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 / ROLLO AT PLAY; 
 
 ( / OR. 
 
 SAFE A M U S E IM E N T S 
 
 I 
 
Now he is st-anding perfectly still. 
 0, Jonas, come and see him." — p, 14. 
 
KOLLO AT PLAY; 
 
 «0K. 
 
 SAFE AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 BY THE AOTHOR OF "ROLLO LEARNINO TO TALK,** 
 AND " LEARNING TO READ." 
 
 FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PUBLISHED DY IIOGAN &, THOMP»ON. 
 
 AND 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 BY GOULD, KENDALL & LL\COLN. 
 1845. 
 
Entered accorciing to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 
 
 By T. H. Carter, 
 
 Ta the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts 
 
 STEREOTYPED AT THE 
 BOSTON TVPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNT RY. 
 
KOLLO AT PLAY 
 
 THE WOODS 
 
 THE SETTING OUT. 
 
 O.NE pleasant morning in the autumn, 
 when Rollo was about five years old, he 
 was sitting on the platform, behind his 
 father's house, playing. He had a ham- 
 mer and nails, and some small pieces of 
 board. He was trying to make a box. 
 He hammered and hammered, and pres- 
 ently he dropped his work down and said, 
 fretfully, 
 
 " O dear me ! " 
 
 " What is the matter, Rollo ? " said 
 Jonas, — for it happened that Jonas was 
 going by just then, with a wheelbarrow. 
 
 " I wish these little boards would not 
 split so. I cannot make mj box " 
 
8 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 " You drive the nails wrong ; you put 
 the wedge sides idth the grain." 
 
 " The wedge sides ! " said Rollo ; 
 " what are the wedge sides, — and the 
 grain? I do not know what you mean." 
 
 But Jonas went on, trundling his wheel- 
 barrow ; though he looked round and told 
 Rollo that he could not stop to explain it 
 to him then. 
 
 Rollo was discouraged about his box. 
 He thought he would look and see what 
 Jonas was going to do. Jonas trundled 
 the wheelbarrow along, until he came op- 
 posite the barn-door, and there he put it 
 down. He went into the barn, and pres- 
 ently came out with an axe. Then he 
 took the sides of the w^heelbarrow off, 
 and placed them up against the barn. 
 Then he laid the axe down across the 
 wheelbarrow, and went into the barn 
 again. Pretty soon he brought out an 
 iron crowbar, and laid that down also in 
 the wheelbarrow, with the axe. 
 
 Then Rollo called out, 
 
 "Jonas, Jonas, where are you going?" 
 
 " I am going down into the woods 
 beyond the brook." 
 
 " What are you going to do ?" 
 
IN THE WOODS. 9 
 
 " I am going to clear up some ground." 
 
 " May 1 go with you ?'' 
 
 *' I should like it — but that is not for 
 me to say." 
 
 Rollo knew by this that he must ask 
 his mother. He went in and asked her, 
 and she, in return, asked him if he had 
 lead his lesson that morning. He said 
 he had not ; he had forgotten it. 
 
 " Then," said his mother, " you must 
 first go and read a quarter of an hour." 
 
 Rollo was sadly disappointed, and also 
 a httle displeased. He turned away, 
 hung down his head, and began to cry. 
 It is not strange that he was disappointed, 
 but it was very wrong for him to feel dis- 
 pleased, and begin to cry. 
 
 " Come here, my son," said his mother. 
 
 Rollo came to his mother, and she said 
 to him kindly, 
 
 " You have done wrong now twice this 
 morning ; you have neglected your duty 
 of reading, and now you are out of humor 
 with me because 1 require you to attend 
 to it. Now it is my duty not to yield to 
 such feelings as you have now, but to 
 punish them. So I must say that, instead 
 of a quarter of an hour, you must wait 
 
10 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 half an hour, before you go out with 
 Jonas." 
 
 Rollo stood silent a minute, — he per- 
 ceived that he had done wrong, and was 
 sorry. He did not know how he could 
 find Jonas in the woods, but he did not 
 say any thing about that then. He only 
 asked his mother what he must do for 
 the half hour. She said he must read a 
 quarter of an hour, and the rest of the 
 time he might do as he pleased. 
 
 So Rollo took his book, and went out 
 and sat down upon the platform, and began 
 to read aloud. When he had finished one 
 page, which usually took a quarter of au 
 hour, he went in to ask his mother what 
 time it was. She looked at the clock, 
 and told him he had been reading seven- 
 teen minutes. 
 
 '^ Is sevejiteen minutes more than a 
 quarter of an hour, or not so much ? " 
 asked Rollo. 
 
 "It is more ; — -fifteen minutes is a 
 quarter of an hour. Now you may do 
 what you please till the other quarter has 
 elapsed." 
 
 Rollo thought he would go and read 
 more. It is true he was tired ; but he 
 
LN THE WOODS. ll 
 
 was sorry he had done wrong, and he 
 ihoiight that if he read more than he was 
 obhged to, his mother would see that he 
 was penitent, and that he acquiesced in 
 his punishment. 
 
 So he went on reading, and the rest 
 of the half hour passed away very quick- 
 ly. In fact, his mother came out before 
 he got up from his reading, to tell him it 
 w^as time for him to go. She said she 
 was very glad he had submitted pleasant- 
 ly to his punishment, and she gave him 
 something wrapped up in a paper. 
 
 " Keep this till you get a little tired 
 of play, down ther(3, and then sit down 
 on a log and open it." 
 
 Rollo wondered what it was. He took 
 it gladly, and began to go. But in a 
 minute he turned round and said, 
 
 "But how shall I find Jonas ? " 
 
 " What is he doing ? " said his mother. 
 
 " He said he w^as going to clear up 
 some land." 
 
 '' Then you will hear his axe. Go 
 down to the ed^e of the woods and 
 listen, and when you hear him, call him. 
 But you must not go into the woods 
 unless you hear him." 
 
12 ROrj.O AT PLAT 
 
 BRIDGE BUILDING 
 
 Rollo went on, down the green lane, till 
 he came to the turn-stile, and then went 
 through into the field. He then followed 
 a winding path until he came to the edge 
 of the trees, and there stopped to listen. 
 
 He heard the brook gurgling along 
 over the stones, and that was all at first ; 
 but presently he began to hear the strokes 
 of an axe. He called out as loud as he 
 could, 
 
 " Jonas ! Jonas ! " 
 
 But Jonas did not hear. 
 
 Then he walked along the edge of the 
 woods till he came nearer the place where 
 he heard the axe. He found here a little 
 opening among the trees and bushes, so 
 that he could look in. He saw the brook, 
 and over beyond it, on the opposite bank, 
 was Jonas, cutting down a sm^ll tree. 
 
 So Rollo walked on until he came to 
 the brook, and then asked Jonas how he 
 should get over. The brook was pretty 
 wide and deep. 
 
 Jonas said, if he would wait a few 
 minutes, he would build him a bridge. 
 
IN THE WOODS. 13 
 
 '^ You cannot build a bridge," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " Wait a little and see." 
 
 So Rollo sat down on a mossy bank, 
 ^nd Jonas, having cut down the small 
 tree, began to work on a larger one that 
 stood near the bank. 
 
 Ahev he had cut a little while, Rollo 
 asked him why he did not begin the 
 bridge. 
 
 " 1 am beginning it," said he. 
 
 Rollo lauo^hed at this, but in a minute 
 Jonas called to him to stand back, away 
 from the bank ; and then, after a few 
 strokes more, the top of the tree began 
 to bend slowly over, and then it fell faster 
 and faster, until it came down wdth a 
 great crash, directly across the brook. 
 
 '' There ! " said Jonas, " there is your 
 bridge." 
 
 Rollo looked at it with astonishment 
 and pleasure. 
 
 *'Now," said Jonas, '' I will come and 
 help you over." 
 
 " No," said Rollo, " I can come over 
 myself. I can take hold of the branches 
 for a railing." 
 
 So Rollo be^an to climb alons the stem 
 
14 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 of the tree, holding on carefully by the 
 branches. When he reached the middle 
 of the stream, he stopped to look down 
 into the water. 
 
 " This is a capital bridge of yours, 
 Jonas," said he. " How beautiful the 
 water looks down here ! O, I see a 
 little fish! He is swimming along by a 
 great rock. Now he is standing perfectly 
 still. O, Jonas, come and see him."* 
 
 " No," said Jonas, " I must mind my 
 work." 
 
 After a little time, Rollo went carefully 
 on over the bridge, and sat down on the 
 bank of the brook. But he did not have 
 with him the parcel his mother gave him. 
 He had left it on the other side. 
 
 After he had watched the fishes, and 
 thrown pebble-stones into the brook some 
 time, he began to be tired, and he asked 
 Jonas what he had better do. 
 
 " I think you had better build a wig 
 wam." 
 
 ** A wigwam ? What is a wigwam?" 
 said Rollo. 
 
 " It is a little house made of bushes 
 such as the Indians live in." 
 
 * See picture at the beginning of this story* 
 
IN THE WOODS. 15 
 
 " O, I could not make a house,'' said 
 Rollo. 
 
 *'I think jou could if I should tell you 
 how, and help you a little." 
 
 *' But you say you must mind your 
 work." 
 
 " Yes, — I can mind my work and tell 
 you at the same time." 
 
 Rollo thought he should like to build a 
 wigwam very much. Jonas told him the 
 first thing to be done was to find a good 
 place, where the ground was level. Rollo 
 looked at a good many places, but at last 
 chose a smooth spot under a great oak 
 tree, which Jonas said he was not going 
 to cut down. It was near a beautiful 
 turn in the brook, where the water was 
 very deep. 
 
 Jonas told him that the first thing was 
 to make a little stake, and drive it down 
 in the middle of his wigwam-ground. 
 Then Rollo recollected that he had left 
 his hatchet over on the other side of the 
 brook, together with the parcel his mother 
 gave him ; and he was going over to get 
 them, when Jonas told him he would trim 
 up the bridge a little, and then he could 
 go over more easilji^ 
 
16 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 So Jonas went upon the bridge, and 
 began to cut away the branches that were 
 in the way, leaving enough on each side 
 to take hold of, and to keep Rollo from 
 falling in. Rollo could then go back and 
 forth easily. He held on with one hand, 
 and carried his hatchet in the other. 
 Then he went over again, and brought 
 his parcel, and laid it down near the great 
 oak tree. 
 
 Then he made a little stake, and drove 
 it down in the middle of the wigwam- 
 ground. Then he asked Jonas what he 
 must do next. 
 
 "That is the centre of your wigwam; 
 now you must strike a circle around it." 
 
 "What?" said Rollo. 
 
 " Don't you know how to strike a 
 circle?" said Jonas. 
 
 Rollo said he did not, and then Jonas 
 told him to do exactly as he should say, 
 and that would show him. 
 
 " First," said Jonas, " have you got a 
 string ? " 
 
 Rollo felt in his pockets in vain, but he 
 recollected his little parcel, which was 
 tied with a piece of twine, and held it up 
 to ask Jonas if that would do. Jonas 
 
IN THE WOODS. 17 
 
 5aid It would, and told him to take it off 
 carefully, and tie one end of it to his 
 centre stake. 
 
 And Rollo did so. 
 
 " Now," said Jonas, '' make another 
 little sharp stake for the marker, and tie 
 the other end of the twine to that, near 
 the sharp end." 
 
 Rollo worked busily for some time, and 
 then called out, 
 
 '' Jonas, it is done." 
 
 All this time, Jonas was at work in the 
 bushes, at a little distance. He now 
 came to Rollo's wigwam-ground, and 
 took hold of the marker, and held it off 
 as far from the middle stake as it would 
 go, and then began to make a mark on 
 the ground all around the middle stake. 
 Now, as the marker was tied to the 
 middle stake by the string, the mark was 
 equally distant from the middle stake in 
 every part, and that made it exactly 
 round. Then Jonas laid down the mark- 
 er, and pulled out the middle stake ; and 
 they looked do>yn and saw that there was 
 a round mark on the ground, about as 
 large as a cart-wheel. 
 
 Then Jonas took the crowbar, and 
 
18 ROLLO AT PLAY. 
 
 made deep holes all around, in this circle, 
 so far apart that Rollo could just step 
 from one to the other. But Rollo could 
 not understand how he could make a 
 house so. 
 
 " I will tell you," said Jonas. " You 
 nmst now go and get some large branches 
 of trees, and trim off the twigs from the 
 lower end, and stick them down in these 
 holes. I will show you how." 
 
 So Jonas took a large bough, and 
 trimmed the large end, and sharpened it 
 a little, and then he fixed it down in one 
 of these holes, in such a manner that the 
 top of it bent over towards the middle 
 of the circle ; then he went back to his 
 work, leaving Rollo to go on with the 
 wigwam. 
 
 A VISITOR. 
 
 Rollo put down two or three branches 
 very well, and was very much delighted 
 at seeing it gradually begin to look like a 
 house, when he thought he heard a voice. 
 He listened a moment, and heard some 
 one at a distance calling, " Rol — lo, 
 Rol— lo." 
 
Ix\ THE WOODS. 19 
 
 Rollo dropped his hatchet, and looked 
 in the direction that the sound came 
 from, and called out as loud as he could, 
 '' What ! " 
 
 ''Where — are — you?" was heard in 
 repJy. 
 
 Rollo answered, "^ere," and then im- 
 mediately clambered along over the bridge, 
 and ran through the Avoods until he came 
 out into the open field ; and there he saw 
 a small boy, away otf at a distance, just 
 comino^ through the turn-stile. 
 
 It was his cousin James, It seems that 
 James had come to play with him that 
 day, and Rollo's mother had directed him 
 down towards the woods. 
 
 James came running along towards Rol- 
 lo, holding up something round and bright, 
 in each hand. They were half dollars. 
 
 " Where did you get them ? " said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " One is for you, and one is for me," 
 said James. " Uncle George sent them 
 to us." 
 
 " What a beautiful little eagle ! " said 
 Rollo, as he looked at one side of his half 
 dollar ; "I wish I could get it off and 
 keep it separate." 
 
20 ROLLO AT FLAY 
 
 ** O no," said James, *' that would 
 spoil your half dollar." 
 
 u Why, they would know it was a half 
 dollar by the letters and the head on the 
 other side. What a pretty thin eagle ! 
 How do you suppose they fasten it on so 
 strong ? " 
 
 James said he thought he could get it 
 off; so they went and sat down on a 
 smooth log, that was lying on the ground, 
 and laid Rollo's half dollar on the log. 
 Then he took a pin, and tried to drive 
 the point of it under the eagle's head, with 
 a little stone. But the eagle would not 
 move. They only made some little marks 
 and scratches on the silver. 
 
 " Never mind," said Rollo ; " I will 
 keep it as it is." So he took his half 
 dollar, and they walked along towards 
 the brook. 
 
 They showed their money to Jonas, 
 and told him that they had tried to get 
 the eagle off. He smiled at this. The 
 boys went back soon to the wigwam, and 
 James said he would help Rollo finish it. 
 While they were at work they put their 
 money on a large flat stone, on the bank 
 of the brook. They fixed a great many 
 
IN THE WOODS. 21 
 
 boughs into their wigwam, weaving them 
 in all around, and thus made a very pleas- 
 ant little house, leaving a place for a door 
 in front. When they were tired, they 
 went and opened RoUo's little package, 
 and found a fine luncheon in it of bread 
 and butter and pie ; which they ate very 
 happily together, sitting on little hemlock 
 branches in the wigwam. 
 
 DIFFICULTY, 
 
 After their luncheon, the boys began to 
 talk about the best place for a window 
 for the wio'wam. 
 
 " I think we will have it this side, tow- 
 ards the brook," said James, " and then 
 we can look out to the water." 
 
 '•Xo," said Rollo, " it will be better to 
 have it here, towards where Jonas is work- 
 ins:, and then we can look out and see 
 him." 
 
 '• A"o," said James, " that is not a good 
 plan : I do not want to see Jonas." 
 
 " And I do not want to see the water," 
 replied Rollo. " It is my wio^wam, and I 
 mean to have the window here,''' 
 
22 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 Sc sajing, he went to the side towards 
 Jonas, and began to take away a bough. 
 James came there too, and said angrily, 
 
 " The wigwam is mine as much as it is 
 yours, for I helped make it, and I will not 
 have a window here." 
 
 So he took hold of the branch that Rol- 
 lo had hold of. They both felt guilty and 
 condemned, but their angry feelings urged 
 them on, and they looked fiercely at each 
 other, and pulled upon the branch. 
 
 " Rollo," said James, " let go." 
 
 " James," said Rollo, " I tell you, let 
 my wigwam alone." 
 
 " It is not your wigwam." 
 
 " I tell you it is." 
 
 Just then they heard a noise in the 
 bushes. They looked around, and saw 
 Jonas coming towards them. They felt 
 ashamed, and were silent, though each 
 kept hold of the branch. 
 
 ''Now, boys," said Jonas, "you have 
 got into a foolish and wicked quarrel. I 
 have heard it all. Now you may do as 
 you please — you may let me settle it, or 
 I will lead you home to your mother, and 
 tell her about it, and let her settle it." 
 
 The boys looked ashamed, but said 
 nothing. 
 
IN THE WOODS. 23 
 
 " If you conclude to let me settle it, 
 you must do just as I say. But I do not 
 pretend that I have any right to decide 
 such a case, unless you consent. So I 
 will take you home, if you prefer." 
 
 The boys both preferred that he should 
 settle it, and promised to do as he should 
 say. 
 
