under a corn-barn, one of which he thought
+would do very well. It was about two feet long, when laid down upon
+its side, and one foot wide and high. The open part was to be closed
+by a wire front which was yet to be made.
+
+"Now," said Phonny, "help me to get the box to the shop, and then
+Wallace is coming down to help me make it into a cage."
+
+So Phonny and Stuyvesant, working together, got the box into the shop.
+The bench had been cleared off, so that there was a good space there
+to put the box upon. Phonny and Stuyvesant placed it there, and then
+Phonny went to the trap to see if his squirrel was safe.
+
+"Now, Frink," said he, "we are going to make you a beautiful cage.
+Wait a little longer, and then we will let you out of that dark trap."
+
+Phonny said this as he passed across the floor toward the horse-block.
+As soon however as he came near to the trap, he suddenly called out to
+Stuyvesant,
+
+"Why, Stuyvesant, see how big this hole is."
+
+He referred to the hole which the squirrel had begun to gnaw. Somehow
+or other the opening had grown very large. Phonny stooped down with
+his hands upon his knees and peeped into the trap.
+
+The squirrel was gone.
+
+"He's gone!" said Phonny. "He's gone!" So saying he lifted up the lid
+gradually, and then holding out the empty trap to Stuyvesant, he
+exclaimed again in a tone of despair,--"He's gone!"
+
+"He gnawed out," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+There were two windows in Phonny's shop. One was over the work bench
+and was an ordinary window, formed with sashes. The other was merely a
+large square hole with a sort of lid or shutter opening upward and
+outward, like the small door of the hen-house. Phonny used to call
+this his shutter window. It was the place where he was accustomed to
+throw out his shavings.
+
+Of course there was no glass in this window, and nothing to keep out
+the wind and rain when it was open. In stormy weather, therefore, it
+was always kept shut. The shavings which Phonny threw out here formed
+a little pile outside, and after accumulating for some time, Phonny
+used to carry them away and burn them.
+
+As Phonny stood showing the empty cage to Stuyvesant, his back was
+turned toward this window, but Stuyvesant was facing it. Happening at
+that instant to glance upward, behold, there was the squirrel, perched
+at his ease upon a beam which passed along just over the window.
+
+Stuyvesant did not say a word, but pointed to the place. Phonny looked
+up and saw the squirrel.
+
+[Illustration: FRINK ON THE BEAM.]
+
+"Oo--oo--oo!--" said Phonny.
+
+"Shut the window," he exclaimed. "Let us shut the window quick," he
+added impatiently; and then creeping softly up to the place, he took
+hold of the prop which held the shutter up, and gently drawing it in,
+he let the shutter down into its place.
+
+"Shut the other window," said Phonny. "Climb up on the bench, Stivy,
+and shut the other window as quick as you can."
+
+Stuyvesant clambered up upon the bench and shut down the sash of the
+window.
+
+"Now for the door," said Phonny; and he ran to the door and shut it,
+looking round as he went, toward the squirrel. As soon as he got the
+door shut he seemed relieved.
+
+"There," said he, "we have got him safe. The only thing now is to
+catch him."
+
+Here followed quite a long consultation between the two boys, in
+respect to the course which it was now best to pursue. Phonny's
+first plan was to put the trap upon the table and then for him and
+Stuyvesant to drive the squirrel into it. Stuyvesant however thought
+that that would be a very difficult operation.
+
+"If the squirrel were a horse," said he, "and the trap a barn, we
+might possibly get him in; but as it is, I don't believe the thing can
+be done."
+
+Phonny next proposed to chase the squirrel round the shop until they
+caught him. Stuyvesant objected to this too.
+
+"We should frighten him," said he, "and make him very wild; and
+besides we might hurt him dreadfully in catching and holding him. Very
+likely we should pull his tail off."
+
+After considerable consultation, the boys concluded to let the
+squirrel remain for a time at liberty in the shop, taking care to keep
+the door and windows shut. They thought that by this means he would
+become accustomed to see them working about, and would grow tame;
+perhaps so tame that by-and-by, Phonny might catch him in his hand.
+
+"And then, besides," said Phonny, "we can set the trap for him here
+to-night, when we go away, and perhaps he will go into it, and get
+caught so before morning."
+
+"Then we mustn't feed him any this afternoon," said Stuyvesant. "He
+won't go into the trap to-night, unless he is hungry."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "we won't feed him. I will leave him to himself,
+and let him do what he pleases, and I'll go to work and make my cage."
+
+Phonny's plan for his cage was this. Stuyvesant helped him form it. He
+was to take some wire, a coil of which he found hanging up in the
+shed, and cut it into lengths suitable for the bars of his cage. Then
+he was going to bore a row of holes in the top of his box, near the
+front edge, with a small gimlet. These holes were to be about half an
+inch apart, and to be in a line about half an inch from the front
+edge of the top of the box. The wires were to be passed down through
+these holes, and then in the bottom of the box, at the points where
+the ends of those wires would come, respectively, he was to bore other
+holes, partly through the board, to serve as sockets to receive the
+lower ends of the wires.
+
+This plan being all agreed upon, Phonny climbed up upon the bench,
+with his gimlet in his hand, and taking his seat upon the box, was
+beginning to bore the holes.
+
+"Stop," said Stuyvesant, "you ought to draw a line and mark off the
+places first."
+
+"Oh no," said Phonny, "I can guess near enough."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant, "though I don't think that guessing is a good
+way."
+
+Phonny thought that it would take a great while to draw a line and
+measure off the distances, and so he went on with his boring, looking
+up, however, continually from his work, to watch the squirrel.
+
+"And now," said Stuyvesant, "I will begin my work."
+
+Stuyvesant accordingly went out, taking great care, as he opened and
+shut the door, not to let the squirrel escape. Presently he returned,
+bringing his materials. There was a short board for the small door,
+two long strips for the sides of the ladder, and another long strip,
+which was to be sawed up into lengths for the cross-bars.
+
+Stuyvesant began first with his door. He went out to the hen-house,
+carrying with him an instrument called a square, on which feet and
+inches were marked. With this he measured the hole which his door was
+to cover, and then making proper allowance for the extension of the
+door, laterally, beyond the hole, he determined on the length to which
+he would saw off his board. He determined on the breadth in the same
+way.
+
+He then went to the shop and sawed off the board to the proper length,
+and then, with the hatchet and plane, he trimmed it to the proper
+breadth. Next he made two hinges of leather, and nailed them on in
+their places, upon the upper side of the board. He then carried his
+work out to the hen-house, and nailed the ends of the hinges to the
+cross-bar provided for them. When this was all done, he turned the lid
+up and fastened it into its place.
+
+Then, standing up, he surveyed his work with a look of satisfaction,
+and said,
+
+"There!"
+
+He returned to the shop again. When he came to the door he opened it a
+very little way, and paused, calling out to Phonny, to know if the
+squirrel was anywhere near.
+
+"No," said Phonny, "come in."
+
+So he went in. The squirrel had run along the beams to the back part
+of the shop, and was nibbling about there among some blocks of wood.
+
+"I have a great mind to feed him," said Phonny. "He is hungry."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant.
+
+So Phonny took the ear of corn out of the trap, and breaking it into
+two or three pieces he carried the parts into the back part of the
+shop, and put them at different places on the beams. Then he crept
+back to his work again.
+
+Stuyvesant went to work making his button. He selected a proper piece
+of wood, sawed it off of the proper length, and then shaped it into
+the form of a button by means of a chisel, working, in doing this, at
+the bench. As soon as this operation was completed, he took a large
+gimlet and bored a hole through the center of the button. He measured
+very carefully to find the exact center of the button, before he began
+to bore.
+
+When the button was finished, Stuyvesant looked in Phonny's nail-box
+to find a large screw, and when he had found one, he took the
+screw-driver and went out to the hen-house and screwed the button on.
+When the screw was driven home to its place, Stuyvesant shut the door
+and buttoned it. Then standing before it with his screw-driver in his
+hand, he surveyed his work with another look of satisfaction, and
+said,
+
+"There! there are two good jobs done."
+
+He then opened and shut his two doors, both the large and the small
+one, to see once more whether they worked well. They did work
+perfectly well, so he turned away and went back toward the shop again,
+saying,
+
+"Now for the ladder."
+
+He went back to the shop and entered cautiously as before. He found
+that Phonny had bored quite a number of holes, and was now engaged in
+cutting his wire into lengths. He used for this purpose a pair of
+cutting-plyers, as they are called, an instrument formed much like a
+pair of nippers. The instrument was made expressly for cutting off
+wire.
+
+Stuyvesant came to the place where Phonny was at work, and stood near
+him a few minutes looking on. He perceived that the holes were not in
+a straight line, nor were they equidistant from each other. He,
+however, said nothing about it, but soon went to his own work again.
+
+He took the piece of wood which he had selected to make his cross-bars
+of, and began to consider how many cross-bars he could make from it.
+
+"What is that piece of wood for?" asked Phonny.
+
+"It is for the cross-bars of my ladder," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"The cross-bars of a ladder ought to be round," said Phonny. "They
+always make them round. In fact they call them _rounds_."
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "I know they do, but I can't make rounds very
+well. And besides if I could, I could not make the holes in the
+side-pieces to put them into. So I am going to make them square, and
+nail them right on."
+
+"Hoh!" said Phonny, "that is no way to make a ladder. You can bore
+the holes easily enough. Here. I'll show you how. I've got an auger."
+
+So saying, Phonny jumped down from the bench and went and climbed up
+upon the chopping-block to get down an auger. Phonny had two augers,
+and they both hung over the block. He took down one and began very
+eagerly to bore a hole into the side of the chopping-block. He bored
+in a little way, and then, in attempting to draw the auger out, to
+clear the hole of chips, the handle came off, leaving the auger itself
+fast in the hole.