 " Well, then," said he, " the first thing 
 is for you, Rollo, to go over the other side 
 of the brook, and you, James, to stay here, 
 and both to sit down still, until you have 
 had time to cool." 
 
 The boys obeyed, and Jonas went back 
 to his work. 
 
 The boys sat still, feeling guilty and 
 ashamed; but they were not penitent. 
 They ought to have been sorry for their 
 fault, and become good-natured and pleas- 
 ant again. But instead of that, theyw^ere 
 silent and displeased, eyeing one another 
 across the brook. Jonas waited some 
 time, and then came and called them both 
 to him. 
 
 " Now," says James, *' I will tell you 
 all about it, and you shall decide who was 
 to blame." 
 
 '' I heard it all, and I know which w^as 
 
24 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 to blame ; you, James, came here to see 
 Rollo, and found him buildmg a wigwam. 
 It was his wigwam, not yours. He began 
 it without you, and was going on without 
 you, and when you came, you had no 
 right to assume any authority about it. 
 You ought 10 have let him do as he wished 
 with his own wigwam. You were un- 
 just." 
 
 Here Rollo began to look pleased and 
 triumphant, that Jonas had decided in his 
 favor. 
 
 " But," continued Jonas, '' you, Rollo, 
 were playing here alone. Your little 
 cousin came to see you ; and you were 
 very glad to have him come. He helped 
 you build, and when he wanted to have 
 the window in a particular way, you ought 
 to have let him. To quarrel with a visitor 
 for such a cause as that, was very ungen- 
 tlemanly and unkind. So you see you 
 were both very much to blame." 
 
 The boys looked guilty and ashamed, 
 but they did not feel really penitent. 
 They were not cordially reconciled. 
 Neither was willing to give up. 
 
 " But," said Rollo, " how shall we make 
 the window ? " 
 
IN THE WOODS. 25 
 
 " I think you ought not to make any 
 window, as you cannot agiee about it." 
 
 They wanted to make a window now 
 more than ever, for each w^anted to have 
 his own way ; but Jonas would not con- 
 sent, and as they had agreed to abide by 
 his decision, they submitted. Jonas then 
 returned to his work, and the boys stood 
 by the side of the brook, not knowing ex- 
 actly what to do. Jonas told them, when 
 they went away, that he expected that 
 they would have another quarrel, as he 
 perceived that their hearts were still in a 
 bad state. 
 
 HEARTS WROXG 
 
 The boys sat down on the bank of the 
 brook, and began to pick up little stones 
 and throw them into the water. They 
 began soon to talk of the window again. 
 
 Rollo said, " Jonas thought you were 
 most to blame, I know." 
 
 '- No, he did not," replied James. " He 
 blamed you the most ; he said you were 
 unjust." 
 
 '' I don't care," said Rollo. " You do 
 not know how to build a wigwam. Yoti 
 
 b 
 
26 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 cannot reach high enough to make a win- 
 dow." 
 
 " I can reach high," said James. " ^ 
 can reach as high as that," said he, stretch- 
 mg up his hand. 
 
 " And I can reach as high as ^Aa^," said 
 Rollo, stretching up his hand higher than 
 James did ; for he was a little taller. 
 
 James was a little vexed to find that 
 Rollo could reach higher than he could, 
 though it was very foolish to allow him- 
 self to be put out of humor by such a 
 thing. But bojs, when they are ill-hu- 
 mored, and dispute, are always unreason- 
 able and foolish. James determined not 
 to be outdone, so he took up a stick, and 
 reached it up in the air as high as he 
 could, and said, 
 
 " I can reach up as high as that.'^'^ 
 
 Then Rollo took up a stone, and tossed 
 it up into the air, saying, 
 
 *' And I can reach as high as that." 
 
 Now, when boys throw stones into the 
 air, they ought to consider where they 
 will come down ; but, unfortunately, Rollo 
 did not in this case, and the stone fell 
 directly upon James's head. It was, how- 
 ever a small stone, and his cap prevented 
 
IN THE WOODS. 27 
 
 it from hurting him much ; but he was 
 already vexed and out of humor, and so 
 he began to cry out aloud. 
 
 Rollo was frightened a little, for he was 
 afraid he had hurt his cousin a good deal, 
 and men he expected too that Jonas \\ ould 
 come. But Jonas took no notice of the 
 crying, but went on with his work. Now, 
 Jonas was very kind and careful, and 
 always came quick when there was any 
 one hurt. But this time, he knew by the 
 tone of James's crying, that it was vexa- 
 tion rather than pain that caused it. 
 
 James, finding that his crying did no 
 good, gradually became still ; and in a 
 few minutes, as he happened to look 
 round, his eye rested on the stone where 
 they had put their half dollars, and he saw 
 that only one of them was there. 
 
 " O, Rollo," said he, "one of our half 
 dollars is gone." 
 
 They went to the stone, and, true 
 enough, one was gone. They looked 
 around, but it was no where to be found. 
 Boys that are out of humor with one 
 another, are never at a loss for subjects of 
 dispute ; and Rollo said he believed James 
 had taken it, and James charged it upon 
 
28 ROLLO M^ PLAY 
 
 Rollo. Then there was a dispute wno 
 should have the one that was left. James 
 knew it was his ; he said he remembered 
 exactly how his looked ; and Rollo knew 
 it was his, for the head and the stars were 
 very bright on his, and they were very 
 bright on this. James, however, had the 
 half dollar, and would not give it up ; and 
 so Rollo went to Jonas, and told him that 
 James had got his half dollar. 
 
 Jonas came, and heard the whole storv 
 from both of the boys. James said he 
 knew the one that was left was his, for he 
 remembered exactly how it looked, and 
 he also remembered exactly the very spot 
 on the stone where he put it down. 
 
 James did not mean to tell a lie, but he 
 was a little angry and excited, and when 
 boys are in that state of mind, they are 
 very apt to say they know not what. 
 
 Jonas looked at both sides of the half 
 dollar very attentively. 
 
 " Which half dollar was it," said he, 
 " that you tried to get the eagle off of ? " 
 
 " Mine," said Rollo ; " let me see." 
 
 Jonas held down the half dollar, and 
 show^ed to Rollo and James the marks 
 and scratches made by the pin; proving 
 
IN THE WOODS. 29 
 
 that this was Rollo's half dollar. James 
 looked ashamed and confounded ; Jonas 
 just waited to hear what he would say. 
 
 HEARTS RIGHT AGAIN. 
 
 James stood still a minute, thinking ; 
 presently he said, 
 
 " Well, Rollo, I suppose my half dollar 
 is lost, but I am glad yours is safe, at any 
 rate." 
 
 '' I am sorry yours is lost," said Rollo, 
 *' but then I can give you half of what 
 I buy with mine." 
 
 ''Where did you put the half dollars ? " 
 said Jonas. 
 
 " On that rock," said Rollo. 
 
 They walked along towards the rock. 
 It was by the edge of the water ; Jonas 
 thought that as they had been dragging 
 boughs of trees along near the rock, some 
 little branch might have reached over and 
 brushed off one of the pieces of money 
 into the water. So he walked up to it 
 and looked over. 
 
 In a minute or two, he pointed down, 
 
30 ROLLO AT PLAY 
 
 and the boys looked and saw something 
 bright and glittering on the bottom. 
 
 " Is that it? " said James. 
 
 " I believe it is," said Jonas. 
 
 Jonas then took ojfF his jacket, rolled up 
 his shirt sleeve, lay down on the rock, 
 and reached his arm down into the water, 
 but it was a little too deep. He could 
 not reach it. 
 
 " I cannot get it so," said he. 
 
 "What shall we" do?" said James. 
 " How foolish I was to put it so near the 
 water ! " 
 
 " I think we shall contrive some way 
 to get it," said Jonas. 
 
 He then sat down on the rock and 
 looked into the water. " We can go 
 home and get a long pair of tongs, and 
 get it with them at any rate," said he. 
 
 " O, yes," said Rollo, " I will go and 
 get them ; " and he ran off towards the 
 bridge. 
 
 " No," said Jonas, " stop ; I will try 
 one plan more." 
 
 So he went and cut a long straight stem 
 of a bush, and trimmed it up smooth, and 
 cut the largest end off exactly square. 
 
IN THE WOODS. 
 
 31 
 
 Then he went to a hemlock tree near, 
 and took off some of the gum, which was 
 very " sticky." He pressed some of this 
 with his knife on the end of the stick. 
 Then he reached it very carefully down, 
 and pressed it hard against the half dol- 
 lar; it crowded the half dollar down 
 into the sand, out of sight. 
 
 "There, you have lost it," said James. 
 
 " I don't know," said Jonas ; and he 
 began slowly and carefully to draw it up. 
 
 When the end of the stick came up out 
 of the sand, the boys saw, to their great 
 
32 ROLLO AT PLAY IN THE WOODS. 
 
 delight, that the half dollar was sticking 
 fast on. Thej clapped their hands, and 
 capered about on the stone, while Jonas 
 gently drew up the half dollar, and put it, 
 all wet and dripping, into James's hands. 
 
 The bojs thanked Jonas for gettin.g up 
 the money, and then they asked him to 
 keep both pieces for them until they went 
 home. Then they began to think of the 
 wigwam again. 
 
 " We will make the window as you 
 want it, James," said Rollo ; " I am will- 
 ing." 
 
 " No," said James, " I was just going 
 to say we would make it your way. I 
 rather think it would be better to make it 
 towards the land." 
 
 " Why can you not have two win- 
 dows ? " said Jonas. 
 
 "So we can," said both of the boys ; 
 and they immediately went to work col- 
 lecting branches and weaving them in, 
 leaving a space for a window both sides. 
 Their quarrelsome feelings were all gone, 
 and they talked very pleasantly at their 
 work until it was ttme for them to go 
 home to dinner. * 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP 
 
 THE WAY TO CATCH A SQUIRREL. 
 
 The afternoon of the day when Rollo 
 and his cousin James made their wigwam 
 in the woods by the brook, they were at 
 work there again, employed very harmo- 
 niously together, in finishing their edifice, 
 when suddenly Jonas, who w^as at work 
 in the woods at a little distance, heard 
 them both calling to him, in tones of sur- 
 prise and pleasure — 
 
 " O, Jonas, Jonas, come here quick — 
 quick." 
 
 Jonas dropped his axe and ran. 
 
 When he got near them, they pointed 
 to a log. 
 
 " See there ; — see ; — see there." 
 
 *' What is it ? " said Jonas. <* O, I see 
 it," said he. 
 
 It was a little squirrel clambering up a 
 
36 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 raspberrj-bush, eating the raspberries as 
 he went along. He would climb up by 
 the little branches, and pull in the rasp- 
 berries in succession, until he got to the 
 topmost one, when the bush would bend 
 over with his weight until it almost 
 touched the log. 
 
 "Let us catch him," said Rollo, very 
 eagerly ; " do let us catch him ; I will go 
 and get our steeple trap." 
 
 Jonas did not seem to be so very much 
 delighted as the boys were. He said he 
 was certainly a cunning little fellow, but 
 "what should we do with him if we 
 should catch him ? " 
 
 " O," said Rollo, " we would put him 
 in a little cage. It would be so complete 
 to have him in a cage ! Do, Jonas, do." 
 
 " But you have not got any cage." 
 
 " We can get one," said James. "We 
 can buy one with our half dollars." 
 
 " Well," said Jonas, " it will do no 
 good to set the trap now, for he will be 
 away before we could get back. But I 
 will come down to-night, and set the trap, 
 and perhaps we shall catch him, though 1 
 do not exactly like to do it." 
 
 " Why ? " said the boys. 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 37 
 
 " O," replied Jonas, " he will not like 
 to be shut up all night, in a dark box, 
 and then be imprisoned in a cage. He 
 had rather run about here, and gather 
 raspberries. Besides, jou would soon get 
 tired of him if jou had him in a cage." 
 
 " O no," said Rollo, " I should not 
 get tired of him." 
 
 '' Did JOU ever have any plaything that 
 you were not tired of before long ? " 
 
 " Why, — no," said Rollo ; '• but then a 
 real liv^e squirrel is a different thing. Be- 
 sides, you know, if I get tired of him, I 
 need not play with him then." 
 
 " No, but a real live thing must be fed 
 every day, and that you would find a great 
 trouble. And then you would sometimes 
 forget it, and the poor fellow would be 
 half starved." 
 
 "O no," said Rollo; "I am sure I 
 should not forget it." 
 
 " Did vou remember vour readin"- 
 lesson this Tiornin<i ? " 
 
 " Why,— no," said Rollo, looking a 
 little confuse 1. " But I am sure I should 
 not forget to feed a squirrel if I had one." 
 
 " You don't know as much as I thought 
 you did," replied Jonas. 
 
38 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 u Why ? " 
 
 *' I thought you knew more about your- 
 self than to suppose you could be trusted 
 to do any thing regularly every day. 
 Why, you would not remember to wash 
 your own face every morning, if your 
 mother did not remind you. The squirrel 
 is almost as fit to take care of you in your 
 wigwam, as you are to take care of him 
 in a cage." 
 
 Rollo felt a little ashamed of his boast- 
 ing, for he knew that what Jonas said 
 was true. Jonas said, finally, 
 
 " However, we will try to catch him ; 
 ])ut I cannot promise that I shall let you 
 keep him in a cage. It will be bad 
 enough for him to be shut up all night in 
 the box trap, but I can pay him for that 
 the next day in corn." 
 
 So Jonas brought down the box trap 
 that night. It was a long box, about as 
 big as a cricket, with a tall, pointed back, 
 which looked like a steeple ; so Rollo 
 called it the steeple trap. It was so fixed 
 that if the squirrel should go in, and begin 
 to nibble some corn, which they were 
 going to put in there, it would make the 
 cover come down and shut him in. They 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 39 
 
 fixed the trap on the end of the log, and 
 Jonas observed, as he sat on the log, that 
 he could see the barn chamber window 
 through a little opening among the trees. 
 Of course he knew^ that from the barn 
 chamber window he could see the trap, 
 though it would be too far off to see it 
 plain. 
 
 THE WAY TO LOSE A SQUIRREL. 
 
 Early the next morning, James came 
 over to learn whether they had caught the 
 squirrel ; and he and Rollo wanted Jonas 
 to go down with them and see. Jonas 
 said he could not go down then very w^ell, 
 but if he would go and ask his father to 
 lend him his spy-glass, he could tell with- 
 out goino^ down. 
 
 Now Jonas had been a very faithful 
 and obedient boy, ever since he came to 
 live with Rollo's father. He had some 
 great faults when he first came, but he 
 had cured himself of them, and he was 
 now an excellent and trustw^orthy boy. 
 It was a part of his business to take 
 care of Rollo, and they always let him 
 
40 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 have what he asked for from the house, 
 as they knew it was for some good pur- 
 pose, and that it would be well taken care 
 of. So when Rollo went in and asked 
 for the spy-glass, and said that Jonas 
 w^anted it, they handed it down to him at 
 once. 
 
 Jonas took the glass, and they all three 
 went up into the barn chamber. 
 
 Jonas opened the glass, and held it up 
 to his eye. The boys stood by looking 
 on silently. At length, Jonas said, 
 
 " No, we have not caught him." 
 
 " How do you know ?" said the boys. 
 
 " O, I can see the trap, and it is not 
 sprung." 
 
 " Is not sprung?" said James, "what 
 do you mean by sprung ? " 
 
 *' Shut. It is not shut. I can see it 
 open, and of course the squirrel is not 
 there." 
 
 "'O, he may be in," said Rollo, "just 
 nibbling the corn. Do let us go and see." 
 
 Jonas smiled, and said he could not go 
 then, but he would look through the spy- 
 glass again towards noon. He then gave 
 the glass to Rollo, and it was carried back 
 safely into the house. 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 4l 
 
 James soon after went home, and Rollo 
 sat down in the parlor to his reading. 
 Afterwards he came out, and went to 
 building cities in a sandy corner of the 
 garden. He was making Rome, — for his 
 father had told him that Rome was built 
 on seven hills, and he liked to make the 
 seven hills in the sand. He made a long 
 channel for an aqueduct, and went into 
 the house to get a dipper of water to fill 
 his aqueduct, when he met James coming 
 again. So they went in, and got the spy- 
 glass, and asked Jonas to go up and look 
 again. 
 
 Jonas adjusted the glass, held it up to 
 his eye, and looked some time in silence, 
 and then said, — 
 
 "Yes, it is sprung, I believe. Yes, it is 
 certainly sprung." 
 
 '' O, then we have caught him," said 
 the boys, capering about. " Let us go 
 and see." 
 
 '' Perhaps we have caught him," said 
 Jonas, " but it is not certain ; sometimes 
 the trap gets sprung accidentally. How- 
 ever, you may go and ask your father if he 
 thinks it worth while for me to leave my 
 work long enouo;h to go down and see.' 
 
42 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 Rollo came back with the permission 
 granted, and they all set off; Rollo and 
 James running on eagerly before. 
 
 When they came to the trap, they fomid 
 it shut. Jonas took it up, and tipped it 
 one way and the other, and listened. He 
 heard something moving in it, but did not 
 know whether it was any,thing more than 
 the corn cob. Then he said he would 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 43 
 
 open the trap a very little, and let Rollo 
 peep in. 
 
 He did so. Rollo said it looked all 
 dark; he could not see any thing. Then 
 Jonas opened it a little farther, and Rollo 
 saw two little shining eyes, and presently 
 a nose snieUino^ alons: at the a'ack. 
 
 "Yes, here he is, here he is," said 
 Rollo ; '' look at him, James, look at him ; 
 — see, see." 
 
 They all peeped at him, and then Jo- 
 nas took the box under his arm, and they 
 returned home. 
 
 Jonas told the boys he was not vriiling 
 to keep the squirrel a prisoner yery long, 
 but he would try to contriye some way by 
 which they might look at him. Now, 
 there was, in the garret, a small hre- 
 fender, which had been laid aside as old 
 and useless. Jonas recollected this, and 
 thought he could fix up a temporary cage 
 with it. So he took a small box about as 
 large as a raisin-box, which he found in 
 the barn, and laid it down on its side, so 
 as to turn the open side towards the trap, 
 and then moved the trap close up to it. 
 He then covered up all the rest of the 
 open part of the box with shmgles, and 
 
44 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 asked James and Rollo to hold them on. 
 Then he carefully lifted up the cover of 
 the trap, and made a rattlmg in the back 
 part of it with the spindle. This drove 
 the squirrel through out of the trap into 
 the box. 
 
 When Jonas was sure that he was in, 
 he took the old fender and slid it down 
 very cautiously between the trap and the 
 box, so as to cover the open part entirely, 
 and make a sort of grated front, like a 
 cage. Then he took the trap away, and 
 there the little nut-cracker was, safely im- 
 prisoned, but yet fairly exposed to view. 
 
 That is, they thought he was safely im- 
 prisoned ; but he, little rogue, had no idea 
 of submitting without giving his bolts and 
 bars a try. At first, he crept along, with 
 his tail curled over his back, in a corner, 
 and looked at the strange faces which 
 surrounded him. ''Let us give him a 
 little corn," said Rollo ; " perhaps he is 
 hungry;" and he was just slipping some 
 kernels in between the wires of the fend- 
 er, when Bunny sprang forward, and, 
 with a jump and a squeeze, forced his 
 slender body between l^o of the wires 
 that were bent a little apart, leaped down 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 45 
 
 upon the barn floor, ran along to the cor- 
 ner, up the post, and then crept leisurely 
 along on a beam. Presently, he stopped, 
 and looked down, as i^' considerino^ what 
 to do next. 
 
 The moment he escaped, the boys ex- 
 claimed, '^ O, catch him, catch him," 
 and were soing to rim after him : but Jo- 
 nas said that it would do no good, for they 
 could not catch him again now, and had 
 better stand still and see what he would 
 do. 
 
 He soon began to run along on the 
 beam ; thence he ascended to the scaffold, 
 and made his way towards an open win- 
 dow. He jumped up to the window sill, 
 and then disappeared. The boys all ran 
 around, outside, and were just in time to 
 catch a glimpse of him, running along on 
 the top of the fence, down towards the 
 woods again. 
 
 '• Do let us run after him and catch 
 him," said RoUo. 
 
 " Catch him! " said Jonas, with a laugh, 
 "you might as well catch the wind. No, 
 the only way is to set our trap for him 
 again. I meant to let him go, mvself ; 
 but he is not going to slip through our 
 
46 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 fingers in that way, I tell him." So Jo- 
 nas went down that night and set the trap 
 again. 
 
 For several days after this, the trap re- 
 mained unsprung, and the boys began to 
 think that they should never see him 
 again. At last, however, one day, when 
 Rollo was playing in the yard, he saw 
 Jonas coming up out of the woods with 
 the trap under his arm. Rollo ran to 
 meet him, and was delighted to find that 
 the squirrel was caught again. 
 
 HOW TO KEEP A SQUIRREL. 
 
 Jonas contrived to tighten the wires of 
 the fender, by weaving in other wires so 
 as to secure the little prisoner this time ; 
 and when he was fairly in his temporary 
 cage, the boys were so pleased with his 
 graceful form and beautiful colors, espe- 
 cially the elegant stripes on his back, that 
 they begged hard to keep him ; and they 
 made many earnest promises never to for- 
 get to feed him. Jonas said, at last, 
 
 " On the whole, I believe I will let 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 47 
 
 you keep him, but you must do it in my 
 way." 
 
 " What is your way ? " 
 
 " Why, after a day or two, we must 
 carry him back to his raspberry-bush, and 
 let him go. But you may give him a 
 name, and call him yours, and you can 
 carry some corn down there now and then, 
 to feed him with, — and then you will see 
 him, occasionally, playing about there." 
 
 James and Rollo did not exactly like 
 this plan at first, but when they consid- 
 ered how much better the little squirrel 
 himself would like it, they adopted it ; 
 and Rollo proposed that they should tie a 
 string round his neck for a collar, so that 
 they might know him again. 
 
 " I can get mother to let me have a 
 little pink riband," said he, ^' and that 
 will be beautiful." 
 
 " It would be a good plan," said Jonas, 
 " to mark him in some wav, but he mig-ht 
 gnaw off the riband." 
 
 '^ O no," said James, " he could not 
 gnaw any thing on his own neck." Rol- 
 lo thought so too, and they both tried to 
 bite their own collar ribands, by way of 
 showing Jonas how impossible it was. 
 
'43 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 *' I don't know exactly what the limits 
 are of a squirrel's gnawing," said Jonas. 
 '' Perhaps he might tear it off with his 
 claws." 
 
 "Or he might get another squirrel to 
 gnaw it off for him," said James. 
 
 " Yes," said Jonas, " and there is 
 another difficulty. He might be jumping 
 from one tree to another, and catch his 
 collar in some little branch, and so get 
 hung, without judge or jury." 
 
 " What can we do then ?" said RoUo. 
 
 " I think," said Jonas, " that the best 
 plan would be to dye the end of his tail 
 black. That would not hurt him any ; 
 and yet, as he always holds his tail up, we 
 should see it, and know him." 
 
 The boys both thought this would be 
 excellent, and Jonas said he had some 
 black dye, which he had made for dyeing 
 some wood. Jonas was a very ingenious 
 boy, and used to make little boxes, and 
 frames, and windmills, with his penknife, 
 in the long winter evenings, and he had 
 made this dye out of vinegar and old nails, 
 to dye some of his wood with. 
 
 " I am not certain," said Jonas, " that 
 my dye will color hair ; I never tried it, 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 49 
 
 except on wood. Do you think that 
 bifick would be a pretty color ? " 
 
 " No," said Rollo, " black would not 
 be a very pretty color, but it would do. 
 Yellow, and red, and green, are pretty 
 colors, but black, and brown, and white, 
 are not pretty at all.'' 
 
 '• I have not orot any yellow, or red, or 
 green," said Jonas. " I don't know but 
 that I have got a httle blue." 
 
 " O, blue would be beautiful," said 
 James. 
 
 Then Jonas walked along into the barn, 
 and Rollo and James followed him. He 
 went up stairs, and walked along to the 
 farthest corner, and there, up on a beam, 
 were several small bottles all in a row. 
 Jonas took down one, and shook it, and 
 said that was the blue. 
 
 He brought it down to the cage ; Rollo 
 went into the house, and brought out an 
 old bowl, and Jonas prepared to pour out 
 the dye into it. They then concluded 
 that they would carry the whole appara- 
 tus down into the edge of the woods, and 
 perform the operation there : and then 
 the squirrel, when he was liberated, would 
 easily find his way back to his home. Jo- 
 <? 5 E 
 
50 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 nas carried down a pair of thick, old 
 gloves, to keep the squirrel from biting 
 
 him. 
 
 As they walked along, Rollo proposed 
 that Jonas should dip the squirrel's ears in 
 as well as his tail ; " because," said he, 
 " we may sometimes see him when he is 
 half hid in the bushes, so that only his 
 head is in sight. 
 
 " Besides," said James, " it will make 
 him look more beautiful if his ears and 
 tail are both blue." 
 
 Jonas did not object to this, and after a 
 short time, they reached the edge of the 
 woods. They found a little opening, 
 where the ground was smooth and the 
 grass green, which seemed exactly the 
 place for them. So they put down the 
 cage and the bowl of dye, and Jonas be- 
 gan to put on his glove. 
 
 " Now, boys," said he, " you must be 
 still as moonlight while I do it. If you 
 speak to me, you will put me out; and 
 besides, you will frighten little Bunny." 
 
 The boys promised not to speak a 
 single word ; and Jonas, after unfastening 
 the fender from the front of the box, 
 moved it along until there was an opening 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 51 
 
 large enough for him to get his hand in. 
 Rollo and James stood bj silently, and 
 somewhat anxiously, waiting the result. 
 
 When the squirrel saw Jonas's hand 
 intruding itself into the box, he retreated 
 to the farther corner, and curled himself 
 up there, with his tail close down upon 
 his back. Jonas followed him with his 
 hand, saying, in a soothing tone, 
 
 "Bunny, Bunny, poor little Bunny." 
 
 He reached him, at length, and put his 
 hand very gently over him, and slow^ly and 
 cautiously drew him out. 
 
 Rollo and James gave a sort of hysteric 
 laugh, and instantly clapped their hands 
 to their mouths, to suppress it ; but they 
 looked at one another and at Jonas wdtii 
 great delight. 
 
 Jonas gradually brought the squirrel 
 over the bowl, and prepared to dip his 
 ears into the dye. It was a strange situa- 
 tion for a squirrel to be in, and he did not 
 like it at all ; and just at the instant when 
 his ears were going into the dye, he 
 twisted his head round, and planted his 
 little fore teeth directly upon Jonas's 
 thumb. As might have been supposed, 
 teeth which w^ere sharp and powerful 
 
52 THE STEErLE TRAP. 
 
 enough to go through a walnut shell, 
 would not be likely to be stopped by a 
 leathern glove ; and Jonas, startled by 
 the sudden cut, gave a twitch with his 
 hand, and, at the same instant, let go of 
 the squirrel. Bunny grasped the edge 
 of the bowl with his paws, and leaped 
 out, bringing the bowl itself at the same 
 instant over upon him, spattering him 
 all over from head to tail with the blue 
 dye. 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 53 
 
 The boys looked as^hast for a minute ; 
 but when they saw him racing off as fast 
 as possible, and running up a neighborins: 
 tree, Jonas burst into a laugh, which the 
 other boys joined, and they continued it 
 loud and long, till the woods rang again. 
 
 '• Well, we have spotted him, at any 
 rate," said Jonas. " We will call him 
 Leopard." 
 
 The bovs then looked at Jonas's bite, 
 and found that it was not a very serious 
 one. In fact, Jonas was a little ashamed 
 at having let go for so small a \AOund. 
 However, it was then too late to reo:ret it, 
 and the boys returned slowly home. 
 
 As they were walking home, James 
 said that the squirrel's back looked wet, 
 where the dye went upon him, but he did 
 not think it looked very hlue. 
 
 '"No," said Jonas, "it does not gene- 
 rally look blue at iirst, but it grows blue 
 afterwards. It will be a bright color 
 enough before you see him again, I will 
 warrant." 
 
 So they walked along home ; the fend- 
 er was put back in its place in the gar- 
 ret, the bowl in the house, and the box in 
 the barn. Jonas soon forsiot that he had 
 
54 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 been bitten, and the squirrel, as soon as 
 his back was dry, thought no more of the 
 whole affair, but turned his attention en- 
 tirely to the business of digging a hole to 
 store his nuts in for the ensuino' winter. 
 
 FIRES IN THE WOODS. 
 
 All the large trees that Jonas had felled 
 beyond the brook, he cut up into lengths, 
 and hauled them up into the yard, and 
 made a great high wood-pile of them, 
 higher than his head ; but all the branches, 
 and the small bushes, with all the green 
 leaves upon them, lay about the ground in 
 confusion. RoUo asked him what he was 
 going to do with them. He said, after 
 they were dry, he should burn them up, 
 and that they would make a splendid 
 bonfire. 
 
 They lay there drying a good many 
 weeks. The leaves turned yellow and 
 brown, and the little twigs and sticks be- 
 came gradually dry and brittle. Rollo 
 used to w^alk down there often, to see 
 how the drying went on, and sometimes 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 55 
 
 he would bring up a few of the bushes, 
 and put them on the kitchen hre, to see 
 whether they were dry enous^h to burn. 
 
 At last, late in the autumn, one cool 
 afternoon, Jonas asked Rollo to go down 
 with him and help him pile up the bushes 
 in heaps, for he was goino; to burn them 
 that evening. Rollo wanted very much 
 that his cousins James and Lucy should 
 see the fires; and so he asked his mother 
 to let him go and ask them to come and 
 take tea there that night, and go out with 
 them in the evening to the burning. She 
 consented, and Rollo went. Lucy prom- 
 ised to come just before tea-time, and 
 James came then, with Rollo* to help him 
 pile the bushes up. 
 
 Jonas said that the bovs mi^ht make 
 one little pile of their own if they wished ; 
 and told them that they must first make a 
 pile of solid sticks, and dry rotten logs as 
 large as they could lift or roll, so as to 
 have a good solid tire underneath, and 
 then cover these up with brush as high as 
 they could pile it, so as to make a great 
 blaze. He told them also that they must 
 make their pile where it would not burn 
 any of the trees which he had left stand- 
 
56 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 ing, for he had left a great many of the 
 large oaks, and beeches, and pines, to 
 ornament the ground and make a shade. 
 
 Rollo and James decided to make their 
 pile near the brook, between the bridge 
 which Jonas made of a tree,, and the old 
 wigwam which they had made some time 
 before of boughs. They got together a 
 great heap of solid wood, as large pieces 
 as they could lift, and at one end they put 
 in a great deal of birch bark, which they 
 stripped off, in great sheets, from an old, 
 decayed birch tree, which had been lying 
 on the ground near, for half a century. 
 When this was done, they began to pile 
 on the bushes and brush, taking care to 
 leave the end where the birch bark was, 
 open. After they had piled it up as high 
 as they could reach, Rollo clambered up 
 to the top of it, and James reached the 
 long bushes up to him, and he arranged 
 them regularly, with the tops out. So 
 they worked all the afternoon, and by the 
 time they had got their pile done, they 
 found that Jonas had thrown almost all 
 the rest of the bushes into heaps ; and 
 then they went home to tea. 
 
 They found Lucy there, and they were 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 57 
 
 all SO eager to go to the bonfires, that they 
 did not eat much supper. Their father 
 told them that, as they had so litde ap- 
 petite, they had better carry down some 
 potatoes and apples, and roast them by the 
 fires. They thought this an excellent 
 plan, and ran into the store-room to get 
 them. Their mother gave them a basket 
 to put the potatoes and apples into, and a 
 little salt folded up in a paper. They 
 were then so impatient to go that their 
 parents said they might set off with Jo- 
 nas, and they themselves would come 
 along very soon. 
 
 So Jonas and the three children w^alked 
 on. Rollo carried the basket, and James 
 a lantern : and Jonas, as he went along, 
 made, Vv'ith his penknife, some flat, wood- 
 en spoons, to eat their potatoes with. 
 They came to the brid^^e, and all got safe- 
 ly over, though Lucy \^'as a little afraid at 
 first. 
 
 They played around there a few min- 
 utes, as the twilight was comins: on ; and, 
 soon after, they saw Rollo's father and 
 mother coming down through the trees, 
 on the other side of the brook. They 
 stopped on that side, as RoUo's mother did 
 
58 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 not like to come across the bridge. Pret- 
 ty soon they called out to Jonas to light 
 the fires. 
 
 Jonas then took a large piece of birch 
 bark, and touched the corner of it to the 
 lamp in the lantern, and when it was well 
 on fire, he laid it carefully on the ground. 
 The bark began to blaze up very bright, 
 sending out volumes of thick smoke and 
 dense flame, writhing, and curling, and 
 snapping, as it lay on the ground. The 
 light shone brightly on the grass and 
 sticks around. 
 
 " There," said Jonas, " that will burn 
 some time ; now you may light your torches 
 from that." 
 
 '* Torches ?" said Rollo, " we have not 
 got any torches." 
 
 " Have not you made any torches ? O, 
 well, — I will make you some in a min- 
 ute." 
 
 So he took out his knife, and selected 
 three long slender stems of bushes, and 
 trimmed them up, and cut off the tops. 
 Then he made a little split in the top 
 end, and slipped in a piece of birch bark. 
 Then he handed them to the children, 
 one to each, and said, " There are your 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP 59 
 
 torches ; now jou can light your fires 
 without burning your fingers." 
 
 So they took their torches, and held 
 the ends over the flame of the piece of 
 birch bark, which, however, had by this 
 time nearly burned out. Lucy's took 
 fire, but Rollo's and James's did not, at 
 first ; and as they pressed their torches 
 down more and more to make them light, 
 they only smothered what little flame was 
 left, and put it out. 
 
 " O dear me ! " said Rollo. 
 
 Lucy had gone a little way towards 
 a pile ; but when she saw what was the 
 matter, she came back and said, '' Here ; 
 — light it by mine. So the boys held 
 their torches over hers until they were all 
 three in a bright blaze. They then car- 
 ried them along, waving them in the air, 
 and lighting pile after pile, until the whole 
 forest seemed to be in a flame. 
 
 The children stood still a few moments, 
 gazing on the fires, and on the extraordi- 
 nary effect which the light produced upon 
 the objects around. It was a singular 
 scene. Flashins: and cracklins: flames 
 rose high from the heaps which were on 
 fire, and shed a strong but unsteady light 
 
60 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 on the trees, the ground, and the banks 
 of the brook, and penetrated deep into the 
 forest on every side. Rollo called upon 
 James and Lucy to look at his father and 
 mother, who were across the brook ; they 
 stood there under the trees, almost invisi- 
 ble before, but now the bright light shone 
 strongly upon their faces and forms, and 
 cast upon them a clear and brilliant illu- 
 mination, which was strongly contrasted 
 with the dark depths of the forest behind 
 them. 
 