+
+"Ah! this auger is broken," said Phonny, "I forgot that. I could bore
+a hole if the auger was not broken."
+
+"Never mind," said Stuyvesant, "I don't think I could make a ladder
+very well in that way, and don't like to undertake any thing that I
+can't accomplish. So I will make it my way."
+
+Stuyvesant went out to the hen-house, and measured the height of the
+loft. He found it to be seven feet. He concluded to have his ladder
+eight feet long, and to have six cross-bars, one foot apart, the upper
+and lower cross-bars to be one foot from the ends of the ladder. The
+cross-bars themselves being about two inches wide each, the breadth of
+the whole six would be just one foot. This Stuyvesant calculated would
+make just the eight feet.
+
+Stuyvesant then went back to the shop. He found that the pieces which
+he had chosen for the sides of the ladder were just about eight feet
+long.
+
+Phonny came to him while he was measuring, to see what he was going to
+do.
+
+"How wide are you going to have your ladder?" said he.
+
+"I don't know," said Stuyvesant. "I am going to have it as wide as I
+can."
+
+So saying, Stuyvesant took down the piece which he had intended for
+the cross-bars.
+
+"I am going to divide this into six equal parts," said he, "because I
+must have six bars."
+
+So Stuyvesant began to measure. The piece of wood, he found, was eight
+feet long,--the same as the side pieces of the ladder.
+
+"And now, how are you going to divide it?" said Phonny.
+
+"Why, eight feet," said Stuyvesant, "make ninety-six inches. I must
+divide that by six."
+
+So he took a pencil from his pocket and wrote down the figures 96 upon
+a board; he divided the number by 6.
+
+"It will go 16 times," said he. "I can have 16 inches for each cross
+bar."
+
+Stuyvesant then measured off sixteen inches, and made a mark, then he
+measured off sixteen inches more, and made another mark. In the same
+manner, he proceeded until he had divided the whole piece into
+portions of sixteen inches each. He then took a saw and sawed the
+piece off at every place where he had marked.
+
+"There," said he, "there are my cross-bars!"
+
+"What good cross-bars," said Phonny. "That was an excellent way to
+make them."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A DISCOVERY.
+
+
+While the boys were at work in this manner, Stuyvesant making his
+ladder, and Phonny his cage, they suddenly heard some one opening the
+door. Wallace came in. Phonny called out to him to shut the door as
+quick as possible. Wallace did so, while Phonny, in explanation of the
+urgency of his injunction in respect to the door, pointed up to the
+squirrel, which was then creeping along, apparently quite at his ease,
+upon one of the beams in the back part of the shop.
+
+"Why, Bunny," said Wallace.
+
+"His name is not Bunny," said Phonny. "His name is Frink."
+
+"Frink," repeated Wallace. "Who invented that name?"
+
+"I don't know," replied Phonny, "only Beechnut said that his name was
+Frink. See the cage I am making for him."
+
+Wallace came up and looked at the cage. He stood a moment surveying
+it in silence. Then he turned toward Stuyvesant.
+
+"And what is Stuyvesant doing?" said he.
+
+"He is making a ladder."
+
+"What is it for, Stuyvesant?" said Wallace.
+
+"Why, it is to go upon the loft, in the hen-house," said Phonny,
+"though I don't see what good it will do, to go up there."
+
+"So it is settled, that _you_ are going to have the hen-house," said
+Wallace, looking toward Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant.
+
+Here there was another long pause. Wallace was looking at the ladder.
+He observed how carefully Stuyvesant was making it. He saw that the
+cross-bars were all exactly of a length, and he knew that they must
+have been pretty accurately measured. While Wallace was looking on,
+Stuyvesant was measuring off the distances upon the side pieces of the
+ladder, so as to have the steps of equal length. Wallace observed that
+he did this all very carefully.
+
+Wallace then looked back to Phonny's work. He saw that Phonny was
+guessing his way along. The holes were not equidistant from each
+other, and then they were not at the same distance from the edge of
+the board. As he had advanced along the line, he had drawn gradually
+nearer and nearer to the edge, and, what was a still greater
+difficulty, the holes in the lower board, which was to form the bottom
+of the cage, since their places too had been guessed at, did not
+correspond with those above, so that the wires, when they came to be
+put in, inclined some this way, and some that. In some places the
+wires came very near together, and in others the spaces between them
+were so wide, that Wallace thought that the squirrel, if by any chance
+he should ever get put into the cage, would be very likely to squeeze
+his way out.
+
+Then, besides, Phonny had not measured his wires in respect to length,
+but had cut them off of various lengths, taking care however not to
+have any of them too short. The result was that the ends of the wires
+projected to various distances above the board, presenting a ragged
+and unworkmanlike appearance.
+
+Wallace was silent while he was looking at these things. He was
+thinking of the difference between the two boys. The train of thought
+which was passing through his mind was somewhat as follows.
+
+Stuyvesant is younger than Phonny, and he was brought up in a city,
+and yet he seems a great deal more of a man; which is very strange. In
+the first place he takes a great deal more interest in the hens, which
+are useful and productive animals, than he does in the squirrel, which
+is a mere plaything. Then he plans his work carefully, considers how
+much he can probably accomplish himself, and undertakes no more. He
+plans, he calculates, he measures, and then proceeds steadily and
+perseveringly till he finishes.
+
+In the midst of these reflections, Wallace was called away by Phonny,
+as follows.
+
+"Cousin Wallace, I wish you would finish my cage for me. I am tired of
+boring all these holes, and besides I can't bore them straight."
+
+Wallace looked at the work a moment in uncertainty. He did not like to
+throw away his own time in finishing an undertaking so clumsily begun,
+and on the other hand, he did not like very well to refuse to help
+Phonny out of his difficulties. He finally concluded to undertake the
+work. So he took the cage down from the bench and put it upon the
+floor; he borrowed the iron square and the compasses from Stuyvesant;
+he ruled a line along the top of the box at the right distance from
+the edge, and marked off places for the holes, half an inch apart,
+along this line, pricking in, at the places for the holes, deep, with
+one of the points of the compass. When this had all been done he went
+on boring the holes.
+
+Stuyvesant was now ready to nail the cross-bars to the side pieces of
+the ladder. He asked Phonny where he kept his nails. Phonny showed him
+a box where there was a great quantity of nails of all sizes, some
+crooked and some straight, some whole and some broken, and all mixed
+up in confusion with a mass of old iron, such as rings, parts of
+hinges, old locks and fragments of keys. Stuyvesant selected from this
+mass a nail, of the size that he thought was proper, and then went to
+his ladder to apply it, to see whether it would do.
+
+"It is too large," said Phonny.
+
+"No," said Stuyvesant, "it is just right. I want the nail to go
+through and come out on the other side, so that I can clinch it."
+
+"You can't clinch such nails as these," said Phonny. "They are cut
+nails, and they will break off if you try to clinch them."
+
+"But I shall soften them first," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Soften them!" said Phonny, "how can you do that?"
+
+"By putting them in the fire," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"He can't soften them, can he, Wallace?" said Phonny.
+
+"Yes," said Wallace, "he can soften them so that they will clinch."
+
+This was true. What are called cut-nails, are made by machinery. They
+are cut from flat-bars or plates of iron, almost red-hot, by a massive
+and ponderous engine carried by water. At the same instant that the
+nail is cut off from the end of the plate by the cutting part of the
+engine, the end of it is flattened into a head by another part, which
+comes up suddenly and compresses the iron at that end with prodigious
+force. The nail is then dropped, and it falls down, all hot, into a
+box made to receive it below.
+
+The prodigious pressure to which the hot iron is subjected in the
+process of making cut-nails, seems as it were to press the particles
+of iron closer together, and make the metal more compact and hard.
+The consequence is, that such nails are very stiff, and if bent much,
+they break off. This is no disadvantage, provided that the wood to be
+nailed is such that the nail is to be driven straight into the
+substance of it to its whole length. In fact, this hardness and
+stiffness is an advantage, for, in consequence of these properties,
+the nail is less likely to bend under the hammer.
+
+When, however, the nailing to be done is of such a kind that it
+becomes necessary that the nail should pass through the wood so as to
+come out upon the other side, to be clinched there, the stiffness of
+the iron in a cut-nail constitutes a serious difficulty; for the end
+of the nail where it comes through, instead of bending over and
+sinking into the wood, as it ought to do, at first refuses to bend at
+all, and then when the workman attempts to force it to bond by dint of
+heavier blows with the hammer, it breaks off entirely.
+
+To remedy this difficulty, it is found best to heat nails intended for
+clinching before driving them. By heating the iron red hot, the metal
+seems to expand to its original condition of ductile iron, and it
+loses the extreme hardness and stiffness which was given to it by the
+force and compression of the nail-making machine.
+
+Stuyvesant had seen a carpenter in New York heating some nails on one
+occasion, and he had asked him the reason. He, therefore, understood
+the whole process, and his plan was now, after selecting his nails, to
+go and heat them red-hot in the kitchen-fire.
+
+He made a little calculation first in respect to the number of nails
+that he should want. There were six cross-bars. These bars were to be
+nailed at both ends. This would make twelve nailings. Stuyvesant
+concluded that he would have four nails at each nailing, and
+multiplying twelve by four, he found that forty-eight was the number
+of the nails that he should require. To be sure to have enough, he
+counted out fifty-two. Some might break, and perhaps some would be
+lost in the fire.
+
+Phonny felt a considerable degree of interest in Stuyvesant's plan of
+softening the nails, and so he left Wallace to go on boring the holes,
+while he went with Stuyvesant into the house.