 The children were silent, and stood still 
 for a few minutes, gazing on the scene 
 with feelings of admiration and awe. 
 They expected to have capered about and 
 laughed, but they found that they had no 
 disposition to do so. The enjoyment they 
 felt was not of that kind which leads chil- 
 dren to caper and laugh. They stood 
 still, and looked silently and soberly on 
 the flashing flames, the lurid light, the 
 bright red reflections on the woods, the 
 banks, and the water, — and on the vol- 
 umes of glowing smoke and sparks which 
 ascended to the sky. 
 
 Before long, however, the light fuel 
 upon the top of the piles was burned up, 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 61 
 
 ana tnere remained great glowing heaps 
 of embers, and logs of wood still flaming. 
 These the boys began to poke about wdth 
 long poles that Jonas had cut for them, to 
 make them burn brighter, and to see the 
 sparks go up. Presently they heard their 
 father caUing them. 
 
 The boys all stopped to listen. 
 
 '• We are going home," said he ; ^' we 
 shall take cold if we stand still here. You 
 may stay, however, with Jonas, only you 
 must not sit down." 
 
 So Rollo's father and mother turned 
 away, and walked along back towards the 
 house, the hght shining more and more 
 faintly upon them, until they were lost 
 among the trees. 
 
 *' \\ hy do you suppose w^e must not sit 
 dow^u?" said Lucy. 
 
 '' Because," said Jonas, " they are 
 afraid you will take cold. As long as you 
 run about and play around the fires, you 
 keep warm." 
 
 '• O, then we will run about and play- 
 fast enough," said James. '' I know what 
 I am going to do." 
 
 So he took a large flat piece of hemlock 
 bark, w^hich he found upon the ground, 
 
 F 
 
62 THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 and began tearing off strips of birch bark 
 from the old tree, and pihng them upon it. 
 
 " What are jou going to do ? " said 
 Lucj. 
 
 '^ O, I am going to play steam-boat on 
 fire," said he ; and he took up the piece 
 of bark with the little pile of combustibles 
 upon it, and carried it down to the edge 
 of the brook. Then he went back and 
 got his torch stick, and put a fresh piece 
 of birch bark in the split end, and light- 
 ed it, and then came back to the brook, 
 walking slowly lest his torch should go out. 
 
 Lucy held his torch for him while he 
 gently put his steam-boat on the water ; 
 and then he lighted it with his torch, and 
 pushed it out. It floated down, all blaz- 
 ing as it was, to the great delight of the 
 three children, and astonishment of all the 
 little fishes in the brook, who could not 
 imagine what the blazing wonder could be. 
 
 The children followed it along down 
 the brook, and began to pelt it with 
 stones, and soon got into a high frolic. 
 But as they were very careful not to hit 
 one another with the stones, nor to speak 
 harshly or cross, they enjoyed it very 
 much. When at last the steam- boat was 
 
THE STEEPLE TRAP. 63 
 
 fairly pelted to pieces, and the blackened 
 fragments of the birch bark were scattered 
 over the water, and floating away down 
 the stream, they began to think of roast- 
 ing their corn and potatoes, which they did 
 very successfully over the remains of the 
 fires. When they had nearly finished eat- 
 ing, Rollo suddenly exclaimed, — 
 
 " O, I will tell you what we will do ; 
 we will go and set our wigwam on fire ! " 
 
 Rollo pointed to the wigwam. James 
 and Lucy looked, and observed that it hac' 
 been dried and browned in the sun, and 
 Rollo thought it was no longer good for 
 any thing as a wigwam, but would make 
 a capital bonfire. He proposed that they 
 should all go into it and sit down, and put 
 a torch near the side so as to set it on fire, 
 as if accidentally. They would go on 
 talking as if they did not see it, and when 
 the flames burst out, they would jump up 
 and run out, crying, Fire ! as people do 
 when their houses get on fire. 
 
 Lucy said she should not like to do 
 that. She should be afraid, she said. The 
 sparks would fall down upon her and burn 
 her. So the boys gave that plan up. Then 
 James proposed that they should make be7 
 lieve that they were savages, going to set 
 
64 . THE STEEPLE TRAP. 
 
 fire to a town. The wigwam was to be the 
 town. They would take their torches, and 
 all go and set it on fire in several places. 
 
 " But, then, / could not help," said Lu- 
 cy, " for women do not go to war." 
 
 " O yes, they do, if they are savages," 
 said James. " We play that we are sav- 
 ages, you see." 
 
 So it was all agreed to. They lighted 
 their torches, and marched along, waving 
 them in the air, until they came to the 
 wigwam, and then they danced around it, 
 singing and shouting as they set it on fire 
 in many places on all sides. The flames 
 spread rapidly, and flashed up high into the 
 air, and soon there was nothing left of 
 the poor wigwam but a few smoking and 
 blackened sticks lying on the ground. 
 
 The children then crept along over the 
 bridge, and went towards home. There 
 were still great beds of burning embers 
 remaining, and in some places the remains 
 of logs and stumps were blazing brightly. 
 And that night, when Rollo went to bed, 
 he lay looking out the window which was 
 towards the woods, and saw the light still 
 shining among the trees, and the smoke 
 slowly rising from the fires, and floating 
 away through the air, . 
 
THE HALO ROUiND THE MOON 
 
 OB, 
 
 LUCY'S VISIT. 
 
 "A ROUND RAL\BOW.-' 
 
 About six miles from the house where 
 Rollo lived, there was a mountain called 
 Benalgon, which was famous for bears 
 and blueberries. There were no bears on 
 it, but there were plenty of blueberries. 
 The reason why it was so famous for 
 bears, when in fact there were none there, 
 was because the boys and girls that went 
 there for blueberries every year, used to 
 see black logs and stumps among the trees 
 and bushes of the mountain, and they 
 would run away very hastily, and insist 
 upon it, when they got down the moun- 
 tain, that they had seen a bear. 
 
 Now, Rollo's father and mother, togeth- 
 
68 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 er with his uncle George, formed a plan 
 for going up tiiis mountain after bluebei- 
 ries, and they were going to take Rollo 
 and his cousin Lucy with them. Uncle 
 George and cousin Lucy w^ere to come in 
 a chaise to Rollo's house immediately after 
 breakfast, and Rollo was to ride with them ; 
 and his father and mother were to go in 
 another chaise. 
 
 Rollo got his little basket to pick his 
 blueberries in, all ready the night before, 
 and he got a string to tie around his neck, 
 intending to hang his basket upon it, so 
 that he could have both his hands at liber- 
 ty, and pick faster. He also thought he 
 would take all the heavy things out of his 
 pocket, so that he could run the faster, in 
 case he should see any bears. He put 
 them all on a window in the shed. The 
 things were a knife, a piece of chalk, two 
 white pebble stones, and a plummet. 
 When he got them all out, he asked Jo- 
 nas, who w^as splitting wood in the shed, 
 if he w^ould not take care of them for him, 
 till he came back. 
 
 " Why, yes," said Jonas, '' I will take 
 care of them if you wish ; but what are 
 you going to leave them for ? " 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 69 
 
 *' O, SO that I can run faster," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " Run faster ? I do not think you will 
 run much, up old Benalgon, unless he 
 holds his back down lower than when I 
 went up." 
 
 Rollo did not mean that he was going 
 to run up the mountain, but he did not ex- 
 plain what he did mean, for he thought that 
 Jonas would laugh at him, if he told him 
 he was afraid of the bears. So he said, 
 
 " Jonas, don't you wish you were going 
 with us ? " 
 
 '- 1 should like it well enough, but I 
 must stay at home and mind my work." 
 
 '' I wish you could go. I will go and 
 ask my father if he will not let you." 
 
 Rollo ran into the house with oreat 
 haste and eagerness, leavins: all the doors 
 open, and calling out, "Father, father," as 
 soon as he had begun to open the parlor 
 door. 
 
 " Father, father," said he, running up 
 to him, " I wish you would let Jonas go 
 with us to-morrow." 
 
 Now, Rolio's father had come home but 
 a short time before, and was just seated 
 'juietly in his arm-chair, reading a news- 
 
70 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 paper, and Rollo came up to him, pulling 
 down the paper with his hands, and look- 
 ing up into his father's face, so as to stop 
 his reading at once. Heedless boys very 
 often come to ask favors in this way.* 
 
 His father gently moved him back and 
 said, 
 
 "No, my son, it is not convenient for 
 Jonas to ^o to-morrow. Besides, I am 
 busy now, and cannot talk with you ; — 
 you must go away." 
 
 Rollo turned away disappointed, and 
 went slowly back through the kitchen. 
 His mother, who was there, and who heard 
 all that passed, as the doors were open, 
 said to him, as he walked by her, " What 
 a foolish way that was to ask him, Rollo! 
 You might have known it would have 
 done no good." 
 
 Rollo did not answer, but he went and 
 sat down on the step of the door, and was 
 just beginning to think what the foolish- 
 ness was in his way of asking his father 
 when a litde bird came hopping along in 
 the yard. He ran in to ask his mother to 
 give him some milk to feed the bird with 
 She smiled, and told him milk was good for 
 
 * See picture at the beginning of this storv. 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 71 
 
 kittens, but not for birds ; and she gave 
 him some crumbs of bread. Rollo threw 
 the crumbs out, but thej only frightened 
 the little thing away. 
 
 ^ That night, when Rollo went to bed, 
 his father said, that when he was all 
 ready, he would come up and see him. 
 When he came into his chamber, Rollo 
 called out to him, 
 
 " O, father, look out the window, and 
 see what a beautiful ring there is round 
 the moon." 
 
 '' So there is," said his father; " I am 
 rather sorry to see that." 
 
 '' Sorry," father ! why ? It is beautiful, 
 I thmk." 
 
 " It does look pretty, but it is a sign of 
 rain to-morrow. 
 
 "Of rain ? O no, father ; it is a kind 
 of a rambow. It is a round rainbow. I 
 am sure it will be pleasant to-morrow." 
 
 "Very well," said his father, ''we shall 
 see in the morning." Then he sat down 
 on Rollo's bed-side some time, talking 
 with him on various subjects, and then 
 heard him say his prayers. At length he 
 took the light, and bade Rollo good ni^ht 
 
 Rollo's eye caught another view of "^he 
 
72 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON ; 
 
 moon as his father was going, and he 
 said, 
 
 " O, father, just look at the moon once 
 more ; that is a rainbow ; I see the colors. 
 1 expect it w ill grow into a large one, such 
 as you told me was a sign of fair weather. 
 J wdll watch it." 
 
 " Yes," said his father, " you can watch 
 it as you go to sleep." 
 
 So Rollo laid his face upon his pillow 
 m such a way that he could see the moon 
 through the window ; and he began to 
 watch the bright circle around it, but 
 before it grew any bigger, he was fast 
 asleep. 
 
 WHO KNOWS BEST, A LITTLE BOY OR HIS 
 FATHER ? 
 
 The next morning, Rollo awoke early, 
 and he was very much pleased to see, as 
 soon as he opened his eyes, that the sun 
 was shining in at the windows. He was 
 not only pleased to find that the prospect 
 was so good for a pleasant ride, but his 
 vanity was gratified at the thought that it 
 had turned out that he knew better about 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 73 
 
 the weather than his father. He began 
 to dress himself, as far as he could with- 
 out help, and was preparing to hasten 
 down to his father, to tell him that it was 
 going to be a pleasant day. When he 
 was nearly dressed, he was surprised to 
 observe that the bright sunlight on the 
 wall was gradually fading away, and at 
 length it wholly disappeared. He went 
 to look out the window to see what was 
 the cause. He found that there was a 
 broad expanse of dark cloud covering the 
 eastern sky, excepting a narrow strip 
 quite low down, near the horizon. When 
 the sun hrst rose, it shone brightly throu^-h 
 this narrow zone of clear sky; but now^it 
 had ascended a little higher, and gone be- 
 hind the cloud. 
 
 '' Never mind," said Rollo to himself. 
 '• The cloud is not so very large after all, 
 and the sun will come out again above it 
 when it gets up a little higher." 
 
 Rollo came down to breakfast, and he 
 went out into the yard every two or three 
 minutes, to look at the sky. The cloud 
 seemed to extend, so that the sun did not 
 come out of it, as he expected, but still 
 he thought it was going to be pleasant. 
 
 d c 
 
74 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 Children generally think it is going to 
 be pleasant, whenever they want to go 
 away. 
 
 His father thought it was probably go- 
 ing to rain, and that at any rate it was very 
 doubtful whether Uncle George would 
 come. However, he said they should soon 
 see, and, true enough, just as they were 
 rising from the breakfast table, a chaise 
 drove up to the door, and out jumped 
 Uncle George and cousin Lucy. 
 
 Lucy was a very pleasant litde blue- 
 eyed girl, two or three years older than 
 Rollo. She had a small tin pail in her 
 hand, with a cover upon it. 
 
 " Good morning, Rollo," said she. 
 •' Have you got your basket ready ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo ; " but I am afraid it 
 is going to rain." 
 
 While the children were saying this, 
 Uncle George said to Rollo's father, 
 
 ^' I suppose we shall have to give up 
 our expedition to-day. I am in hopes we 
 are going to have some rain." 
 
 ^' In /iope5," thought Rollo ; " that is 
 very strange when we want to go a blue- 
 berrying." 
 
 Rollo's father and mother and his 
 
OR, LUCY S VISIT. 75 
 
 uncle looked at the clouds all around. 
 Tliej concluded that there was every ap- 
 pearance of ram, and that it would be best 
 to postpone then* excursion, and then 
 went into the house. RoUo was very 
 confident it would not rain, and was very 
 eager to have them go. He asked Lucy 
 if she did not think it was going to be 
 pleasant, but Lucy was more modest and 
 reasonable than he was, and said that she 
 did not know ; she could not judge of the 
 weather so well as her father. 
 
 RoUo began by this time to be consid- 
 erably out of humor. He said he knew 
 it was not going to rain, and he did not 
 see why they might not go. He did not 
 believe it would rain a drop all day. 
 
 Lucy just then pointed down to a little 
 dark spot on the stone step of the door, 
 where a drop had just fallen, and asked 
 Roilo what he called that. 
 
 " And that, — and that, — and that," said 
 she, pointing to several other drops. 
 
 RoUo at first insisted that that was not 
 rain, but some little spots on the stone. 
 
 Then Lucy reached out her hand and 
 said, 
 
 '- Hold out your hand so, Rollo, and you 
 
76 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 will feel the drops coining down out of the 
 skj." 
 
 Rollo held out his hand a moment, but 
 then immediately withdrew it, saying, im- 
 patiently, that he did not care ; it was not 
 rain ; at any rate it was only a little sprink- 
 ling. 
 
 Lucy observed that Rollo was getting 
 very much out of humor, and she tried to 
 please him by saying, 
 
 " Rollo, I would not mind. If it does 
 rain, I will ask my father to let me stay 
 and play with you to-day, and we can 
 have a fine time up in your little room." 
 
 *'No, we cannot," said Rollo ; "and be- 
 sides, they will not let you stay, I know. 
 I went yesterday to ask my father to let 
 Jonas go with us to-day, and he would 
 not." 
 
 It was certainly very unreasonable for 
 Rollo to imagine that his father and uncle 
 would be unwilling to have Lucy stayjust 
 because it had not been convenient to let 
 Jonas go with them. But when children 
 are out of humor, they are always very 
 unreasonable. 
 
 " Why would not he let Jonas go ? " 
 asked Lucy. 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 77 
 
 " I do not know. Mother said it was be- 
 cause I did not ask him right." 
 
 " How did you ask him ? " 
 
 *' O, I interrupted him. He was read- 
 ing." 
 
 '' O, that is not the way. I neyev inter- 
 rupt my father if I w^ant to ask him any 
 thing." 
 
 " Suppose he is busy, and you want to 
 know that very minute ; what do you do ? " 
 
 " I will show you. Come with me and 
 I will ask him to let me stay with vou to- 
 day." 
 
 So Lucy and Rollo walked in. When 
 they came to the parlor door, they saw 
 that their parents were sitting on the sofa, 
 talking about other thingis. 
 
 Rollo stopped at the door, but Lucy 
 went in gently. She walked up to her 
 father's side, and stood there still. 
 
 Her father took no notice of her at first, 
 but went on talking with Rollo's father. 
 Lucy stood very patiently until, after a few 
 minutes, her father stopped talking, and 
 said, 
 
 '• Lucy, my dear, do you want to speak 
 to me ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Lucy, " I wanted to 
 
78 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON, 
 
 ask jou if you were willing to let me stay 
 here to-day and play with Rollo, if you do 
 not go to the mountain." 
 
 " I do not know," said her father, hesi- 
 tating, and patting Lucy on the head — 
 " that is a new idea ; however, I believe 
 I have no objection." 
 
 Lucy ran back joyfully to Rollo, and 
 after a short time, her father went home. 
 Rollo, however, did not feel in any better 
 humor, and all Lucy's endeavors to en- 
 gage him in some amusement, failed. She 
 proposed building with bricks, or going 
 up into his litde room, and drawing pic- 
 tures on their slates, or getting his story- 
 books out and reading stories, and various 
 other things, but Rollo would not be 
 pleased. 
 
 Rollo ought, now, when he found that 
 he must be disappointed about his ride, 
 to hav€ immediately banished it from his 
 mind altogether, and turned his thoughts 
 toother pleasures ; but like all ill-humored 
 people, he looiild keep thinking and talk- 
 ing, all the time, about the thing which 
 caused his ill-humor. So he sat in a large 
 back entry, where he and Lucy were, 
 looking out at the door, and saying a great 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 79 
 
 many ill-natured things about the weather, 
 and his father's giving up the ride just for 
 a little sprinkling of rain that would not 
 last half an hour. He said it was a shame, 
 too, for it to rain that day, just because 
 he was going to ride. 
 
 Just then, his father spoke to him from 
 the window, and called him in. 
 
 He and Lucy went in together into the 
 parlor. 
 
 " Rollo," said his father, " did you know 
 vou w^ere doino' very wrons ? " 
 
 Rollo felt a little guilty, but he said 
 rather faintly, " No, sir, I was not doing 
 any thing." 
 
 " You are committing a great many 
 sins, all at once." 
 
 Rollo was silent. He knew his father 
 meant sins of the heart. 
 
 " Your heart is in a very wicked state. 
 You are under the dominion of some of the 
 worst of feelings ; you are self-conceited, 
 ungrateful, undutiful, unjust, selfish, and," 
 he added in a lower and more solemn 
 tone, " even impious." 
 
 Rollo thought that these were heavy 
 charges to bring upon him ; but his father 
 
so THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 spoke calmly and kindly, and he knew 
 that he could easily show that what he 
 said was true. 
 
 '' You are self-conceited — vainly imagin- 
 ing that you, a little boy of seven years old, 
 can judge better than your father and 
 mother, and obstinately persisting in your 
 opinion that it is not going to rain, when 
 the rain has actually commenced, and is 
 falling faster and faster. You are ungrate^ 
 ful, to speak reproachfully of me, and give 
 me pain, by your ill-will, when I have 
 been planning this excursion, in a great 
 degree, for your enjoyment, and only give 
 it up because I am absolutely compelled 
 to do it by a storm ; undutifal^ in show- 
 ing such a repining, unsubmissive spirit 
 towards your father; unjust in making 
 Lucy and all of us suffer, because you are 
 unwilling to submit to these circumstances 
 that we cannot control ; selfish, in being 
 unwiUing that it should rain and interfere 
 with your ride, when you know that rain 
 is so much wanted in all the fields, all over 
 the country ; and, Avhat is worse than all, 
 i7npious, in openly rebelling against God, 
 and censuring the arrangements of his 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 81 
 
 providence, and pretending to think that 
 they are made just to trouble you." 
 
 When ha had said this, he paused to 
 hear what Rollo would say. He thought 
 that if he was convinced of his sin, and 
 really penitent, he would acknowledge 
 that he was wrong, or at least be silent ; 
 — but that if, on the other hand, he were 
 still unsubdued, he would go to making 
 excuses. 
 
 After a moment's pause, Rollo said, — 
 " I'did not know that there was need of 
 rain in the fields." 
 
 '' Did not you? " said his father. " Did 
 not you know that the ground was very 
 dry, and that, unless we have rain soon, 
 the crops will suffer very much ? " 
 
 " No, sir," said Rollo. 
 
 " It is so," said his father ; " and this 
 rain, which you are so unwilling to have 
 descend, is going down into the ground 
 all over the country, and into the roots of 
 all the plants growing in the fields, carry- 
 ing in the nourishment which will swell 
 out all the corn and grain, and apples and 
 pears. In a few days there will be thou- 
 sands and thousands of dollars' worth of 
 6 
 
82 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 fruit and food more than there would have 
 been without this rain ; and jet jou are 
 very unwilling to have it come, because 
 JOU want to go and get a few blueberries !" 
 
 Rollo was confounded, and had not a 
 word to saj. 
 
 "Now, Rollo," continued his father, "all 
 the rest of us are disposed to be good 
 humored, and to acquiesce in God's decis- 
 ion, and trj to have a happj daj at home ; 
 and we cannot have it spoiled bj jour 
 wicked repinings. So jou must go awaj 
 bj jourself, until jou feel willing to sub- 
 mit pleasantlj and with good humor. 
 Then jou maj come back, but be sure 
 not to come back before." 
 
 REPENTANCE. 
 
 Now there was in Rollo's house a small 
 back garret, over a part of the kitchen 
 chamber, which had one small window in 
 it, looking out into the garden. This gar- 
 ret w^as not used, and Rollo's father had 
 put a little rocking-chair there, and a little 
 table with a Bible on it, and hung some 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 83 
 
 old maps about it, so as to make it as 
 pleasant a little place as he could ; and 
 there he used to send Rollo when he had 
 done any thing very wrong, or when he 
 was sullen and ill natured, that he might 
 reflect in solitude, and either return a 
 good boy, or else stay where his bad feel- 
 ings would not trouble or injure others. 
 His father had put in marks, too, at sev- 
 eral places in the Bible, where he thought 
 it would be well for him to read at such 
 times ; as he said that reading suitable 
 passages in the Bible would be more likely 
 to bring him to repentance, than any other 
 book. 
 
 Rollo knew that when his father told 
 him to go away by himself, he meant for 
 him to 2:0 into this back garret. So he 
 turned round and walked out of the room. 
 As he passed up the back stairs, the kitten 
 came frisking around him, but he had no 
 heart to play with her, and walked on. 
 He then turned and went up the narrow, 
 steep stairs that led to the garret ; they 
 were rather more like a ladder than like 
 stairs. Rollo ascended them, and then 
 sat down in the little rocking-chair. The 
 rain was beating against the windows, and 
 
84 
 
 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 pattering on the roof which was jus 
 over his head. 
 
 It is sometimes but a Httle thing which 
 turns the whole current of the thoughts 
 and feeHngs. In Rollo's case, at this time, 
 it was hut a drop of water. For after 
 having sat some time in his chair, his heart 
 remaining pretty nearly the same, a drop 
 f water, which, somehow or other, con- 
 
OR; LUCY'S VISIT. 85 
 
 trived to get through some crevice in the 
 boards and shingles over his head, fell ex- 
 actly into the back of his neck. The first 
 feeling it occasioned was an additional 
 emotion of impatience and fretfulness. 
 But he next began to think how unreason- 
 able and wicked it was to make all that 
 difficulty, just because his father was pre- 
 venting his going out to stay all day in the 
 rain, when a single drop falling upon him 
 vexed and irritated him. 
 
 He also looked out of the window tow- 
 ards the garden, and the dry ground, 
 and all the trees and garden vegetables, 
 seemed to be drinking in the rain with de- 
 light. That made him think of the vast 
 amount of good the rain was doing, and 
 he saw his own selfishness in a striking 
 point of view. In a word Rollo was now 
 beginning to be really penitent. The tears 
 came into his eyes ; but they were tears 
 of real sorrow for sin, not of vexation and 
 anger. 
 
 He took up his little Bible, to read one 
 of the passages, as his father had advised 
 him. He happened to open at a mark 
 which his father had put in at the para- 
 ble of the prodigal son. The first verse 
 
 H 
 
86 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 which his eye fell upon, was the verse, "I 
 will arise and go to my father." Rollo 
 thought that that was exactly the thing for 
 him to do — to go and confess his fault to 
 his father. 
 
 So he laid down his little Bible, wiped 
 the tears from his eyes, and went down 
 stairs. He met his father in the entry. 
 He went up to him, and took his hand, and 
 said, 
 
 " Father, I am really very sorry I have 
 been so naughty ; I ivill try to be a good 
 boy now." 
 
 His father stooped down and kissed 
 him. " I am very glad to hear it, Rollo," 
 said he. " Now you may go and find 
 Lucy. I believe she is up in your 
 mother's chamber." 
 
 Rollo went off quite happy in pursuit of 
 Lucy. He found her sitting on a cricket 
 in his mother's room, looking over a little 
 picture-book. Rollo ran laughing up to 
 her, and said, 
 
 " What have you got, Lucy ? " 
 
 " One of your little picture-books. 
 Will you lend it to me to carry home ? " 
 
 Rollo said he would, and then they be- 
 gan to talk about what they should do. 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. bt 
 
 It rained very fast, and they could not go 
 out of doors ; and, after proposing several 
 things, which, however, neither of them 
 seemed to like, they turned to Rolio's 
 mother, and asked her what they had bet- 
 ter do. 
 
 " I always find," said his mother, " that 
 when I am disappointed of any pleasure, 
 it is best not to try to find any other 
 pleasure in its place, but to turn to diiiy.''^ 
 
 The children did not understand this 
 very well, and they were silent. 
 
 " What I mean," she continued, '' is 
 this : When we have just been disap- 
 pointed of any pleasure which we had set 
 our hearts upon, it is very difficult to find 
 any thing else that we can have in its 
 place, that will look as pleasant as the one 
 we had lost. You see that you are not 
 satisfi.ed with any thing you propose to 
 one another. Now, I find that the best 
 way, in such cases, is to give up pleasure 
 altogether, and turn to some duty ; and 
 after performing the duty a short time, 
 peace and satisfaction return to the mind 
 again, and we get over the effects of the 
 disappointment in the quickest and pleas- 
 antest v/ay." 
 
88 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 Rollo and Lucy looked at one another 
 rather soberly. They did not seem 
 to know what to say. 
 
 " I presume, however, you will not do 
 this," continued his mother. 
 
 " Why ? " said Rollo. 
 
 " Because," said his mother, " it re- 
 quires a good deal of rc^solution, at first, to 
 turn to duty when you have just been 
 setting your heart on pleasure. ^^ 
 
 " O, we have got resolution enough," 
 said Rollo. 
 
 " What duty do you think we had bet- 
 ter do ? " asked Lucy. 
 
 " If I were you," replied Rollo's mother, 
 " I should first of all sit down and have a 
 good reading lesson." 
 
 Rollo and Lucy hesitated a little, but 
 they concluded to take their mother's ad- 
 vice at last, and went to Rollo's little li- 
 brary, and chose a book, and then went 
 down to the back entry, and sat down 
 there, on a long cricket, and began to 
 read. 
 
 At first, it was rather hard to do it, for 
 it did not look very pleasant to either of 
 them to sit down and read, just at the time 
 when they expected to be picking blue- 
 
OR, LUCT'S VISIT. 89 
 
 berries on the mountain. Rollo said, 
 when they were opening the book and 
 finding the place, that, if they had gone, 
 they should, by that time, have just about 
 arrived at the foot of the mountain. 
 
 " Yes," said Lucy, " but we must not 
 think of that now. Besides, just see how 
 it rains. It would be a fine time now to 
 go up a mountain, wouldn't it ? " 
 
 Rollo looked out of the open door, and 
 saw the rain pouring down into the yard, 
 and felt again ashamed to recollect how he 
 had insisted that it was not going to rain. 
 
 Lucy said it w^as beautiful to see it pour- 
 ing down so fast. " Look," said she ; " how 
 it streams down from the spout at the cor- 
 ner of the barn ! " 
 
 .'• Yes," said Rollo, " and see that little 
 pond out by the garden gate. How it is 
 all full of little bubbles ! It will be a beau- 
 tifid pond for me to sail boats in, when 
 the rain is over. I can make paper-boats 
 and pea boats ! " 
 
 '• Pea boats ? " said Lucy ; " what are 
 pea-boats ?" 
 
 '• O ! they are beautiful little boats," 
 said he. Jonas showed me how to make 
 them. We take a pea-pod, a good large 
 
90 THE HALO ROUND THE MOONj 
 
 full pea-pod, and shave off the top from 
 one end to the other, and then take out 
 the peas, and it makes a beautiful little 
 boat. I wish we had some ; I could 
 show you." 
 
 " Let us make some when we have 
 done reading, and sail them. Only that 
 pond will all go away when the rain is 
 over." 
 
 " O no," said Rollo, " I will put some 
 ground all around it, and then the water 
 cannot run away." 
 
 *' Yes, but it will soak down into the 
 ground." 
 
 "Will it?" said Rollo. "Well, we 
 can sail our boats on it a little while be- 
 fore it is gone." 
 
 " But it is so wet," said Lucy, " we 
 cannot go out to get any pea-pods." 
 
 " I did not think of that," said Rollo. 
 " Perhaps Jonas could get some for us, 
 with an umbrella." 
 
 " / could go with an umbrella," said 
 Lucy, "just as well as not." 
 
 The children saw an umbrella behind 
 the door, and they thought they would go 
 both together, and they actually laid down 
 their book, spread the umbrella, and went 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 91 
 
 to the door. It then occurred to them 
 that it would not be quite right to go out, 
 without leave ; so Rollo went to ask his 
 mother. 
 
 His mother said it was not suitable for 
 young ladies to go out in the rain, as their 
 shoes, and their dress generally, were thin, 
 and could not bear to be exposed to wet ; 
 but she said that Rollo himself might 
 take off his shoes and stockhigs, and go 
 out alone, when the rain held up. 
 
 " But, mother,*' said he, " why cannot I 
 go out now, with the umbrella ? " 
 
 " Because," she replied, '' when it rains 
 fast, some of the water spatters through 
 the umbrella, and some will be driven 
 against you by the wind." 
 
 '^ Well, I will wait, and as soon as it 
 rains but little, I will go out. But must I 
 take off my shoes and stockings ? " 
 
 '' Yes," said his mother, '' or else you 
 will get them wet and muddy. And be- 
 fore you go, you must get a dipper of wa- 
 ter ready in the shed, to pour on your feet, 
 and wash them, when you get back ; and 
 then wait till thev are entirely dry, before 
 you put on your shoes and stockings again. 
 
92 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 If jou want the pea-pods enough to take 
 all that trouble, you may go for them." 
 
 Rollo said he did want them enough 
 for that, and he then went back and told 
 Lucy what his mother had said, and they 
 concluded to read until the rain should 
 cease, and that then Rollo should go out 
 into the garden. 
 
 They began to read ; but their minds 
 were so much upon the pea-pod boats, that 
 the story did not interest them very much. 
 Besides, children cannot read very well 
 aloud, to one another ; for if they succeed 
 in calling all the words right, they do not 
 generally give the stops and the emphasis, 
 and the proper tones of voice, so as to 
 make the story interesting to those that 
 hear. Some boys and girls are vain 
 enough to think that they can read very 
 well, just because they can call all the 
 words without stopping to spell them ; but 
 this is very far from being enough to make 
 a good reader. 
 
 Rollo read a little way, and then Lucy 
 read a little way ; but they were not much 
 interested, and thinking that the difficulty 
 might be in the book, they got another, but 
 with no better success. At last Rollo said 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 93 
 
 they would go and get their mother to read 
 to them. So thej went together to her 
 room, and Rollo said that they could not 
 o^et aloRO' verv well in readino; themselves, 
 and asked her if she would not be good 
 enough to read to them. 
 
 "Why, what is the difficulty?" said 
 she. 
 
 " O, I do not know, exactly : the story 
 is not very interesting, and then we can- 
 not read very well." 
 
 '' In what respect will it be better for 
 me to read to you ? " she asked. 
 
 " Why, mother, you can choose us a 
 prettier story ; and then we should under- 
 stand it better if you read it." 
 
 " I suppose you would ; but I see you 
 have made a great mistake." 
 
 " What mistake ? " said both the chil- 
 dren at once. 
 
 '' Why is it that you are going to 
 read at all ? " 
 
 '^W^hy, you advised us to, mother," 
 
 *' Did I ad^dse you to do it as a duty, 
 or as a pleasure ? " 
 
 *• As a chUy, mother ; I recollect now," 
 said Rollo. 
 
 ''Yes; well, now the mistake you have 
 
94 THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; 
 
 made is, that jou are looking upon it 
 only as a pleasure, and instead of doing it 
 faithfully, in such a way as will make it 
 most useful to you, you are forgetting that 
 altogether, and only intent upon having 
 it interesting and pleasant. Is it not 
 so?" 
 
 " Why yes," said Rollo, hesitat- 
 ing, and looking down ; and then turn- 
 ing round to Lucy, he said, " I suppose 
 we had better go and read the story our- 
 selves." 
 
 *' Do just as you please," said his mother. 
 " I have not commanded you to read, but 
 only recommended it ; and that not as a 
 way of interesting you, but as a way of 
 spending an hour usefully, as a prepara- 
 tion for an hour of enjoyment afterwards. 
 You can do as you please, however ; but if 
 you attempt to read at all, I advise you 
 to do it not as play, but as a lesson.'^'' 
 
 " Well, come, Rollo," said Lucy, " let 
 us go." 
 
 So the children ran back to the entry, 
 and sat down to their story, taking pains 
 to read carefully, as if their object w^as 
 to learn to read; and though they did 
 
OR, LUCY'S VISIT. 95 
 
 not expect it, they did, in fact, have a 
 very pleasant time. 
 
 The rest of the adventures of Rollo and 
 Lucy, during this day, must be reserved 
 for another storv. ^ 
 
Going to see the freshet." — p. 126. 
 
THE FRESHET 
 
 The story that Rollo and his cousin 
 Lucy began to read together, in the back 
 entry, looking out towards the garden, that 
 rainy day when they were disappointed 
 of the excursion up the mountain, com- 
 menced as follows : — 
 
 MARIA AND THE CARAVAN. 
 
 jNIaria Wilton lives in the pretty white house 
 which stands just at the entrance of the wood, 
 where the children find the blackbenies so thick 
 in the benying season. It is not as large or ele- 
 gant a house as many that we pass on a walk 
 through the village ; but yet, with its neatly-paint- 
 ed front and blooming little garden, its appear- 
 ance is quite as inviting as that of many a more 
 splendid mansion. Certain it is, at least, that 
 there is not a more pleasant or happy dwelling 
 in the town. Neatness and good order regulate 
 all the arrangements of the family, and where such 
 is the case, it is almost needless to add that peace 
 
100 THE FRESHET. 
 
 and harmony characterize the intercourse of a 
 family. It is seldom that confusion or uproar, or 
 disputes or contentions, are known among the Wil- 
 tons. 
 