+
+"You never can get so many nails out of the fire in the world," said
+Phonny. "They will be lost in the ashes."
+
+"I shall put them on the shovel," said Stuyvesant.
+
+When they got into the kitchen, Stuyvesant went to Dorothy, who was
+still ironing at a table near the window, and asked her if he might
+use her shovel and her fire to heat some nails.
+
+"Certainly," said Dorothy. "I will go and move the flat-irons out of
+the way for you."
+
+Stuyvesant was always very particular whenever he went into the
+kitchen, to treat Dorothy with great respect. He regarded the kitchen
+as Dorothy's peculiar and proper dominion, and would have considered
+it very rude and wrong to have been noisy in it, or to take possession
+of, and use without her leave, the things which were under her charge
+there. Dorothy observed this, and was very much pleased with it, and
+as might naturally be expected, she was always glad to have Stuyvesant
+come into the kitchen, and do any thing that he pleased there.
+
+There was a large forestick lying across the andirons, with a burning
+bed of coals below. Directly in front of these coals was a row of
+flat-irons. Stuyvesant put his nails upon a long-handled shovel, and
+Dorothy moved away one of the flat-irons, so that he could put the
+shovel, with the nails upon it, in among the burning coals.
+
+"Now," said he, "it will take some time for them to get hot, and I
+will go and clear out the floor of the hen-house in the meanwhile."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "I will help you."
+
+"Only," said Stuyvesant, turning to Dorothy, "will you look at the
+nails when you take up your irons, and if you see that they get
+red-hot, take the shovel out from the coals and set it down somewhere
+on the hearth to cool?"
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy, "but what are you going to heat the nails for?"
+
+"To take the stiffness out of them," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"To take the stiffness out?" replied Dorothy. "What do you wish to do
+that for?"
+
+"So that I can clinch them," replied Stuyvesant, "and I should like to
+have you take them off the fire as soon as you see that they are
+red-hot."
+
+[Illustration: DOROTHY'S FIRE.]
+
+"Yes," said Dorothy, "I will."
+
+So Phonny and Stuyvesant went away, while Dorothy resumed her ironing.
+
+They got a wheel-barrow and a rake, and went out to the hen-house.
+They raked the floor all over, drawing out the old straw, sticks, &c.,
+to the door. They then with a fork pitched this rubbish into the
+wheel-barrow, and wheeled it out, and made a heap of it in a clear
+place at some distance from the buildings, intending to set it on
+fire. There were four wheel-barrow loads of it in all.
+
+They then went into the barn and brought out a quantity of hay, and
+sprinkled it all over the floor of the hen-house, which made the
+apartment look extremely neat and comfortable. They then brought out
+another fork-full of hay and pitched it up upon the loft.
+
+"There!" said Stuyvesant, "now when we have got our ladder done, we
+will climb up and spread it about."
+
+"Hark!" said Phonny.
+
+"What is that?" said Stuyvesant.
+
+"It sounded like a hen clucking. I wonder if it is possible that there
+is a hen up there."
+
+"We will see," said Stuyvesant, "when we get our ladder done."
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "we must go and finish our ladder; and the
+nails--it is time to go and get the nails or they will be all burnt
+up."
+
+The boys accordingly went back to the kitchen. They found that Dorothy
+had taken the nails away from the fire, and they were now almost cool.
+Stuyvesant slid them off from the shovel upon a small board, which he
+had brought in for that purpose, and then they went back to the shop.
+
+They found that Wallace had gone. He had finished boring the holes,
+and now all that Phonny had to do, was to cut off the wires and put
+them in. He had, however, now become so much interested in the
+operation of making the ladder, that he concluded to put off finishing
+the cage until the ladder was done. Besides, he was in a hurry to see
+whether there really was a hen up there on the loft.
+
+So he helped Stuyvesant nail his ladder. Stuyvesant got a small gimlet
+to bore holes for the nails. Phonny thought that this was not
+necessary. He said they could drive the nails without boring.
+Stuyvesant said that there were three objections to this: first, they
+might not go straight, secondly, they might split the wood, and
+thirdly, they would cause the wood to _break out_, as he called it,
+where they came through on the other side.
+
+As soon as he had bored one hole he put a nail into it, and drove it
+almost through, but not quite through, as he said it might prove that
+he should wish to alter it. He then went to the other end of the same
+cross-bar, bored a hole there, and put a nail in, driving it as far as
+he had driven the first one. This was the topmost cross-bar of the
+ladder, and it was held securely in its place by the two nails.
+Stuyvesant then took the bottom cross-bar and secured that in the same
+way. Then he put on the other bars one at a time, until his ladder was
+complete in form, only the cross-bars were not yet fully nailed. He
+and Phonny looked at it carefully, to see if all was right, and
+Stuyvesant, taking it up from the floor, placed it against the wall of
+the shop.
+
+"Let me climb up on it," said Phonny.
+
+"Not now," said Stuyvesant,--"wait till it is finished."
+
+Stuyvesant then proceeded to drive the nails home, and clinch them.
+The clinching was done, by putting an axe under the part of the ladder
+where a nail was coming through, and then driving. The point of the
+nail when it reached the axe, was deflected and turned, and bending
+round entered the wood again, on the back side, and so clinched the
+nail firmly. Thus the other holes were bored, and the other nails put
+in, and at length the ladder was completed.
+
+Just as the boys were ready to carry it out, the door opened, and
+Beechnut came in.
+
+Beechnut looked round at all that the boys had been doing, with great
+interest. He examined the ladder particularly, and said that it was
+made in a very workmanlike manner. Phonny showed Beechnut his cage
+too, though he said that he had pretty much concluded not to finish it
+that afternoon.
+
+"I don't see why you need finish it at all," said Beechnut. "You have
+got a very good cage already for your squirrel."
+
+"What cage?" asked Phonny.
+
+"This shop. It is a great deal better cage for him than that box,--_I_
+think, and I have no doubt that he thinks so too."
+
+"He would gnaw out of this shop," said Phonny.
+
+"Not any more easily than he would gnaw out of the box," said
+Beechnut.
+
+Phonny turned to his box and looked at the smooth surface of the pine
+which formed the interior. He perceived that Frink could gnaw through
+anywhere, easily, in an hour.
+
+"I did not think of that," said Phonny "I must line it with tin."
+
+He began to picture to his mind, the process of putting his arm into
+the box and nailing tin there, where there was no room to work a
+hammer, and sighed.
+
+"Well," said he, "I'll let him have the whole shop, to-night, and now
+we will go out and try the ladder."
+
+The whole party accordingly went to the hen-house. Beechnut examined
+the small door that Stuyvesant had made, and the button of the large
+door, while Stuyvesant was planting the ladder. Phonny was eager to go
+up first; Stuyvesant followed him.
+
+Phonny mounted upon the floor of the loft, and immediately afterward
+began to exclaim,
+
+"Oo--oo--Stivy,--here is old Gipsy, on a nest, and I verily believe
+that she is setting; I could not think what had become of old Gipsy."
+
+Just at this time, Beechnut's head appeared coming up the ladder. He
+called upon the boys to come back, away from the hen, while he went up
+to see. She was upon a nest there, squatted down very low, and with
+her wings spread wide as if trying to cover a great nest full of eggs.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "she is setting, I have no doubt; and as she has
+been missing a long time, I presume the chickens are about coming
+out."
+
+"Hark!" said Beechnut.
+
+The boys listened, and they heard a faint peeping sound under the hen.
+
+Beechnut looked toward the boys and smiled.
+
+Phonny was in an ecstacy of delight. Stuyvesant was much more quiet,
+but he seemed equally pleased. Beechnut said that he thought that they
+had better go away and leave the hen to herself, and that probably she
+would come off the nest, with her brood, that evening or the next
+morning.
+
+"But stop," said Beechnut, as he was going down the ladder. "It is
+important to ascertain whether they are eggs or chickens under the
+hen. For if they are eggs they are one third your property, and if
+they are chickens, they are all mine."
+
+"However," he resumed, after a moment's pause, "I think we will call
+them eggs to-day. I presume they were all eggs when we made the
+bargain. To-morrow we will get them all down, and you, Phonny, may
+make a pretty little coop for them in some sunny corner in the yard."
+
+Phonny had by this time become so much interested in the poultry, that
+he proposed to Stuyvesant to let him have half the care of them, and
+offered to give Stuyvesant half of his squirrel in return. Stuyvesant
+said that he did not care about the squirrel, but that he would give
+him a share of the hen-house contract for half the shop.
+
+Phonny gladly agreed to this, and so the boys determined that the
+first thing for the next day should be, to put the shop and the tools
+all in complete order, and the next, to make the prettiest hen-coop
+they could contrive, in a corner of the yard. This they did, and
+Beechnut got the hen and the chickens down and put them into it. The
+brood was very large, there being twelve chickens in it, and they were
+all very pretty chickens indeed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE ACCIDENT.
+
+
+About a week after the occurrences related in the last chapter, Mrs.
+Henry was sitting one morning at her window, at work. It was a large
+and beautiful window, opening out upon a piazza.
+
+The window came down nearly to the floor, so that when it was open one
+could walk directly out. There was a sort of step, however, which it
+was necessary to go over.
+
+Mrs. Henry had a little table at the window, and she was busy at her
+work. There was a basket on the floor by her side. Malleville was
+sitting upon the step. She had quite a number of green leaves in her
+lap, which she had gathered in the yard. She said that she was going
+to put them into a book and press them.
+
+Just then she heard Phonny's voice around a corner, calling to her.
+
+"Malleville! Malleville!" said the voice, calling loudly.
+
+Malleville hastily gathered up her leaves, and called out, "What,
+Phonny? I'm coming."
+
+Before she got ready to go, however, Phonny appeared upon the piazza.