 But it was of Maria that I was ihtending to 
 speak more particularly, — her kind, and yield- 
 ing, and conciliating manners towards her broth- 
 ers and sisters. Maria was not the oldest of the 
 children ; she was not quite nine, and her sister 
 Harriet was as much as eleven, and her brother 
 George still older. And yet her influence did 
 more to maintain peace and good feeling in the 
 family group, than would have been believed by 
 a person who had not observed her. In every 
 case where only her own wishes or inclinations 
 were concerned, Maria was ready to give up to 
 George or Harriet ; because, as she said, they 
 were older than herself; and again, she was quite 
 as ready to yield to little Susan and Willy, be- 
 cause they were younger. Her brothers and sis- 
 ters, in their turn, were far less apt to contend for 
 any privilege or advantage, than they would have 
 been, if she had shown herself more tenacious of 
 her own rights. 
 
 •- Mr. Wilton used occasionally to go into the 
 city, a few miles distant, upon business. He 
 ysually went in a chaise, taking one of the chil- 
 dren with him. The excursion was to them a 
 very pleasant one, and all anticipated, with a great 
 deal of pleasure, their respective turns to ride 
 with their father. It happened that the day when 
 it fell to Maria's turn, was to be the close of an 
 
THE FRESHET. 101 
 
 exliibkion of animals, which had been for a short 
 time in the city. ]Maria's eye brightened with 
 pleasure as her father mentioned this circumstance 
 at the dinner table, and inquired if she would like 
 to visit the caravan. 
 
 '•' O, father ! " exclaimed George, eagerly, as 
 he laid down his knife and fork; ^-a caravan ! — 
 Mayn't I go ? '"' 
 
 '•' You cannot both go,'' replied his father ; ••' and 
 I believe it is iMaria's turn to go into town with 
 me.'" 
 
 ■'•' Well," said George, '' but I don't believe 
 Maria would care any thing about seeing it ; " and 
 his eye glanced eagerly from his father to IMa- 
 ria, and then from ^laria to his father again. 
 
 •■ How is it, Maria? " said Mr. Wilton ; " have 
 you no wish to visit the caravan ? " 
 
 ^Maria did not answer directly, while yet her 
 countenance showed very plainly what her wishes 
 really were. " Is there an elephant there, father?" 
 she, at length, rather hesitatingly inquired. 
 
 ■•' There probably is," replied her father. 
 
 '■' An elephant I " repeated George with some- 
 thincr of a sneer; '-who has not seen an ele- 
 phant ? I would not give a farthing to go, if 
 there was nothing better than an elephant to be 
 seen." 
 
 '•' What should you care so much to see ? " in- 
 quired Mr. Wilton. 
 
 '•' Why, I would give any thing to see a leop- 
 ard or a camel." 
 
 ''A leopard or a camel ! " repeated his father, 
 
102 THE FRESHET. 
 
 in the same tone in which George had made his 
 rude speech ; " I am sure I wouldn't give a farthing 
 to see either a camel or a leopard." 
 
 " No," said George, " because you have seen 
 them both ; but / never did." 
 
 " Neither has Maria seen an elephant," returned 
 Mr. Wilton ; "so what is the difference?" 
 
 George looked a little mortified at the over- 
 throw of his arsfument. But still his easjerness for 
 the gratification was not to be repressed. — *'• I 
 shouldn't think a girl need to care about gomg to 
 see a parcel of wild beasts," he remarked, rather 
 petulantly, as he gave his chair a push, upon rising 
 from the table. 
 
 " O, George, George," expostulated his 
 father, " I did not think you were either a selfish 
 or a sullen boy." 
 
 " No, father, and he is not," said Maria, ap- 
 proaching her father, and taking his hand ; "but 
 he wants to go very much, and I do not care so 
 much about it ; so he may go, and I will stay at 
 home." 
 
 " You are a good girl," said her father ; " but 
 I shall not consent to any such injustice ; so go 
 and get ready as quick as possible." 
 
 " But, father, I had really a great deal rather 
 that George should go," insisted Maria. 
 
 " But I cannot think that George would really, 
 on the whole, prefer to take your place," said Mr. 
 Wilton, turning to George. 
 
 " No, sir," replied George, who — restored by 
 this time to a sense of propriety and justice — was 
 
THE FRESHET. 103^ 
 
 Standing ready to speak for himself. '' No, sir ;. 
 Maria is very kind ; but I do not wish to take her 
 place ; I am very sorry indeed that I said any 
 thing about it. I certainly shall not consent to 
 take your place, Maiia," he said, percei/ing chat 
 she was ready to entreat still further. 
 
 '• O ! but I do wish you would," said Maria. 
 But just here her mother interposed. '-' If Maria 
 would really prefer to give up her place to her 
 brother/"' said Z\Irs. Wilton, '■' I certainly shall like 
 the aiTangement very much, for I am to be par- 
 ticularly engaged this afternoon, and, as Harriet is 
 to be absent, I shall be very glad of some of jMa- 
 ria's assistance in taking care of the baby." 
 
 '' O ! well," said Maria, brightening up, '•' then 
 I am sure 1 will not go ; so run, George, for father 
 is almost ready to start." 
 
 Thus the matter was amicably settled. George 
 went with his father, and j\Iaria remained at home 
 to help take care of little Willy. 
 
 Maria loved her httle brother very much, and she 
 never seemed tired of taking care of him, even 
 when he was ever so fretful or restless. She would 
 leave her play, at any moment, to run and rock the 
 baby, or to hold him in her lap ; for, even if she felt 
 inclined, at any time, to be a little out of patience 
 for a moment, she would recollect how many hours 
 she had herself been nursed, by night and by day, 
 and she was glad of an opportunity to relieve her 
 mother of some of her care and fatigue. Her 
 sousin, Ellen Weston, called, one afternoon, to 
 
104 THE FRESHET. 
 
 ask her to accompany a party of little girls, who 
 were going to gather berries in the wood near 
 IMaria's house. It happened that Maria had been 
 left witli the care of Willy, just as her cousin 
 called ; and it happened, too, that Willy was that 
 afternoon unusually fretful and difficult to please. 
 If IVIaria left him for a moment, or if she did not 
 hold him exactly in the posture which suited him, 
 or if she had not precisely the thing ready which 
 he wanted at the moment, he would act just as 
 all babies of nine or ten months sometimes take it 
 into their heads to act. With all her patience and 
 good-humor, she hardly knew how to manage 
 him ; and especially after having been obliged to 
 reject so agreeable an invitation as the one her 
 cousin brought, she found her task a • little irk- 
 some. 
 
 She could hardly repress an occasional expres- 
 sion of impatience, as she tried in vain to please 
 the wayward litde fellow. But her patience and 
 good-humor were very soon restored ; and as she 
 reflected that she was doing her mother a great 
 deal of good, by staying at home with Willy, she 
 felt quite willing to dismiss all thoughts of the 
 berrying expedition. The girls, however, did not 
 forget her. It was proposed by one of the party, 
 when Ellen had stated the reason why Maria 
 could not join them, that each should contribute 
 some portion of her berries to be carried to her on 
 their way home. All agreed very readily to the 
 plan, and each took pains to select the largest and 
 
THE FRESHET. 105 
 
 the ripest of her berries for Maria's basket. The 
 gratification afforded Maria by this httle token of 
 kind remembrance, more than compensated for 
 the self-denial which she had practised. It is al- 
 most always the case when persons cheerfully sub- 
 mit to any privation, for the sake of other persons, 
 or because it is duty, that they are amply reward- 
 ed for it. They enjoy, at least, the consciousness 
 of doing right, which is one of the very highest 
 sources of pleasure. IMaria would, at any time, 
 have been satisfied wdth only this reward ; but it 
 very often happened, very unexpectedly, tliat 
 something more was in store for her. This was 
 the case upon the time when she gave up her ride, 
 and her visit to the caravan, for the sake of her 
 brother. I have not said that it was absolutely 
 Maria's duty to yield to her brother, in this case : 
 perhaps it would have been perfectly right for 
 her to have maintained her own claims ; and yet 
 there is no doubt that she felt a great deal happier 
 for the sacrifice she had made. 
 
 But w^e were going to speak of some further re- 
 ward that her amiable behavior, in this instance, pro- 
 cured her. As her father opened a package which 
 he had brought on his return, he silently placed 
 in her hands a beautiful copy of a newly-published 
 work, upon the fly-leaf of which she found writ- 
 ten — '•' Maria Wilton — a reward for her kind and 
 obhorintr manners towards her brothers and sis- 
 
106 THE FRESHET 
 
 S3IALL CRAFT. 
 
 When they had finished the story, Lucy 
 shut the book, saying, " Maria was a good 
 girl, was not she, Rollo ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo, " she was an excellent 
 girl. I would have done just so; would 
 not you, Lucy ? " 
 
 " I ought to,. I know," said Lucy, " but 
 perhaps 1 should not." 
 
 " I should, I am sure," said Rollo. 
 
 Lucy was a polite girl, and she did not 
 contradict Rollo, though she recollected 
 how much selfishness he had shown that 
 morning, and it did not seem to her very 
 likely that he would have been willing to 
 make any very great sacrifice to oblige 
 others. 
 
 " My father says we cannot tell what 
 we should do until we are tried," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " Well, I know I should have been will- 
 ing to stay at home, if I had been Maria," 
 replied Rollo. 
 
 " But, only think, that would be prefer- 
 ring another person's pleasure rather than 
 your own." 
 
THE FRESHET. 107 
 
 " Well, I should prefer another person's 
 pleasure rather than my own." 
 
 Rollo was beginning to get a little excited 
 and vexed. People who boast of excel- 
 lences which they do not possess, are very 
 apt to be unreasonable and angry when 
 any body seems to doubt whether their 
 boastings are true. He was thus going 
 on, insisting upon it that he should have 
 acted as Maria had done^ and was just 
 saying that he should prefer another per- 
 son's pleasure rather than his own, when 
 Jonas came into the entry from the kitch- 
 en, with an armful of wood, which he was 
 carrying into the parlor. 
 
 " When is it, Rollo," said Jonas, " that 
 you prefer another person's pleasure to 
 your own ? " 
 
 " Always," said Rollo, with an air of 
 self-conceit and consequence. 
 
 Jonas smiled, and went on with his 
 wood. 
 
 It is always better for boys to be modest 
 and humble-minded. They appear ridic- 
 ulous to others when they are boasting 
 what great things they can do ; and when 
 they boast what good things they do, thev 
 
108 THE FRESHET. 
 
 are very likely to be just on the eve of 
 doing exactly the opposite. 
 
 In a moment Jonas came back out of 
 the parlor, and said, as he passed through, 
 
 " Self-praise • 
 Goes but little ways ; " 
 
 a short piece of versification which all 
 boys and girls would do well to remember. 
 
 Now it happened that, all this time, 
 Rollo's mother was sitting in a little bed- 
 room, which had a door opening into the 
 entry where Lucy and RoUo had been 
 reading, and she heard all the conversa- 
 tion. She knew that though Rollo was 
 generally a good boy, and was willing to 
 know his faults, and often endeavored to 
 correct them, still that he was, like all 
 other boys, prone to selfishness and to 
 vanity, and she thought that she must take 
 some way to show him clearly what the 
 truth really was, about his disinterested- 
 ness. 
 
 In a few minutes, therefore, she went 
 out of the room, and took from the store 
 closet an apple and a pear. They were 
 both good, but the pear was particularly 
 fine. It was large, mellow, and juicy. 
 
THE FRESHET. 109 
 
 She then went back to her seat, and 
 called, " Rollo." 
 
 Rollo came running to her, 
 
 " Here," said she, " is an apple and a 
 pear for jou." 
 
 ''Is one forme and one for Lucy?" 
 said he. 
 
 " That is just as you please. I give 
 them both to you. You may do what you 
 choose with them." 
 
 Rollo took the fruit, much pleased, and 
 walked slowly back, hesitating what to do. 
 He thought he must certainly give one to 
 Lucy, and as he had just been boastino- 
 that he prefeiTed another's pleasiu'e to his 
 own, he was ashamed to offer her the 
 apple ; and yet he wanted the pear very 
 much himself. 
 
 If he had had a little more time, he 
 would have hit upon a plan ^vhich would 
 have removed all the difiiculty at once, by 
 dividing both the apple and the pear, and 
 givmg to Lucy half of each. But he did 
 not think of this. In fact his mother knew 
 that, as he was going directly back to Lucy, 
 he would not have much time to think, 
 but must act according to the spontane- 
 ous impulse of his heart. 
 
110 THE FRESHET. 
 
 But though he did not think of dividmg 
 the apple and the pear, he happened to 
 hit upon a plan, which occurred to him 
 just as he was going back into the entry, 
 that he thought would do. 
 
 He held the fruit behind him ; the apple 
 in one hand, and the pear in the other 
 Lucy saw him coming, and said, 
 
 ''What have you got, RoUo ? " 
 
 " Which will you have, right hand or 
 left ? " said he in reply. 
 
 " Right." 
 
 Rollo held forward his right hand, and, lo ' 
 it was the pear. But he could not bear to 
 part with it, and he brought forward the 
 other, and said, 
 
 " No, you may have the apple." 
 
 " No," said Lucy ; " the pear is fairly 
 mine ; you asked me which I would have, 
 and I said the right." 
 
 " But I want the pear," said ^ollo ; 
 " you may have the apple. Mother gave 
 them both to me." 
 
 " I want the pear too," said Lucy ; "it 
 is mine, and you must give it to me." 
 
 Just then a voice called from the bed- 
 room, 
 
 " Children ! " 
 
THE FRESHET. Ill 
 
 <«What, mother?" said Rollo. 
 
 .*' I want you both to come here." 
 
 JRollo and Lucy would both have been 
 ashamed of their contention, were it not 
 that the pear looked so very rich and 
 tempting, that they were both very eager 
 to have it. 
 
 " What is the difficulty ? " said Rollo's 
 mother, as soon as they stood before her. 
 
 '' Why, Lucy wants the pear," said 
 Rollo, " and you gave them both to me, 
 and said I might do as I pleased with 
 them. I am willino: to grive her the 
 apple." 
 
 "Yes, but he offered me my choice," 
 said Lucy, " right hand or left, and I chose 
 the right, and now he ought to give it to 
 me." 
 
 " x\nd are you willing that I should de- 
 cide it ? " said the lady. 
 
 "Yes, mother," and "Yes, aunt," said 
 Rollo and Lucy together. 
 
 " You have both done wrong ; not 
 very wrong, but a little wrong ; and 1 think 
 neither ought to have the whole of the 
 pear. So I shall divide the pear and the 
 apple both between you ; and I will tell 
 you how you have done wrong. 
 
112 THE FRESHET. 
 
 "You, Rollo, by asking her which she 
 would have, impUed that jou would leave 
 it to chance to decide, and that you would 
 let her have her fair chance. Then you 
 ought to have submitted to the result. If 
 she had chosen the left hand, she ought 
 to have been content. If she had got the 
 apple, you would have had the credit of 
 giving her an equal chance with you, and 
 she ought therefore to have had the full 
 benefit of the chance. 
 
 " And then you, Lucy, did wrong, for, 
 although Rollo asked you to choose, he 
 did not actually promise you your choice, 
 and as he was under no obligation to give 
 you either, you ought not to have insisted 
 upon his fulfilling his implied promise. Is 
 it not so ? " 
 
 The children both saw and admitted 
 that it was. 
 
 " The best way, I think," she continued, 
 " would have been for you, Rollo, to have 
 given the pear to Lucy, as she was your 
 visitor, and a young lady too. Then she 
 would have given you half in eating it. 
 However, you w^ere not very much in the 
 wrong, either of you. It was a sort of a 
 doubtful case. But I hope you see from 
 
THE FRESHET. 113 
 
 it, RoUo, what I wanted to teach you, that 
 you are no more inclined to prefer other 
 persons' pleasure to your own, than other 
 children are. Remember Jonas's couplet 
 hereafter. I think it is a very good one. 
 Now go and get a knife, and cut the fruit ; 
 and see, it does not rain but little ; yon can 
 go and get your pea-pods now." 
 
 Away went the children out into the 
 kitchen after a knife. Rollo wanted to 
 cut the apple and the pear himself, and 
 Lucy made no objection ; and we must 
 do him the justice to say that he gave 
 rather the largest half of each to Lucy. 
 They then went out into the shed, Rollo 
 taking with him a dipper of water to wash 
 his feet when he came back from the ^av- 
 den. Rollo then took off his shoes, and 
 gave Lucy his share of the fruit, to keep 
 for him, and then sallied forth mto the 
 yard, holding the umbrella over his head, 
 as a few drops of rain were still falling. 
 
 He waded into the little pond at the 
 garden gate, and then turned round to look 
 at Lucy and laugh. He began, too, to 
 caper about in the water, but Lucy told 
 him to take care, or he would fall down, 
 e* 8 K* 
 
114 THE FRESHET. 
 
 and they could not wash his clothes, as they 
 could his feet, with their dipper of water 
 
 So he went carefully forward till he 
 came to the peas, and gathered as many 
 as he wanted, and then returned. 
 
 As he was coming back, he saw Jonas 
 in the barn. Jonas called out to him to 
 ask what he had got. 
 
 " I have been to get some pea-pods," 
 said he, " to make boats with." 
 
 " Where are you going to sail them ? " 
 said Jonas. 
 
 " O, in this Httle pond, when it is 
 done raining." 
 
 " But you had better have a little pond 
 now, in the shed." 
 
 " How can we ? " said Rollo. 
 
 " You might have it in a milk-pan." 
 
 " So we can. Could vou come and 
 fix it for us ? " 
 
 " Yes, in a few minutes — by the time 
 you get your boats made." 
 
 Rollo and Lucy were much pleased 
 with this, and they sat down, one on each 
 side of the milk-pan pond, and sailed their 
 boats a long time. He cut small pieces of 
 the apple and of the pear for cargo, and 
 Rollo put in the stem of the pear for the 
 
THE FRESHET. 115 
 
 captain of his boat. Each one was good 
 humored and obliging, and the time passed 
 awaj very pleasantly, until it was near din- 
 ner-time. When they came in to dinner, 
 they observed that it was raining again 
 very fast. 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES OF ORDER. 
 
 " Father," said Rollo, at the dinner- 
 table, "do you think it will rain all the 
 afternoon ? " 
 
 " It looks like it," replied his father; 
 " but why ? Do you not enjoy yourselves 
 in the house ? " 
 
 '' O yes, sir," said Rollo, " we have had 
 a fine time this morning ; but Lucy and 
 1 thought that, if it did not rain this after- 
 noon, we might go out in the garden a 
 little." 
 
 " It may clear up towards night; but, if 
 it does, I think it would be better to go 
 down to the brook and see the freshet, 
 than to go into the garden." 
 
 '• The freshet ? Will there be a freshet, 
 do you think ? " 
 
 "Yes, if it rains this afternoon as fast as 
 
116 THE FRESHET. 
 
 it does now, I think the brook will be quite 
 high towards night." 
 
 Rollo was much pleased to hear this 
 He told Lucy, after dinner, that the broois. 
 looked magnificently in a freshet; that 
 the banks were brimming full, and the 
 ^vater poured along in a great torrent, 
 foaming and dashing against the logs and 
 rocks. 
 
 " Then, besides, Lucy," said he, " we 
 can carry down our little boats and set 
 them a sailing. How they will whirl and 
 plunge along down the stream ! " 
 
 Lucy liked the idea of seeing the fresh- 
 et, too, very much ; though she said she was 
 afraid it would be too wet for her to go. 
 Rollo told her never to fear, for his father 
 would contrive some way to get her doAvn 
 there safely, and they both went to the 
 back entry door again, looking out, and 
 wishing now that it would rain faster and 
 faster, as they did before dinner that it 
 would cease to rain. 
 
 '' But," said Lucy, " what if it should 
 not stop raining at all, to-night ? " 
 
 *'0, it will," said Rollo, "I know it 
 will. Besides, if it should not, we can go 
 down to-morrow morning, you know^, and 
 
THE FRESHET. 117 
 
 then there will be a bigger freshet. O, 
 how full the brook will be by to-morrow 
 morning ! " 
 
 And Rollo clapped his hands, and ca- 
 pered with delight. 
 
 '• Yes," said Lucy, soberly, " but I must 
 go home to-night." 
 
 '• Must you ? " said Rollo. '• So you 
 must. I did not think of that." 
 
 ''But I think," continued he, "that it 
 will certainly clear up to-night. I ^vl\\ go 
 and ask father if he does not think so 
 too." 
 
 They both went together back into the 
 parlor to ask the question. 
 
 '' I cannot tell, my children, whether it 
 will or not. I see no indications, one way 
 or the other. I think you had better for- 
 get all about it, and go todoinfj something 
 else ; for if you spend all the afternoon in 
 watching the sky, and trying to guess 
 whether it will clear up or not, you can- 
 not enjoy yourselves, and may be sadly 
 disappointed at last. 
 
 "Why, we cannot help thinking of it, 
 father."' 
 
 " You cannot, if you stand there at the 
 Dack door, doing nothing else ; but, if you 
 
lis THE FUESHET. 
 
 engage in some other employment, you 
 will soon forget all about it." 
 
 '' What do you think we had better 
 do ? '' said Lucy. 
 
 '' I think you had better go up and put 
 your room and your desk all in order, Rollo ; 
 Lucy can help you." 
 
 "But, father, I have put it in order a 
 great many times, and it always gets out 
 of order again very soon, and I cannot 
 keep it neat.'^ 
 
 " That is partly because you do not put 
 it in order right. You do not understand 
 the principles of order." 
 
 " What are the principles of order ? " 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " There are a good many. I will tell 
 you some of them, and then you may 
 go and apply them in arranging Rollo's 
 things. 
 
 " One principle is to have the things 
 that are most frequently used in the most 
 accessible place, so that they can be taken 
 out and returned to their proper places - 
 easily. 
 
 " Another good principle for you is to 
 distinguish between the things which you 
 wish to use, and those you only wish to 
 
THE FRESHET. 119 
 
 preserve. The former ought to be in sight, 
 and near at hand. The latter may be 
 packed away more out of view. 
 
 " Another principle is to avoid having 
 your desk and room encumbered with 
 things of little or no value, as stones you 
 have picked up, and papers, and sticks. 
 The place to keep such things is in the 
 barn or shed, not in your private room. 
 
 " Then vou must arrange your thin£:s 
 systematically, putting things of the same 
 nature too^ether. Once I looked into 
 your desk after you had put it in order, 
 and I found that, in the back side of it, you 
 had piled up books, and white paper, and 
 pictures, and a slate, and a pocket-book 
 or two, all together. You thought they 
 were in order, because they were in 3. pile. 
 Now, they ought to have been separated 
 and arranged ; all the white paper by it- 
 self in front, where you can easily get it 
 to use ; the pictures all by themselves in a 
 portfolio: and the books should be ar- 
 ranged, not in a pile, but in a row, on their 
 edges, so that you can get out any one 
 without disturbing the others. Those are 
 some of the principles of order," 
 
 " Well, come, Rollo," said Lucy, '• let us 
 
120 THE FRESHET. 
 
 go and see jour things, and try to put 
 them in order, right." 
 
 Rollo went, but, as he left the room, he 
 turned round to ask his father if he would 
 not come with them, and just show them 
 a little about it. His father said he could 
 not come very well then, but if they would 
 try and do as well as they could, he would 
 come and look over their work after it was 
 done, and tell them whether it was right 
 or not. 
 
 Rollo and Lucy went up into Rollo's 
 room, and, true enough, they found not a 
 little confusion there. But they went to 
 work, and soon became very much inter- 
 ested in their employment. A great many 
 of the things were new to Lucy, and as 
 they went on arranging them, they often 
 stopped to talk and play. In this way 
 several hours passed along very pleasantly ; 
 and when, at last, they had got them near- 
 ly arranged, Rollo went to the window 
 to throw out some old stones that he con- 
 cluded not to keep any longer, when he 
 exclaimed aloud, 
 
 '• O, Lucy, Lucy, come here quick." 
 
 Lucy ran. Rollo pointed out to the 
 western horizon, and said, " See there I " 
 
THE FRESHET. 
 
 121 
 
 There was a broad band of bright 
 golden sky all along the western hori- 
 zon — clear and beautiful, and extending 
 each way as far as they could see. The 
 r dark clouds overhead reached down to 
 the edge of this clear sky, where they 
 hung in a fringe of gold, and the daz- 
 zling rays of the sun were just peeping 
 under it. The rain had ceased. 
 
122 THE FRESHET. 
 
 Rollo and Lucy gazed at it a moment, 
 and then ran down stairs as fast as they 
 could go, calling out, 
 
 " It is clearing away ! It is clearing 
 away! Father, it is clearing away. We 
 can go and see the freshet." 
 
 \ 
 
 CLEARING UP. 
 
 They went out upon the steps to look 
 at the sky, A few drops of rain were 
 still falling, but the clouds appeared to be 
 breaking in several places, and the tract 
 of golden sky in the west was rising and 
 extending. The air was calm, and the 
 golden rays of the sun shone upon the 
 fields and trees, and upon the glittering 
 drops that hung from the leaves and 
 branches. Rollo and Lucy both said it 
 was beautiful. 
 
 They went in and urged then* father to 
 go with them down to the brook to see 
 the freshet, but he said they must wait 
 till after tea. " It is too wet to go now," 
 said he. 
 
 " But, father," said Rollo, " I do not 
 
THE FRESHET. 123 
 
 think it will be any better after tea. The 
 ground cannot dry in half an hour." 
 
 " N05" said his father; " but the water 
 will ran off of the paths a great deal, so 
 that we can o:et alon^ much better." 
 
 '' Well, but then it will run off from the 
 brook a great deal too, and the freshet 
 will not be so high." 
 
 '' It is a little different with the brook," 
 his father replied, " for that is very long, 
 and the water comes a great way, from 
 among the hills. Now, while we are tak- 
 ing tea, the water will be running into the 
 brook back among the hills, faster than it 
 will run away here, so that it will grow 
 higher and higher for some hours." 
 
 Rollo had no more to say, but he was 
 impatient to go. He and Lucy went out 
 and stood on the steps again. The clouds 
 were breaking up and flying away in all 
 directions, and large patches of clear blue 
 sky appeared every where, giving promise 
 of a beautiful evening. 
 
 '• Hark ! " said Rollo ; " what is that ? " 
 
 Lucy listened. It was a sort of roar- 
 ing sound down in the woods. Rollo at 
 first thought it was a bear growling. 
 
124 THE FRESHET. 
 
 " Do you think it is a bear ? " said he 
 to Lucy, with a look of some concern. 
 
 " A bear ! — no," said Lucy, laughing. 
 " That is not the way a bear growls. It 
 is the freshet." 
 
 "The freshet !" said Rollo. 
 
 " Yes; it is the water roaring along the 
 brook." 
 
 Rollo listened, and he immediately per- 
 ceived that it was the sound of water, and 
 he jumped and capered with delight, at 
 thinking how fine a sight it must be. 
 
 At the tea-table Rollo's father explained 
 the plan he had formed for their ^oing. 
 He said it was rather a difficult thing to 
 go and see a freshet without getting wet 
 — especially for a girl. He and Rollo, 
 he said, could put on their good thick 
 boots, but Lucy had none suitable for such 
 a walk, as it would probably be very wet 
 and muddy in some places. 
 
 " What shall we do then ? " said Rollo. 
 
 " I believe I shall let Jonas go down 
 and draw Lucy in his wagon," said his 
 father. " How should you like that, 
 Lucy?" 
 
 Lucy said she should like it very well 
 
THE FRESHET. 125 
 
 and after tea they went out to the garden- 
 } ard door, where they found Jonas with 
 his wagon all ready. This wagon was 
 one which Jonas had made to draw Rollo 
 upon. It was plain and simple, but strong 
 and convenient, and perfectly safe. They 
 helped Lucy into it, and she sat down on 
 the little seat. Rollo, with his boots on, 
 took hold behind to push, and Jonas 
 drew. Rollo's father walked behind, and 
 thus they set off to view the freshet. 
 
 They moved along carefully through the 
 yard, and then turned by the gate and 
 went into the field. The path was along 
 by the garden fence for some distance, 
 and they went along very pleasantly for a 
 time, until at length they came to a laro:e 
 pool of water covering the whole path. 
 There were high banks on each side, so 
 that the wagon could not turn out. 
 
 " What shall we do now ? '^ said Rollo. 
 
 " I can go right through it," said 
 Jonas ; " it is not deep." 
 
 '* And we can go along on the bank, 
 by the side," said Rollo. 
 
 " Very well," said his father, " if you 
 are not afraid, Lucy." 
 
 Lucy did feel a little afraid at fii'st, but 
 
126 THE FRESHET. 
 
 she knew that if her uncle was willing 
 that she should go, there could not be any 
 danger ; so she made no objection. Be- 
 sides, she knew that, as Jonas was to walk 
 along before her, she could see how deep 
 it was, and there could not be any deep 
 places without his finding it out before the 
 wagon went into them. 
 
 Jonas was barefoot, and did not mind 
 wetting his feet ; so he waded in, drawing 
 the wagon after him. It was about up to 
 his ankles all the way. Lucy looked over 
 the side of the wagon, and felt a little fear 
 as she saw the wheels half under water ; 
 but they went safely through.^ 
 
 Presently they began to descend a path 
 which led them into the woods. They 
 heard the roaring of the water, which grew 
 louder and louder as they drew nigh, and 
 then Rollo suddenly stopped and said, 
 
 " Why, father, it is raining here in the 
 woods now." 
 
 Lucy listened, and they heard the drops 
 of rain falling upon the ground all around 
 them ; and yet, looking up, they saw that 
 the sky was almost perfectly clear. Pres- 
 
 * See picture at the beginning of this storj 
 
THE FRESHET. 127 
 
 entlj they thought that this was only the 
 drops falling off from the leaves of the trees. 
 
 Rollo said he meant to see if it \yas so, 
 and he ran out of the path, and took hold 
 of a slender tree with a large top ot 
 branches and leaves, and, looking up to see 
 if any drops would come down, he gave it 
 a good shake ; and, true enough, down 
 came a perfect shower of drops all into his 
 face and eyes. At first he was astonished 
 at such an unexpected shower-bath, but 
 he concluded, on the whole, to laugh, and 
 not cry about it ; and he came back wi- 
 ping his face, and looking comically 
 enough. All the party laughed a little at 
 his mishap, and then went on. 
 
 In a few minutes more, they came in 
 sight of the foaming brook. The water 
 was very high ; in some places, the banks 
 were overflowed, and the current s^^ept 
 along furiously, dashing against the rocks, 
 and whirling round the projecting points. 
 
 The children stopped, and gazed upon 
 the scene a little while, and then Rollo 
 said he was going to sail his boats, which 
 he had brought in his pocket. 
 
 Just then Jonas saw a plank which was 
 lying partly on the bank and partly in the 
 
128 THE FRESHET. 
 
 water, a little up the stream. It had 
 been placed across the brook some dis- 
 tance above, for a bridge ; but the freshet 
 had brought it away, and it had drifted 
 down to where it then was. 
 
 Jonas said he would fix a place for 
 Lucy to stand upon with it. So he went 
 and pushed off this plank, and let it float 
 down to where the children were stand- 
 ing ; and then he drew it up upon the 
 shore, and laid it along, so that Lucy 
 could stand upon it safely, and launch the 
 pea-pod boats. 
 
 These boats were soon all borne away 
 rapidly down the stream, out of sight ; 
 and then they threw in sticks and chips, 
 and watched them as they sailed away, 
 and whirled around in the eddies, or 
 swept down the rapids. Thus they 
 amused themselves a long time, and then 
 slowly returned home. 
 
" The bovver on the mountam." — p. 160. 
 
BLUEBERRYING 
 
 OLD TRTOIPETER. 
 
 RoLLo's mother advised him, when he 
 went to bed the evening before the day 
 fixed upon for the blue berrying, to rise 
 early the next morning, and take a good 
 reading lesson before breakfast. She said 
 he 'would enjoy himself much more, du- 
 ring the day, if he performed all his usual 
 ^ duties before he went. Rollo according- 
 ly arose quite early, and, when he came 
 in to breakfast, had the satisfaction of tell- 
 ing his father that he had read his morn- 
 ing lesson, and prepared his basket, and 
 was all ready to go. 
 
 He wanted Jonas to go too, and as, the 
 last time when he asked his father's per- 
 mission that he should go, he lost his re- 
 quest by asking it in an improper manner, 
 he determined to be careful this time. 
 
 So he was silent at breakfast time 
 
132 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 while his father and mother were talking, 
 and then, watching an opportunity when 
 they seemed disengaged, he asked his 
 father if Jonas might not go with them. 
 
 " I do not think he can very well, for 
 there is no room for him. Both the chaises 
 will be full." 
 
 '^ But could not he ride on Old Trum- 
 peter ? " said Rollo. 
 
 Old Trumpeter was a white horse, 
 that had served the family some time, but 
 was now rather old, and not a very good 
 traveller. 
 
 Rollo's father hesitated a moment, and 
 then said, perhaps he might. " You may 
 go and tell him that we are going, and 
 that if he thinks Old Trumpeter will do to 
 carry him, he may go. He will be of 
 e^reat help to us, if we should get into any 
 difficulty." 
 
 Rollo thought of the bears that he ex- 
 pected to see on the mountain, and ran 
 to tell Jonas. Jonas was glad to go. So 
 he went and gave Old Trumpeter some 
 oats, and got the saddle and bridle ready. 
 He also got out a pair of saddle-bags that 
 he always used on such occasions, and put 
 into them a hatchet, a dipper, a box of 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 133 
 
 matches, and some rope. On second 
 thoughts, he concluded it would be best to 
 put these things into the chaise-box, and 
 to put the saddle-bags on his horse empty, 
 as he might want them to bring something 
 home in. 
 
 After breakfast, Lucy and her father, 
 Rollo's uncle George, drove up to the door, 
 for they were ^oing too ; and in a short 
 time you might have seen all the party 
 driving away from the door — Rollo's fa- 
 ther and mother in the first chaise, uncle 
 George, and Rollo, and Lucy, in the 
 second, and Jonas on Old Trumpeter be- 
 hind. 
 
 They rode on for a mile or two, and 
 then turned off of the main road into the 
 woods, and went on by a winding and 
 beautiful road until they came in sight of 
 a range of mountains, one of which seemed 
 very hio^h and near. 
 
 '' Is that Benalgon r " said Rollo. 
 
 " I do not know," said his uncle ; '' I 
 have never been to it before; but I sup- 
 pose Jonas can tell." 
 