+
+"Malleville," said he, "come and see our chickens."
+
+"Well," said Malleville, "I will come."
+
+"And mother, I wish you would come out and see them, too," said
+Phonny.
+
+"I have seen them once," said his mother, "only two or three days
+ago."
+
+"But, mother, they are a great deal larger now," replied Phonny. "I
+wish you _could_ come and see them. You don't know how large they have
+grown."
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Henry, "I will come."
+
+So she laid aside her work, and stepping out into the piazza, she
+followed Phonny and Malleville around the corner of the house. Phonny
+walked fast, with long strides, Malleville skipped along by his side,
+while Mrs. Henry came on after them at her leisure.
+
+They all gathered round the coop, which had been made in a sunny
+corner of the yard. It was a very pretty coop indeed. It was formed
+by a box, turned bottom upward to form a shelter for the hen when she
+chose to retire to it, and a little yard with a paling around it made
+by bars, to prevent the chickens from straying away. Phonny said that
+there was a good, comfortable nest in under the box, and he was going
+to lift up the box and let Mrs. Henry see the nest, but Stuyvesant
+recommended to him not to do so, as it would frighten the hen.
+
+There was an opening in the side of the box, which served as a door
+for the hen to go in and out at. At the time of Mrs. Henry's visit,
+the hen was out in the yard walking about. She appeared to be a little
+anxious at seeing so unusual a company of visitors at her lodgings,
+and at first thought it probable that they might have come to take
+some of her chickens away. But when she found that they stood quietly
+by, and did not disturb her, she became quiet again, and began to
+scratch upon the ground to find something for the chickens to eat.
+
+Seeing this, Phonny ran off to bring some food for them, and presently
+returned with a saucer full of what he called pudding. It consisted
+of meal and water stirred up together. He threw out some of this upon
+the ground within the yard, and the hen, calling the chickens to the
+place, scattered the pudding about with her bill for the chickens to
+eat.
+
+The boys then wished to have Mrs. Henry go to the shop. She,
+accordingly, went with them. They opened the shop-door very carefully
+to keep Frink from getting out. When they were all safely in and the
+door was shut, they began to look about the room to find the squirrel.
+"There he is," said Phonny, pointing to the beam over the
+shutter-window.
+
+So saying he went to the place, and putting up his hand, took the
+squirrel and brought him to his mother.
+
+"Why, how tame he is!" said Mrs. Henry.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "Stuyvesant and I tamed him. He runs all about the
+shop. And we have got a house for him to sleep in. Come and see his
+house."
+
+So saying, Phonny led his mother and Malleville to the back side of
+the shop, where, upon a shelf, there stood a small box, with a hole in
+the side of it, much like the one which had been made for the hen,
+only not so large.
+
+"He goes in there to sleep," said Phonny. "We always feed him in
+there too, so as to make him like the place."
+
+As Phonny said this, he put the squirrel down upon the beam before the
+door of his house.
+
+"Now you will see him go in," said he.
+
+Frink crept into his hole, and then turning round within the box, he
+put his head out a little way, and after looking at Mrs. Henry a
+moment with one eye, he winked in a very cunning manner.
+
+There was a small paper tacked up with little nails on the side of the
+squirrel's house, near the door.
+
+"What is this?" said Mrs. Henry.
+
+"Oh! that's his poetry," said Phonny, "you must read it."
+
+So Mrs. Henry, standing up near, read aloud as follows:--
+
+           My name is Frink,
+           And unless you think,
+     To give me plenty to eat and drink,
+           You'll find me running away
+                 Some day;
+           I shall tip you a wink,
+           Then slyly slink,
+     Out through some secret cranny or chink,
+           And hie for the woods, away,
+                 Away.
+
+Mrs. Henry laughed heartily at this production. She asked who wrote
+it.
+
+"Why, we found it here one morning," said Phonny. "Stuyvesant says
+that he thinks Beechnut wrote it."
+
+"But Beechnut," added Malleville, "says that he believes that Frink
+wrote it himself."
+
+"Oh no," said Stuyvesant, "he did not say exactly that."
+
+"What did he say?" asked Mrs. Henry.
+
+"Why, he said," replied Stuyvesant, "that as there was a pen and ink
+in the shop, and hammer and nails, and as the paper was found nailed
+up early one morning, when nobody had slept in the shop the night
+before but Frink, if it did not turn out that Frink himself wrote the
+lines, he should never believe in any squirrel's writing poetry as
+long as he lived."
+
+Mrs. Henry laughed at this, and she then began to look about the shop
+to see the tools and the arrangements which had been made by the boys
+for their work.
+
+She found the premises in excellent order. The floor was neat, the
+tools were all in their proper places, and every thing seemed well
+arranged.
+
+"I suppose the tools are dull, however," said Mrs. Henry, "as boys'
+tools generally are."
+
+"No," said Phonny, "they are all sharp. We have sharpened them every
+one."
+
+"How did you do it?" asked Mrs. Henry.
+
+"Why, we turned the grindstone for Beechnut while he ground his axes,
+and then he held our tools for us to sharpen them. We could not hold
+them ourselves very well."
+
+"We are going to keep them sharp," continued Phonny,--"as sharp as
+razors. Won't we, Stivy?"
+
+"We are going to try it," said Stuyvesant.
+
+Phonny took up the plane to show his mother how sharp it was.
+
+"Yes," said she; "I like that tool too, very much--it is so safe."
+
+The plane is a very safe tool, indeed, for the cutting part, which
+consists of a plate of iron, faced with steel for an edge, is almost
+embedded in the wood. It is made in fact on purpose to take off a
+_thin shaving_ only, from a board, and it would be impossible to make
+a deep cut into any thing with it.
+
+Phonny then showed his mother his chisels. He had four chisels of
+different sizes. They were very sharp.
+
+"It seems to me that a chisel is not so safe a tool as a plane," said
+Mrs. Henry.
+
+"Why not, mother?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Why you might be holding a piece of wood with your fingers, and then
+in trying to cut it with the chisel, the chisel might slip and cut
+your fingers."
+
+"Oh no, mother," said Phonny, "there is no danger."
+
+Boys always say there is no danger.
+
+Phonny next showed his gimlets, and his augers, and his bits and
+bit-stocks. A bit is a kind of borer which is turned round and round
+by means of a machine called a bit-stock.
+
+Phonny took the bit-stock and a bit and was going to bore a hole in
+the side of the bench, by way of showing his mother how the tool was
+used.
+
+"Stop," said Stuyvesant, "I would not bore into the work bench. I will
+get a piece of board."
+
+So he pulled out a small piece of board from under the work bench and
+Phonny bored into that.
+
+Mrs. Henry next came to the chopping block. The hatchet was lying upon
+the block.
+
+"I am rather sorry to see that you have got a hatchet," said Mrs.
+Henry.
+
+"Why, mother?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Because I think it is a dangerous tool. I think it is a very
+dangerous tool indeed."
+
+"Oh no, mother," said Phonny, "there is no danger."
+
+"You might be holding a piece of wood in your hand," said Mrs. Henry,
+"and then in trying to chop it with your hatchet, hit your hand
+instead of the wood. There is great danger when you strike a blow with
+a sharp instrument."
+
+"Oh no, mother," said Phonny. "There is not any danger. I have had my
+hatchet a long time and I never have cut myself but once."
+
+"That shows that there is some danger," said his mother. "Besides I
+knew a boy who was cutting with a hatchet, and it came down through
+the board that he was cutting, and struck the boy himself, in the
+knee, and wounded him very badly."
+
+"But I shall be very careful," said Phonny. "I _know_ I shall not cut
+myself with it."
+
+"I wish," said his mother, "that you would let me have the hatchet to
+carry in the house and keep it till you grow older."
+
+"Oh no, mother," said Phonny, "we could not get along at all without
+the hatchet, unless we had an axe, and that would be more dangerous
+still. But we will be very careful with it."
+
+Mrs. Henry did not appear satisfied with these promises, but she did
+not urge Phonny any longer to give the hatchet to her. She walked
+along, seeming, however, not at all at her ease. Phonny showed her his
+stock of boards and blocks, among which last, was one which he said
+was to be made into a boat. After looking around at all these things,
+Mrs. Henry and Malleville went away. Phonny and Stuyvesant remained in
+the shop.
+
+"I would let her have the hatchet," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"I don't think there is any danger," said Phonny.
+
+"Nor I," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Then why would not you keep the hatchet here?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Because, Aunt Henry does not feel easy about it," said Stuyvesant.
+"It is not right for us to make her feel uncomfortable."
+
+"But then what shall we do when we want to sharpen stakes?" asked
+Phonny.
+
+"I don't know," said Stuyvesant,--thinking. "Perhaps we might burn
+them sharp in the kitchen fire."
+
+"Hoh!" said Phonny, "that would not do at all."
+
+"It would be better than to make Aunt Henry feel anxious," said
+Stuyvesant.
+
+"But I don't think she feels anxious," said Phonny. "She will forget
+all about it pretty soon. However, if you think it is best, I will
+carry my hatchet in and give it to her. We can get along very well
+with the draw shave."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant, "I do think it is best; and now I am going to
+finish mending the wheel-barrow."
+
+"Well," said Phonny, "and I will go and carry the hatchet in to my
+mother."
+
+Phonny accordingly took the hatchet and went sauntering slowly along
+out of the shop.
+
+In a few minutes, Stuyvesant heard an outcry in the yard. It sounded
+like a cry of pain and terror, from Phonny. Stuyvesant threw down his
+work, and ran out to see what was the matter.
+
+He found Phonny by the woodpile, where he had stopped a moment to
+chop a stick with his hatchet, and had cut himself. He was down upon
+the ground, clasping his foot with his hands, and crying out as if in
+great pain.
+
+"Oh, Stuyvesant," said he. "I have cut my foot. Oh, I have cut my
+foot, most dreadfully."
+
+"Let me see," said Stuyvesant, and he came to the place. Phonny raised
+his hands a little, from his foot, so as to let Stuyvesant see, but
+continued crying, with pain and terror.
+
+"Oh dear me!" said he. "What shall I do?--Oh dear me!"
+
+Stuyvesant looked. All that he could see, however, was a gaping wound
+in Phonny's boot, just over the ankle, and something bloody beneath.
+
+"I don't think it is cut much," said Stuyvesant. "Let us go right into
+the house."
+
+Phonny rose, and leaning upon Stuyvesant's shoulder, he began to
+hobble along toward the house, uttering continued cries and
+lamentations by the way.
+
+"I would not cry," said Stuyvesant. "I would bear it like a hero."
+
+In obedience to this counsel, Phonny abated somewhat the noise that he
+was making, though he still continued his exclamations and moanings.
+Dorothy came to the door to find out what was the matter.
+
+Dorothy was not much alarmed. In fact the more noise a child made when
+hurt, the less concerned Dorothy always was about it. She knew that
+when people were dangerously wounded, they were generally still.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Dorothy.
+
+"He has cut his foot," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Let me see," said she. So she looked down at Phonny's ankle.
+
+"I guess he has cut his boot more than his foot," said she. "Let's
+pull off his boot."
+
+"Oh dear me!" said Phonny. "Oh, go and call my mother. Oh dear me!"
+
+Dorothy began to pull off Phonny's boot, while Stuyvesant went to call
+Phonny's mother. Mrs. Henry was very much alarmed, when she heard that
+Phonny had cut himself. She hurried out to him, and seemed to be in
+great distress and anxiety. She kneeled down before him, while Dorothy
+held him in her lap, and examined the foot. The cut was a pretty bad
+one, just above the ankle.
+
+"It is a very bad place for a cut," said she. "Bring me some water."
+
+"I'll get some," said Stuyvesant.
+
+So Stuyvesant went and got a bowl from a shelf in the kitchen, and
+poured some water into it, and brought it to Mrs. Henry. Mrs. Henry
+bathed the wound with the water, and then closing it up as completely
+as possible, and putting a piece of sticking-plaster across to keep
+the parts in place, she bound the ankle up with a bandage.
+
+By this time Phonny had become quiet. His mother, when she had
+finished bandaging the ankle, brought another stocking and put it on,
+to keep the bandage in its place.
+
+"There!" said she, "that will do. Now the first thing is to get him
+into the other room."
+
+So Dorothy carried Phonny in, and laid him down upon the sofa in the
+great sitting-room.
+
+That evening when Beechnut went to the village to get the letters at
+the post-office, he stopped at the doctor's on his way, to ask the
+doctor to call that evening or in the morning at Mrs. Henry's. The
+doctor came that evening.
+
+"Ah, Phonny," said he, when he came into the room, and saw Phonny
+lying upon the sofa, "and what is the matter with you?"
+
+"I have cut my foot," said Phonny.
+
+"Cut your foot!" rejoined the doctor, "could not you find any thing
+else to cut than your foot?"
+
+Phonny laughed.
+
+"I hope you have cut it in the right place," continued the doctor. "In
+cutting your foot every thing depends upon cutting it in the right
+place."
+
+While the doctor was saying this, Mrs. Henry had drawn off Phonny's
+stocking, and was beginning to unpin the bandage.
+
+"Stop a moment, madam," said the doctor. "That bandage is put on very
+nicely; it seems hardly worth while to disturb it. You can show me now
+precisely where the wound was."
+
+Mrs. Henry then pointed to the place upon the bandage, underneath
+which the cut lay, and she showed also the direction and length of the
+cut.
+
+"Exactly," said the doctor. "You could not have cut your ankle,
+Phonny, in a better place. A half an inch more, one side or the other,
+might have made you a cripple for life. You hit the right place
+exactly. It is a great thing for a boy who has a hatchet for a
+plaything, to know how to cut himself in the right place."
+
+[Illustration: THE DOCTOR'S VISIT.]
+
+The doctor then said that he would not disturb the bandage, as he had
+no doubt that the wound would do very well under the treatment which
+Mrs. Henry herself had administered. He said that in a few days he
+thought it would be nearly well.
+
+It might be prudent, however, he added, not to walk upon that foot in
+the mean time. There might be some small possibility in that case, of
+getting the wound irritated, so as to bring on an inflammation, and
+that might lead to serious consequences.
+
+The doctor then bade Phonny good-bye, telling him that he hoped he
+would be as patient and good-natured in bearing his confinement, as he
+had been dextrous in the mode of inflicting the wound. And so he went
+away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+GOOD ADVICE.
+
+
+Phonny was confined nearly a week with his wound. They moved the sofa
+on which he was lying up into a corner of the room, near Mrs. Henry's
+window, and there Stuyvesant and Malleville brought various things to
+him to amuse him.
+
+He was very patient and good-natured during his confinement to this
+sofa. Wallace came to see him soon after he was hurt, and gave him
+some good advice in this respect.
+
+"Now," said Wallace, "you have an opportunity to cultivate and show
+one mark of manliness which we like to see in boys."
+
+"I should think you would like to see all marks of manliness in boys,"
+said Phonny.
+
+"Oh no," said Wallace. "Some traits of manly character we like, and
+some we don't like."
+
+"What don't we like?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Why--there are many," said Wallace, hesitating and considering. "We
+don't desire to see in boys the sedateness and gravity of demeanor
+that we like to see in men. We like to see them playful and joyous
+while they are boys."
+
+"I thought it was better to be sober," said Phonny.
+
+"No," said Wallace, "not for boys. Boys ought to be sober at proper
+times; but in their plays and in their ordinary occupations, it is
+better for them to be frolicsome and light-hearted. Their time for
+care and thoughtful concern has not come. The only way by which they
+can form good healthy constitutions, is to run about a great deal, and
+have a great deal of frolicking and fun. Only they must be careful not
+to let their fun and frolicking give other people trouble. But we like
+to see them full of life, and joy, and activity, for we know that that
+is best for them. If a boy of twelve were to be as sage and demure as
+a man, always sitting still, and reading and studying, we should be
+afraid, either that he was already sick, or that he would make himself
+sick."
+
+"Then I think that you ought to be concerned about Stuyvesant," said
+Phonny, "for he is as sage and demure as any man I ever saw."
+
+Wallace laughed at this.
+
+"There is a boy that lives down in the village that is always making
+some fun," said Phonny. "One evening he dressed himself up like a poor
+beggar boy, and came to the door of his father's house and knocked;
+and when his father came to the door, he told a piteous story about
+being poor and hungry, and his mother being sick, and he begged his
+father to give him something to eat, and a little money to buy some
+tea for his mother. His father thought he was a real beggar boy, and
+gave him some money. Then afterward he came in and told his father all
+about it, and had a good laugh.
+
+"Then another day he got a bonnet and shawl of his sister Fanny, and
+put them upon a pillow, so as to make the figure of a girl with them,
+and then he carried the pillow up to the top of the shed, and set it
+up by the side of the house. It looked exactly as if Fanny was up
+there. Then he went into the house and called his mother to come out.
+And when she got out where she could see, he pointed up and asked her
+whether Fanny ought to be up there on the shed."
+
+[Illustration: THE EFFIGY.]
+
+Wallace laughed to hear this story.
+
+"Then in a minute," continued Phonny, "the boy pointed off in another
+direction, and there his mother saw Fanny playing safely upon the
+grass."
+
+"And what did his mother say?" asked Wallace.
+
+"She was frightened at first," replied Phonny, "when she saw what she
+supposed was Fanny up in such a dangerous place; but when she saw how
+it really was, she laughed and went into the house."
+
+"Do you think he did right, Wallace?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"What do you think, Phonny?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Phonny.
+
+"Do you think, on the whole, that his mother was most pleased or most
+pained by it?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Most pleased," said Phonny. "She was not much frightened, and that
+only for a moment, and she laughed about it a great deal."
+
+"Were you there at the time?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Yes," said Phonny.
+
+"What was the boy's name?" said Wallace.
+
+"Arthur," said Phonny.
+
+"Another day," continued Phonny, "Arthur was taking a walk with Fanny,
+and he persuaded her to go across a plank over a brook, and when she
+was over, he pulled the plank away, so that she could not get back
+again. He danced about on the bank on the other side, and called
+Fanny a savage living in the woods."
+
+"And what did Fanny do?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Why, she was very much frightened, and began to cry."
+
+"And then what did Arthur do?" asked Wallace.
+
+"Why, after a time he put up the plank again and let her come home. He
+told her that she was a foolish girl to cry, for he only did it for
+fun."
+
+"And do you think he did right or wrong?" said Wallace.
+
+"Why, wrong, I suppose," said Phonny.
+
+"Yes," said Wallace, "decidedly wrong, I think; for in that case there
+is no doubt that his fun gave his sister a great deal of pain. It is
+very right for boys to love frolicking and fun, but they should be
+very careful not to let their fun give other people trouble or pain."
+
+"But now, Phonny," continued Wallace, "you are to be shut up for
+perhaps a week, and here is an opportunity for you to show some marks
+of manliness which we always like to see in boys."
+
+"How can I?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Why, in the first place," said Wallace, "by a proper consideration of
+the case, so as to understand exactly how it is. Sometimes a boy
+situated as you are, without looking at all the facts in the case,
+thinks only of his being disabled and helpless, and so he expects
+every body to wait upon him, and try to amuse him, as if that were his
+right. He gives his mother a great deal of trouble, by first wanting
+this and then that, and by uttering a great many expressions of
+discontent, impatience and ill-humor. Thus his accident is not only
+the means of producing inconvenience to himself, but it makes the
+whole family uncomfortable. This is boyishness of a very bad kind.
+
+"To avoid this, you must consider what the true state of the case is.
+Whose fault is it that you are laid up here in this way?"
+
+"Why it is mine, I suppose," said Phonny. "Though if Stuyvesant had
+not advised me to bring the hatchet in, I suppose that I should not
+have cut myself."
+
+"It was not by bringing the hatchet in, that you cut yourself," said
+Wallace, "but by stopping to cut with it on the way, contrary to your
+mother's wishes."
+
+"Yes," said Phonny, "I suppose that was it."
+
+"So that it was your fault. Now when any person commits a fault,"
+continued Wallace, "he ought to confine the evil consequences of it to
+himself, as much as he can. Have the evil consequences of your fault,
+extended yet to any other people, do you think?"
+
+"Why, yes," said Phonny, "my mother has had some trouble."
+
+"Has she yet had any trouble that you might have spared her?" asked
+Wallace.
+
+"Why--I don't know," said Phonny, "unless I could have bandaged my
+foot up myself."
+
+"If you could have bandaged it up yourself," said Wallace, "you ought
+to have done so, though I suppose you could not. But now it is your
+duty to save her, as much as possible, from all other trouble. You
+ought to find amusement for yourself as much as you can, instead of
+calling upon her to amuse you, and you ought to be patient and gentle,
+and quiet and good-humored.
+
+"Besides," continued Wallace, "I think you ought to contrive something
+to do to repay her for the trouble that she has already had with this
+cut. She was not to blame for it at all, and did not deserve to suffer
+any trouble or pain."
+
+"I don't know what I can do," said Phonny, "to repay her."
+
+"It is hard to find any thing for a boy to do to repay his mother, for
+what she does for him. But if you even _wish_ to find something, and
+_try_ to find something, it will make you always submissive and gentle
+toward her, and that will give her pleasure."
+
+"Perhaps I might read to her sometimes when she is sewing," said
+Phonny.
+
+"Yes," said Wallace, "that would be a good plan."
+
+When this conversation first commenced, Malleville was standing near
+to Wallace, and she listened to it for a little time, but she found
+that she did not understand a great deal of it, and she did not think
+that what she did understand was very interesting. So she went away.
+
+She went to the piazza and began to gather up the green leaves which
+she had been playing with when Phonny had called her to go out to see
+the chickens. She put these leaves in her apron with the design of
+carrying them to Phonny, thinking that perhaps it would amuse him to
+see them.
+
+She brought them accordingly to the sofa, and now stood there, holding
+her apron by the corners, and waiting for Wallace to finish what he
+was saying.
+
+"What have you got in your apron?" said Wallace.
+
+"Some leaves," said Malleville. "I am going to show them to Phonny."
+
+So she opened her apron and showed Phonny.
+
+"They are nothing but leaves," said Phonny, "are they? Common leaves."
+
+"No," said Malleville, "they are not common leaves. They are very
+pretty leaves."
+
+Stuyvesant came to look at the leaves. He took up one or two of them.
+
+"That is a maple leaf," said he, "and that is an oak."
+
+There was a small oak-tree in the corner of the yard.
+
+"I am going to press them in a book," said Malleville.
+
+Wallace looked at the leaves a minute, and then he went away.
+
+Stuyvesant seemed more interested in looking at the leaves, than
+Phonny had been. He proposed that while Phonny was sick, they should
+employ themselves in making a collection of the leaves of
+forest-trees.
+
+"We can make a scrap-book," said he, "and paste them in, and then,
+underneath we can write all about the trees that the leaves belong
+to."
+
+"How can we find out about the trees?" asked Phonny.
+
+"Beechnut will tell us," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"So he will," replied Phonny, "and that will be an excellent plan."
+
+This project was afterward put into execution. Stuyvesant made
+a scrap-book. He made it of a kind of smooth and pretty white
+wrapping-paper. He put what are called false leaves between all the
+true leaves, as is usually done in large scrap-books. Stuyvesant's
+scrap-book had twenty leaves. He said that he did not think that they
+could find more than twenty kinds of trees. They pressed the leaves in
+a book until they were dry, and then pasted them into the scrap-book,
+one on the upper half of each page. Then they wrote on a small piece
+of white paper, all that they could learn about each tree, and put
+these inscriptions under the leaves, to which they respectively
+referred.
+
+The children worked upon the collection of leaves a little while every
+day. They divided the duty, giving each one a share. Stuyvesant
+pressed the leaves and gummed them to their places in the book.
+Phonny, who was a pretty good composer, composed the descriptions, and
+afterward Stuyvesant would copy them upon the pieces of paper which
+were to be pasted into the book. Stuyvesant used to go out to the barn
+or the yard, to get all the information which Beechnut could give him
+in respect to the particular tree which happened, for the time being,
+to be the subject of inquiry. He would then come in and tell Phonny
+what Beechnut had told him. Phonny would then write the substance of
+this information down upon a slate, and after reading it over, and
+carefully correcting it, Stuyvesant would copy it neatly upon the
+paper.
+
+One day during the time that Phonny was confined to his sofa,
+Stuyvesant and Malleville had been playing with him for some time. At
+last Stuyvesant and Malleville concluded to go out into the yard a
+little while, and they left Phonny with a book to read.
+
+"I am sorry to leave you alone," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Oh, no matter," said Phonny, "I can read. But there is one thing I
+should like."
+
+"What is that?" said Stuyvesant.
+
+"I should like to see Frink. I suppose it would not do to bring him in
+here. Would it, mother?"
+
+Mrs. Henry was sitting at her window at this time sewing.
+
+"Why, I don't know," said Mrs. Henry. "How can you bring him in?" she
+asked.
+
+"Oh, I can put his house upon a board," said Stuyvesant, "and put him
+into it, and then bring house and all."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Henry, "I have no objection. Only get a smooth and
+clean board."
+
+So Stuyvesant went out to the shop to get the squirrel. He found him
+perched upon the handle of the hand-saw, which was hanging against the
+wall.
+
+"Come, Frink, come with me," said Stuyvesant. So he extended his hand
+and took Frink down.
+
+"Ah!" said he, "I have not got your house ready yet. So you will
+please to go down into my pocket until I am ready."
+
+So saying, Stuyvesant slipped the squirrel into his jacket-pocket,
+leaving his head and the tip of his tail out. The squirrel being
+accustomed to such operations, remained perfectly still. Stuyvesant
+then found a board a little larger than the bottom of the squirrel's
+house, and putting this board upon the bench, he placed the house upon
+it. He then took Frink out of his pocket and slipped him into the
+door. He next put a block before the door to keep the squirrel from
+coming out, and then taking up the board by the two ends he carried it
+out of the shop.
+
+He walked along the yard with it until he came to the piazza, and then
+went in at Mrs. Henry's window, which was open. As soon as he had gone
+in, Mrs. Henry shut her window, and Malleville shut the doors.
+Stuyvesant then put the house down upon a chair, and took the block
+away from the door to let the squirrel come out.
+
+Frink seemed at first greatly astonished to find himself in a parlor.
+The first thing that he did was to run up to the top of a tall clock
+which stood in the corner, and perching himself upon a knob there, he
+began to gaze around the room.
+
+[Illustration: FRINK IN THE PARLOR.]
+
+Phonny was very much amused at this. Stuyvesant and Malleville were
+very much amused, too. They postponed their plan of going out to play
+for some time, in order that they might see Frink run about the
+parlor. At length, however, they went away, and Phonny commenced
+reading his story. After a time, Frink crept slyly along and perched
+himself on the back of the sofa, close to the book out of which Phonny
+was reading.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE JOURNEY.
+
+
+One evening about a week after the occurrences related in the last
+chapter, when Phonny's foot had got entirely well, Mrs. Henry went to
+the door which led to the back yard with a letter in her hand. She was
+looking for Stuyvesant.
+
+Presently she saw him and Phonny coming through the garden gate with
+tools in their hands. They had been down to build a bridge across a
+small brook in a field beyond the garden.
+
+"Stuyvesant," said Mrs. Henry, "I have just received a letter from
+your father."
+
+Stuyvesant's eye brightened as Mrs. Henry said this, and he pressed
+eagerly forward to learn what the letter contained.
+
+"It is about you," said Mrs. Henry, "and it is a very important letter
+indeed."
+
+"What is it?" said Phonny eagerly. "Read it to us, mother."
+
+So Mrs. Henry opened the letter and read it as follows,--the boys
+standing before her all the time, with their tools in their hands.
+
+                    "NEW YORK, June 20.
+
+     "My Dear Sister,
+
+     "My business has taken such a turn that I am obliged to go
+     to Europe, to be gone five or six weeks, and I am thinking
+     seriously of taking Stuyvesant with me. He is so thoughtful
+     and considerate a boy that I think he will give me very
+     little trouble, and he will be a great deal of company for
+     me, on the way. Besides I think he will be amused and
+     entertained himself with what he will see in traveling
+     through England, and in London and Paris, and I do not think
+     that he will care much for whatever hardships we may have to
+     endure on the voyage. So I have concluded to take him, if he
+     would like to go. I intend to sail in the steamer of the
+     first, so that it will be necessary for him to come home
+     immediately. I would rather have him come home _alone_, if
+     he feels good courage for such an undertaking,--as I think
+     he could take care of himself very well, and the experience
+     which he would acquire by such a journey would be of great
+     service to him. If he seems inclined to come alone, please
+     send him on as soon as may be. Furnish him with plenty of
+     money, and give him all necessary directions. If on the
+     other hand he appears to be a little afraid, send some one
+     with him. Perhaps Beechnut could come."
+
+Here Mrs. Henry raised her eyes from the letter as if she had read all
+that related to the subject, and Phonny immediately exclaimed.
+
+"Send me, mother; send _me_. I'll go and take care of him. Let me go,
+Stivy, that will be the best plan." As he said this Phonny, using his
+hoe for a vaulting pole, began to leap about the yard with delight at
+the idea.
+
+Stuyvesant remained where he was, with a pleased though thoughtful
+expression of countenance, but saying nothing.
+
+"I'll give you two hours to think of it," said Mrs. Henry, addressing
+Stuyvesant. "You must set off either alone or with Beechnut to-morrow
+morning."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant, "I will think of it and come to tell you. And
+now, Phonny, let us go and put away the tools."
+
+In the course of the two hours which Stuyvesant was allowed for
+considering the question, he made a great many inquiries of Beechnut
+in respect to the journey, asking not only in relation to the course
+which he should pursue at the different points in the journey if every
+thing went prosperously and well, but also in regard to what he should
+do in the various contingencies which might occur on the way.
+
+"Do you advise me to try it?" said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "by all means; and that is very disinterested
+advice, for there is nothing that I should like better than to go with
+you."
+
+Mrs. Henry herself afterward asked Beechnut if he thought it would be
+safe for Stuyvesant to go alone.
+
+"Just as safe," said Beechnut, "as it would be for him to go under my
+charge. There is always danger of accidents, in traveling," he added,
+"but there is no more danger for Stuyvesant alone than if he were in
+company."
+
+"But will he know what to do always," said Mrs. Henry, "in order to
+get along?"
+
+"I think he will," said Beechnut. "I shall explain it all to him
+beforehand."
+
+"But there may be some accident," said Mrs. Henry. "The train may run
+off the track, or there may be a collision."
+
+"That is true," replied Beechnut, "but those things will be as likely
+to happen if I were with him as if he were alone. It seems to me that
+when a boy gets as old as Stuyvesant, the only advantage of having
+some one with him when he is traveling is to keep him from doing
+careless or foolish things,--and Stuyvesant can take care of himself
+in that respect."
+
+It was finally decided that Stuyvesant should go alone.
+
+About eight o'clock, Mrs. Henry went up into Stuyvesant's room to pack
+his trunk, but she found it packed already. Stuyvesant had put every
+thing in, and had arranged the various articles in a very systematic
+and orderly manner. The trunk was all ready to be locked and strapped;
+but it was left open in order that Mrs. Henry might see that all was
+right.
+
+Besides his trunk, Stuyvesant had a small carpet-bag, which contained
+such things as he expected to have occasion to use on the way. In this
+carpet-bag was a night-dress, rolled up snugly, and also a change of
+clean linen. Besides these things there were two books which
+Stuyvesant had borrowed of Phonny to read in the cars, in case there
+should chance to be any detention by the way. Stuyvesant had a small
+morocco portfolio too, which shut with a clasp, and contained note and
+letter paper, and wafers and postage stamps. This portfolio he always
+carried with him on his journeys, so that he could, at any time, have
+writing materials at hand, in case he wished to write a letter. He
+carried the portfolio in his carpet-bag. There was a small square
+morocco-covered inkstand also in the carpet-bag. It shut with a spring
+and a catch, and kept the ink very securely.
+
+Mrs. Henry calculated that it would cost Stuyvesant about ten dollars
+to go from Franconia to New York; so she put ten dollars, in small
+bills, in Stuyvesant's wallet, and also a ten dollar bill besides, in
+the inner compartment of his wallet, to be used in case of emergency.
+When all these arrangements were made, she told Stuyvesant that he
+might go and find Beechnut, and get his directions.
+
+Stuyvesant accordingly went in pursuit of Beechnut. He found him
+sitting on a bench, under a trellis covered with woodbine, at the
+kitchen door, enjoying the cool of the evening. Malleville was with
+him, and he was telling her a story. Stuyvesant and Phonny came and
+sat down upon the bench near to Beechnut.
+
+"So then it is decided that you are to go alone," said Beechnut.
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "and I have come to you to get my directions."
+
+"Well," said Beechnut. "I am glad you are going. You will have a very
+pleasant journey, I have no doubt,--that is, if you have accidents
+enough."
+
+"Accidents!" said Stuyvesant. "So you wish me to meet with accidents?"
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut. "I don't desire that you should meet with any
+very serious or dangerous accidents, but the more common accidents
+that you meet with, the more you will have to amuse and entertain you.
+If it were only winter now, there would be a prospect that you might
+be blocked up in a snow storm."
+
+"Hoh!" said Phonny, "that would be a dreadful thing."
+
+"No," replied Beechnut, "not dreadful at all. For people who are on
+business, and who are in haste to get to the end of their journey, it
+is bad to meet with accidents and delays; but for boys, and for people
+who are traveling for pleasure, the more adventures they meet with the
+better."
+
+"Accidents are not adventures," said Phonny.
+
+"They lead to adventures," replied Beechnut.
+
+"But now for my directions," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Well, as for your directions," replied Beechnut, "I can either go
+over the whole ground with you, and tell you what to do in each
+particular case,--or I can give you one universal rule, which will
+guide you in traveling in all cases, wherever you go. Which would you
+prefer?"
+
+"I should prefer the rule," said Stuyvesant, "if that will be enough
+to guide me."
+
+"Yes," said Beechnut, "it is enough to guide you, not only from here
+to New York, but all over the civilized world."
+
+"What is the rule?" asked Stuyvesant.
+
+"I shall write it down for you," replied Beechnut, "and you can read
+it in the stage, to-morrow morning, or in the cars."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant,--"if you are sure that it will be enough for
+me."
+
+"Yes," replied Beechnut, "I am sure it will be enough. It is the rule
+that I always travel by, and I find it will carry me safely anywhere.
+It is an excellent rule for ladies, who are traveling alone. If they
+would only trust themselves to it, it would be all the guidance that
+they would need."
+
+"Well," said Stuyvesant, "I will decide to take the rule."
+
+Shortly after this, Beechnut and the children all went into the house,
+and Stuyvesant and Phonny went to bed. Stuyvesant was so much excited,
+however, at the thoughts of his journey, that it was a long time
+before he could get to sleep.
+
+He woke at the earliest dawn. He rose and dressed himself, and took
+his breakfast at six o'clock. At seven the stage came for him.
+Beechnut carried his trunk out to the stage, and the driver strapped
+it on in its place, behind. Mrs. Henry and Malleville stood at the
+door to see. Stuyvesant went first to the kitchen, to bid Dorothy
+good-by, and then came out through the front door, and bade Mrs. Henry
+and Malleville good-by.
+
+[Illustration: THE DEPARTURE.]
+
+By this time the driver of the stage had finished strapping on the
+trunk, and had opened the door and was waiting for Stuyvesant to get
+in. Beechnut handed Stuyvesant a small note. He said that the
+Traveling Rule was inside of it, but that Stuyvesant must not open the
+note until he got into the car on the railroad. So Stuyvesant took the
+note and put it in his pocket, and then shaking hands with Beechnut
+and Phonny, and putting his carpet-bag in before him, he climbed up
+the steps and got into the stage. The driver shut the door, mounted
+upon the box, and drove away.
+
+Stuyvesant had about twenty-five miles to go in the stage. He was then
+to take the cars upon a railroad and go about a hundred and fifty
+miles to Boston. From Boston he was to go to New York, either by the
+railroad all the way, or by one of the Sound boats, just as he
+pleased.
+
+Stuyvesant had a great curiosity to know what the rule was which
+Beechnut had written for him as a universal direction for traveling.
+He had, however, been forbidden to open the note until he should reach
+the cars. So he waited patiently, wondering what the rule could be.
+
+One reason in fact why Beechnut had directed Stuyvesant not to open
+his note until he should reach the cars, was to give him something to
+occupy his attention and amuse his thoughts on first going away from
+home. The feeling of loneliness and home-sickness to be apprehended in
+traveling under such circumstances, is always much greater when first
+setting out on the journey than afterward, and Beechnut being aware
+of this, thought it desirable to give Stuyvesant something to think of
+when he first drove away from the door.
+
+When Stuyvesant first got into the stage he took a place on the middle
+of the front seat, which was not a very good place, for he could not
+see. Pretty soon, however, he had an opportunity to change to a place
+on the middle seat, near the window. Here he enjoyed the ride very
+much. He could look out and see the farms, and the farm-houses, and
+the people passing, as the stage drove along, and at intervals he
+amused himself with listening to the conversation of the people in the
+stage.
+
+It was about ten o'clock when the stage arrived at the railroad
+station. As they drew near to the place, Stuyvesant began to consider
+what he should have to do in respect to getting his trunk transferred
+from the stage to the train of cars. He knew very well that he could
+ask the driver what to do, but he felt an ambition to find out
+himself, and he accordingly concluded to wait until after he had
+got out of the stage, and had had an opportunity to make his own
+observations before troubling the driver with his questions. As for
+his ticket, he was aware that he must buy that at the ticket-office,
+and he supposed that he could find the ticket-office very readily.
+
+When the stage stopped, Stuyvesant and all the other passengers got
+out. The stage was standing near a platform which extended along the
+side of one of the buildings of the station. As soon as the passengers
+had got out, the driver began to take off the trunks from the rack
+behind the stage, and to put them on the platform.
+
+There was a gentleman among the passengers who had said in the course
+of conversation in the stage, that he belonged in Boston, and was
+going there. It occurred to Stuyvesant that it would be a good plan to
+watch this man and see what he would do in respect to his trunk, and
+then do the same in respect to his own. So he stood on the platform
+while the driver was taking down the trunks, and said nothing.
+
+The driver put the trunks and baggage down, in heaps of confusion all
+about the platform, and though the passengers were all standing
+around, none of them paid much attention to what he was doing; this
+led Stuyvesant to think that there was no urgent necessity for haste
+or anxiety about the business, but that in some way or other it would
+all come right in the end. So he stood quietly by, and said nothing.
+
+The result was just as he had anticipated; for after he had been
+standing there a short time, a man with a band about his hat, on which
+were inscribed the words BAGGAGE-MASTER, came out from a door in the
+station-house, and advancing toward the baggage with a business-like
+air, he said,
+
+"Now then, gentlemen, tell me where all this baggage is going to?"
+
+As the baggage-master said this, the people standing by began to point
+out their several trunks, and to say where they were to go. As fast as
+the baggage-master was informed of the destination of the trunks and
+carpet-bags, he would fasten a check upon each one by means of a small
+strap, and give the mate of the check to the owner of the baggage.
+Stuyvesant stood quietly by, watching this operation until it came to
+the turn of the gentleman who he had observed was going to Boston.
+
+"That trunk is to go to Boston," said the gentleman, pointing to his
+trunk.
+
+So the baggage-master checked the trunk and gave the duplicate check
+to the gentleman.
+
+"And that trunk is to go to Boston too," said Stuyvesant, pointing to
+his own trunk.
+
+So the baggage-master put a check upon Stuyvesant's trunk and gave
+Stuyvesant the duplicate of it.
+
+Stuyvesant observed that as soon as the baggage was checked, the
+owners of it appeared to go away at once, and to give themselves
+no farther concern about it, and he inferred that it would be safe
+for him to do so too. So he went into the station to find the
+ticket-office, in order to buy his ticket. He saw, in a corner of the
+room, a sort of window with a counter before it, and a sign, with the
+words TICKET OFFICE above. Stuyvesant went to this window. The Boston
+gentleman was there, buying his ticket.
+
+"_One_ for Boston," said the gentleman. As he said this, he laid down
+a bank-bill upon the counter just within the window. The ticket seller
+gave him two tickets and some change.
+
+"He said _one_ and he has got _two_," said Stuyvesant to himself. "I
+wonder what that means."
+
+Stuyvesant then took the Boston gentleman's place at the window, and
+laid down a bank bill upon the counter, saying:
+
+"_Half_ a one, for Boston."
+
+The ticket-seller looked at Stuyvesant a moment over his spectacles,
+with a very inquiring expression of countenance, and then said,
+
+"How old are you, my boy?"
+
+"I am between nine and ten," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"And are you going to Boston, all alone?" asked the man.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Stuyvesant.
+
+So the man gave Stuyvesant two tickets and his change, and Stuyvesant
+put them, tickets, money and all, carefully in his wallet, and turned
+away. He observed that each of his tickets had one of the corners cut
+off. This was to show that they were for a boy who had only paid
+half-price.
+
+As Stuyvesant turned to go away, he met the driver of the stage coming
+toward him.
+
+"Ah, Stuyvesant," said he, "I was looking for you. Have you got your
+tickets?"
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"And is your trunk checked?" asked the driver.
+
+"Yes," said Stuyvesant.
+
+"Very well, then; it's all right. I was going to show you. I did not
+suppose that you knew how to take care of yourself so well."
+
+There were no cars at the station at this time. It was a way station,
+and the train was to pass there, and stop a few minutes to take up
+passengers, but it had not yet arrived. Stuyvesant went round to see
+what had been done with his trunk. It had been removed from the place
+where he had left it, but after a time he found it, with others, on
+another platform near the railroad track. He supposed that that was
+the place where the train was to come in.
+
+He was right in this supposition, for in a few minutes the sound of
+the whistle was heard in the distance, and soon afterward the train
+came thundering in. It slackened its speed as it advanced, and finally
+stopped opposite to the platform on which Stuyvesant was standing. The
+baggage-master put the trunks into the baggage car, and the passengers
+got into the passenger cars, and in a very few minutes the bell rang,
+and the train began to move on again. Stuyvesant got an excellent seat
+near a window.
+
+"Now," said he, "for Beechnut's rule."
+
+So Stuyvesant opened his note, and read as follows:--
+
+     "UNIVERSAL RULE FOR INEXPERIENCED TRAVELERS.
+
+     "Keep a quiet mind, and do as other people
+     do.                             BEECHNUT."
+
+"That's just what I have been doing all the time," said Stuyvesant to
+himself, as soon as he had read the paper. "I found out Beechnut's
+rule myself, before he told me."
+
+This was true; for Stuyvesant's instinctive good sense and sagacity
+had taught him that when traveling with a multitude of other people,
+who were almost all perfectly familiar with the usages of the road, a
+stranger would always find sufficient means of guidance in his
+observation of those about him. It gave Stuyvesant pleasure to think
+that he had found out the way to travel himself, and he was very glad
+to have the wisdom of the method which he had adopted, confirmed by
+Beechnut's testimony.
+
+During the whole of the journey to Boston, Stuyvesant guided himself
+by observation of those about him. When the conductor came for the
+tickets Stuyvesant looked to see what the others did, and then did the
+same himself. At one time the cars stopped, and all the passengers
+rose from their seats and seemed to be going out. Stuyvesant
+accordingly rose and went with them. There was a man on the platform,
+who called out as the people stepped down from the cars, "Passengers
+for Boston will take the forward cars on the right." Stuyvesant
+followed the crowd and entered with them into the cars of another
+train. In fact the travelers had arrived at what is called a
+_junction_, that is to a place where they come upon a railroad
+belonging to another company, and here of course they took another
+train. The fact that there were two railroads and two companies was
+the reason why each passenger had two tickets.
+
+Stuyvesant wondered whether the baggage men would remember to transfer
+his trunk to the new train, without his attending to it, but as he
+observed that the other passengers did nothing about their trunks, but
+went at once into the new cars, he concluded that he had nothing to do
+but follow their example.
+
+When he arrived at Boston it was very late. This was owing to a
+detention which took place on the road through a somewhat singular
+cause. It seems that there was in one part of the road a very narrow
+_cut_, through a rocky hill, and the company were attempting to widen
+it in order to make a double track. They had accordingly been blasting
+the rocks on one side of the cut, and having fired a very heavy charge
+just before the train that Stuyvesant was in came along, an immense
+mass of rocks had fallen down into the cut and covered the track so
+that the train could not get by. The workman had accordingly sent a
+man along with a red flag to stop the train when it should come, and
+in the mean time they went to work with an enormous crane, which was
+set up on the rocks above, to hoist the stones off from the track, and
+swing them out of the way. A great many of the passengers got out and
+went forward when the train stopped, in order to see this operation;
+and Stuyvesant felt himself authorized by Beechnut's rule to go with
+them. It took more than half an hour to raise and remove the rocks so
+as to clear the track, and Stuyvesant had a very pleasant time in
+watching the operation, and in listening to the remarks of the men
+who were standing around.
+
+On account of this delay, and of some subsequent delays which were
+caused by this one, it was quite late when the train arrived in
+Boston. When the cars at length reached the Boston station and the
+passengers began to get out, a great scene of noise and confusion
+ensued.
+
+"Now," said Stuyvesant to himself, "I must obey the first part of
+Beechnut's direction, and keep a quiet mind."
+
+He accordingly rose from his seat, and taking his carpet-bag in his
+hand he went out with the rest of the passengers. There was a great
+crowd of hackmen on the platform, all clamorously shouting together to
+the passengers, offering their carriages and calling out the names of
+the several hotels. Stuyvesant observed that those before him who
+wished for a hack would quietly speak to one of these men, give him
+their baggage tickets and then ask him to show them his carriage.
+Stuyvesant accordingly did the same. He spoke to a man who was
+standing there with a whip in his hand and asking every body if they
+wanted a carriage.
+
+"I want a carriage," said Stuyvesant. "I want to go to the Marlboro'
+Hotel."
+
+"Yes," said the man, eagerly. "I'll take you right there. Walk this
+way and I'll show you the carriage."
+
+So Stuyvesant followed the man and got into his carriage. At the same
+time he gave him his check and said, "That's for my trunk." The man
+took the check and went away. In about ten minutes he returned with
+the trunk, and after fastening it upon the carriage behind, he got
+upon the box and drove away.
+
+Stuyvesant had a very fine time at the Marlboro' Hotel. He had a good
+bed-room to sleep in that night, and an excellent breakfast the next
+morning. He took a little walk in Washington-street after breakfast,
+and then wrote a short letter to Phonny to tell him how well he had
+got along on his journey. He wrote this letter in his room, having all
+the necessary materials in his portfolio. When his letter was
+finished, he brought it to the office of the hotel, and asked the
+clerk how he could get that letter to the post-office.
+
+"Put it right in there," said the clerk.
+
+So saying, the clerk pointed to a letter-box on the counter, with an
+opening at the top, and Stuyvesant dropped the letter in. He then
+told the clerk that he wished to go to New York that day by the
+afternoon train. The clerk said that it was very well, and that he
+would have a carriage ready at the proper time to take him to the
+station. Stuyvesant had no idea where the station was, or what the
+arrangements would be there about checks and tickets; but he had no
+doubt that he should find plenty of people there who were going to New
+York that day, and that he could very easily find out, by observing
+them, what he would have to do.
+
+And so it proved. He had no difficulty whatever. In fact, all that he
+had to do was to throw himself, as it were, into the current, and be
+floated along to New York without any care or concern. He arrived very
+safely there at last, and his father was quite proud of him when he
+found that he had come all the way home alone.
+
+                         THE END.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stuyvesant, by Jacob Abbott
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