 " I will call him," said Rollo. So he 
 turned round, and kneeled up upon the 
 seat, so that he could look out behind 
 
 M 
 
134 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 the chaise, for the back curtain was 
 up. Lucy did the same, but Jonas was 
 not to be seen. They looked a little long- 
 er, and presently saw him coming along 
 round a curve in the road. They beck- 
 oned to him, and as he rode up, they saw 
 he had a bush in his hand. He came up 
 to the side of the chaise, and handed it to 
 RoUo. It w^as a large blueberry-bush, cov- 
 ered with beautiful ripe blueberries. Rollo 
 took them, and admired them very much ; 
 and at first he was going to divide them be- 
 tween Lucy and himself; but they conclu- 
 ded, on the whole, to send them forward 
 to his mother. Jonas told them the moun- 
 tain before them ivcis Benalgon, and rode 
 on to carry the blueberry-bush to the 
 other chaise. Presently he came back, 
 bringing it with him, except a small sprig 
 which Rollo's mother had taken off. The 
 rest she had sent back to the children. 
 
 " Well, Jonas," said uncle George, 
 when he got back, " I do not see but that 
 Old Trumpeter is strong enough to carry 
 you yet." 
 
 *' O yes, sir," said Jonas, " he is strong 
 enough to carry half a dozen like me." 
 
 " O, uncle George," said Rollo, '' let him 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 135 
 
 carry me too with Jonas. I can ride be- 
 hind." 
 
 " Very well ; if jou want to ride with 
 him a little while, you may, if Jonas is 
 willing." 
 
 Jonas was, and Rollo got out, and 
 cHmbed up upon a stump, by the side of 
 the road. Jonas drove up to the stump, 
 and Rollo clambered up behind him, with 
 a switch in his hand. 
 
 '' Now, Jonas," said he, "whenever you 
 want him to go any faster, you just speak to 
 me, and I will touch him up with my switch." 
 
 Jonas said he w^ould, and they jogged 
 along behind the chaise. Lucy kneeled 
 upon the cushion, and looked out behind, 
 talkins: with Rollo. 
 
 DEVIATION. 
 
 They went on so very quietly for some 
 time, until Jonas said there w^as a turn in 
 the road on before them, where there was 
 a foot-path that led across a ravine, by a 
 nearer w^ay than the chaise-road, and pro- 
 posed that Rollo should ask leave for 
 
13d BLUEBEKRYING. 
 
 Jonas and himself to go across on horse- 
 back, and wait for the chaises, when they 
 should come out on the main road. 
 
 So they rode up to the chaise, and Rollo 
 put the question to his uncle George. 
 
 His reply was that he could not say any 
 thing about it ; Rollo must go and ask his 
 father. 
 
 " Would you go ? " said Jonas. 
 
 " Yes," said Rollo. 
 
 " Well, touch up Old Trumpeter then." 
 
 So Rollo applied his switch, and the 
 horse trotted on fast. Rollo had hard 
 work to hold on, but he clasped his arm 
 tight around Jonas's waist, and succeeded 
 in keeping his seat. 
 
 Rollo's father and mother were riding 
 some distance before them, but they saw 
 Jonas coming up, and rode slowly, that he 
 might overtake them. 
 
 "Well, Rollo," said his father, "how 
 do you like riding double ? " 
 
 a Very much," said Rollo ; " and we 
 want you to let Jonas and I cut across by 
 the horse-path through the valley, and wait 
 for you at the mill." 
 
 " Is there a horse-path across here, Jo- 
 nas ? " 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 137 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Jonas. • 
 
 '' Is it a good path ? " 
 
 "It is rather rough, sir, through the 
 woods and bushes ; but it is a pretty good 
 road." 
 
 Rollo's father sat hesitating a moment, 
 and then said — 
 
 " You may go, if you choose, but I ad- 
 vise you not to." 
 
 " Why do you advise us not to ? " said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " Why, you may get into some difficulty, 
 and so we get separated." 
 
 " Yes, but," said Rollo, " it is not near 
 so far across, and we shall have time to 
 get through to the mill long before you 
 come along." 
 
 '' Very well, you may do as you 
 please." 
 
 " Jonas, what would you do? Would 
 you go, or not ? " 
 
 '- 1 think I would not go, if your father 
 thinks we had better not." 
 
 '' I want to go very much," said Rollo. 
 
 " Very well," said his father ; " you are 
 willing to go with him, I suppose, Jonas, 
 are you not ? " 
 
 " O yes, sir," said Jonas. 
 
138 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 " Well," 3ftid Rollo, " let us go. We 
 will be very careful, father, not to get into 
 any difficulty." 
 
 So the two chaises rode on, and Jonas 
 and Rollo, in a few minutes, turned off by 
 a narrow path that struck into the woods. 
 Just as they were bending down their 
 heads to pass under a great branch of a 
 tree, Rollo looked along, and saw Lucy 
 waving her handkerchief to him, as the 
 chaise which she was in disappeared by a 
 turn of the road. 
 
 Rollo at first felt a little uneasy to think 
 that he had deserted his cousin, as it were. 
 He thought that he should not have liked 
 it exactly, if she had gone off, and left him 
 alone so in the chaise. However, it was 
 now too late to repent, and his attention 
 was attracted by the wild and romantic 
 scene around him. The path descend- 
 ed obliquely, by a rough, wet, and stony 
 way, through a dark forest. He heard 
 the sighing of the wind, in the tops of 
 the tall trees, and the mellow notes ot 
 forest birds, far off, and high, which came 
 rich and sweet to his ear with a pecuhar 
 expression of solitude and loneliness. 
 
 The boys rode on, and the path became 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 139 
 
 more and more slippery, stony, and steep. 
 Rollo clung tight to Jonas, and began to 
 be somewhat afraid. He would have pro- 
 posed to go back, but he w^as ashamed to 
 do it. After a little time, he asked Jonas 
 whether the path was as bad as that ail 
 the way. 
 
 " As bad as this ! " said Jonas ; " we 
 call this very good. I will show you the 
 bad road pretty soon." 
 
 Rollo looked frightened, but said noth- 
 ing. 
 
 '' The road seems more wet than com- 
 mon to-day," said Jonas, " I suppose on 
 account of the rain yesterday ; and I de- 
 clare," said he, " I am afraid we shall find 
 the brook up." 
 
 '' The brook up ! " said Rollo. 
 
 " Yes — why did not I think of that 
 before ? However, we must go on now." 
 
 " Why?" said Rollo. " Why cannot we 
 go back ? " 
 
 '• O, because we should be too late ; 
 besides, there is no danger, only we may 
 have to wade a little." 
 
 x\s they went on, the mud in the road 
 grew deeper and deeper, and presently 
 Old Trumpeter's legs sunk far down among 
 
140 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 roots and mire. Rollo began to feel more 
 and more alarmed, and heartily wished 
 that he had taken his father's advice. 
 
 Soon after they came to a place where 
 the path, for some distance before them, 
 was full of water, deep and miry. Jonas 
 said he thought that they had better go out 
 upon one side ; so he made the horse step 
 over a log and go in among the trees and 
 bushes. The branches brushed and 
 scratched Rollo unmercifully, though he 
 bent down, and leaned over to this side 
 and that, continually, to escape them. He 
 asked Jonas why this path had not dried, 
 as well as the main road, where the chaises 
 had gone ; and Jonas told him that the sun 
 and the wind were the great means of 
 drying the open road, but that this narrow 
 and secluded path was shaded from the 
 sun, and sheltered from the wind, and 
 that the water consequently remained a 
 long time among the moss, and roots, and 
 mire. 
 
 After a time, they got back into the 
 path again, and, going on a little farther, 
 they came down to the margin of the 
 brook. They found that it ivas " up," as 
 Jcnas had feared. At the place ^where 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 141 
 
 the path went down and crossed the brook, 
 a deep cut had been worn m the two op- 
 posite banks, and this was filled with wa- 
 ter, and above and below the stream 
 rushed on in a torrent. Jonas hesitated 
 a moment, and then asked Rollo if he 
 thought he could hold on, while they were 
 riding^ throug^h. Rollo said he was afraid 
 it was so deep as to drown them. Jonas 
 then said that he might get off and stand 
 upon a rock by the side of the path, while 
 he rode through, first, to see how it was, 
 and that then he would come back for 
 him. 
 
 So Rollo got ofi^, in fear and trembling, 
 and stood on the rock, while Jonas urged 
 his horse into the water. Old Trumpeter 
 did not much like this kind of travellins^, 
 but Jonas half persuaded and half com- 
 pelled him to go through. When he was 
 in the middle, the water came up so high, 
 that Jonas was obliged to lift up his feet 
 to keep them from being wet. Presently, 
 however, it became more shoal, as the 
 horse walked slowly along ; and at last he 
 fairly reached the dry ground, and stood 
 dripping on the bank. 
 
 Rollo was glad to see that the water 
 
142 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 was no deeper, but was still afraid to go 
 over. He told Jonas he could not go over 
 there, and that he must go back with 
 him. 
 
 " No," said Jonas, " that would not be 
 right." 
 
 " Why," said Rollo, " we can ride fast, 
 and overtake them." 
 
 " Not very soon," said Jonas. " If we 
 go back now, they will get to the mill be- 
 fore us, and then will be very anxious and 
 unhappy, thinking that something has hap- 
 pened to us ; and perhaps your father will 
 come through here after us. Now it was 
 your own plan, coming across here, and 
 you ought not to make other people suffer 
 by it. Your father advised you not to 
 come." 
 
 "I know it," said Rollo; "what a 
 foolish boy I was ! I shall certainly be 
 drowned." 
 
 " O no," said Jonas, " there is no real 
 danger, or I should not make you go ; " 
 and so saying, he came back slowly through 
 the water. "See," said he, "it is not 
 very deep." 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 143 
 
 LITTLE MOSETTE. 
 
 Alter some further persuasion, JRollo g;ot 
 on behind him, and thej began to make 
 their way slowly through the water again. 
 Old Trumpeter staggered along, but not 
 very unsteadily on the whole, until he got 
 a little past the middle, when he blun- 
 dered upon a stone on the bottom, which 
 he could not see, and fell down on his 
 knees. Jonas caught up his feet, in an 
 instant, and RoUo had his already drawn 
 up behind him, and they both grasped the 
 saddle convulsively. The horse happened 
 to regain his feet again in a moment, so 
 that they contrived to hold on ; and in a 
 fe\^' minutes they were drawn out safely 
 upon the shore, without even getting their 
 feet wet. 
 
 " Well, Old Trumpeter," said Jonas, 
 ''you have done pretty well for you, and you 
 have got the mire washed off yom* legs, at 
 any rate. But, Rollo, what is that ? " 
 
 He pointed back, as he said this, to a 
 little tuft floating round and round in a small 
 eddy, made by a turn of the brook, just 
 above where they had crossed. He turned 
 
144 
 
 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 his horse towards it. ''It is a bird's 
 nest," said he. 
 
 '' So it is," said Rollo; ''and I verily 
 believe there is a little bird in. it." 
 
 Jonas jumped off of the horse, handed 
 the bridle to Rollo, and took up a long 
 stick lyino- on the ground, and very gently 
 and cautiously drew^ the nest in to the 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 145 
 
 shore. He took it up with great care, 
 and brought it to Rollo. 
 
 There was a little bird in it, scarcely 
 fledo:ed. Jonas said he believed it was a 
 robin, and that it must have been washed 
 off from its place on some bush, by the 
 freshet in the brook. The bottom of the 
 nest was soaked through by the water, as 
 if it had been floating some time ; and the 
 little bird kept opening its mouth wide. 
 The poor little thing w^as hungry, and 
 heard Jonas and Rollo, and thought they 
 were its mother, come to give it something 
 to eat. 
 
 "What shall we do with him .^ " said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " He will die if w^e leave him here," 
 said Jcmas, " for he has lost his mother now\ 
 I think w^e had better carry him home^ if 
 we can, and feed him, till he is old enough 
 to fly." 
 
 " He is hungry," said Rollo ; " let us 
 feed him now." 
 
 " We have not any thing to feed him 
 with. Perhaps I can catch a fly, or a 
 grasshopper." 
 
 " O, that will not do," said Rollo, 
 
 g 10 N 
 
146 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 "you might as well kill him as kill a 
 grasshopper." 
 
 Jonas could not reply to this, and they 
 concluded to carry nest and all carefully 
 to the mill, and show it to Rollo's father 
 there. But how to carry it was the diffi- 
 culty. If either of them undertook to 
 hold it in one hand, he was afraid the 
 bird might be jolted out ; and neither of 
 them had but one hand to spare, for Rollo 
 must have one hand to hold on with, and 
 Jonas one to drive. At last Jonas took 
 off his cap, and placed it bottom upwards 
 on the saddle before him, and put the nest, 
 with the bird in it, in that, and then drove 
 carefully along. The road grew much 
 smoother and better after they passed the 
 brook ; and, after going on a short distance 
 farther, they came in sight of the mill. 
 
 They had been detainer! so long that 
 the chaises had reached the mill before 
 them ; and the party in the chaises were 
 looking out down the path where they ex- 
 pected the boys were to come out, watch- 
 ing for them with considerable interest. 
 
 " There they come at last," said Lucy, 
 as she perceived a movement among the 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 147 
 
 buslies, and saw Old Trumpeter's white 
 head coming forward. 
 
 '• Yes," said Rollo's mother, " but they 
 have met with some accident. Jonas has 
 lost his cap.'' 
 
 Bv this time the bovs had emerged 
 from the bushes, and were coming alons: 
 the path slowly, Jonas bareheaded, and 
 Rollo holding on carefully. Lucy saw 
 that Jonas was holding something before 
 him, on the saddle, and wondered what it 
 was. Rollo's mother said she ^^as afraid 
 they had got hurt. 
 
 x4s soon as they came within hearing, 
 Rollo heard his father's voice calling out 
 to him, 
 
 ^* Rollo, what is the matter ? Have you 
 got into any difficulty ? " 
 
 '^ Yes, sir," said Rollo ; " we had some 
 difficulty ; and I should be sorry I did not 
 take your advice, only then we should not 
 have found this little bird." 
 
 '- What bird r" said they ah. 
 
 By this tiuie, they had come up near 
 the chaises, and Jonas carefully lifted the 
 birdsnest out of his cap, and held it so that 
 they could all see it, while Rollo told them 
 the story. They all looked much pleased, 
 
148 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 but Lucj seemed in delight. She wanted 
 to have it go in their chaise, and asked 
 Rollo to let her hold the nest in her 
 lap. 
 
 Rollo did not answer very directly, for 
 he was busy looking at the bird, — seeing 
 him open his mouth, and wishing he had 
 something to give him to eat. 
 
 " Father," said he, " what shall we feed 
 him with ? Jonas was going to catch a 
 grasshopper, but I thought that w^ould 
 not be right." 
 
 " Why not ? " said uncle George. 
 
 " Because," said Rollo, "he has as good 
 a right to his life as the bird. Has not he, 
 father ? " 
 
 " Not exactly," said his father : '' a bird 
 is an animal of much higher grade than a 
 grasshopper, and is probably much more 
 sensible of pain and pleasure, and his life 
 is of more value ; just as a man is a much 
 higher animal than a bird. It would be 
 right to kill a. bird to save a man's life, 
 even if he was only an animal ; and so it 
 would be right to destroy a grasshopper, 
 or a worm, to save a robin." 
 
 " But I read in a book once," said Lucy, 
 "that, when we tread on a worm, he feels 
 
BLUEBERRTING. 149 
 
 as much pain in being killed as a giant 
 would." 
 
 '^ 1 do not think it is true," said he. " I 
 think that there is a vast diversity anions: 
 the different animals, in respect to their 
 sensibility to pain, according to their struc- 
 ture, and the delicacy of their organiza- 
 tion. I think a crew of a fishing- vessel 
 might catch a whole cargo of mackerel, 
 and not cause as much pain as one of 
 their men would suffer in havins; his le^r 
 bitten otf by a shark." 
 
 '• Well, father," said Rollo, " do you 
 think we had better give him a grasshop- 
 per?" 
 
 " O no," said Lucy ; '- a grasshop- 
 per would not be good to eat, he has got 
 so many elbows sticking out. Let us 
 give him some blueberries." 
 
 '• O yes," said Rollo, '• that would be 
 beautiful." 
 
 So he slid down off of Old Trumpeter's 
 back, and ran to the side of the road to 
 see if he could not find some blueberries. 
 
 He brought a few in his hand, and his 
 father took them, saying that he would 
 feed the bird for him. He squeezed out 
 the pulp of the berries, and then made a 
 
150 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 chirping sound, when the bird opened his 
 mouth, and he fed him with the soft pulp, 
 and threw away the skins. After giving 
 the bird two or three berries in this way, 
 they put him back into the nest, and gave 
 the nest to Lucy to hold in her lap, and 
 all the party prepared to go on. 
 
 They rode along about a mile farther, 
 and then came to the place where they 
 must leave the horses, and prepare to as- 
 cend the mountain on foot. They unhar- 
 nessed them, so that they might stand more 
 quietly, and then fastened them to trees 
 by the side of the road. 
 
 While they were thus taking care of 
 their horses, Rollo and Lucy were standing 
 by, with Rollo's mother looking at the 
 bird. 
 
 " What are you going to do with him, 
 Rollo ? " said his mother. 
 
 " Why, I should like to carry him home, 
 and keep him, if you are willing." 
 
 " I am, on one condition." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " You must keep him in a cage with the 
 door always open, so that, as soon as he is 
 old enough to fly away, he may go if he 
 chooses." 
 
BLUEBERRTING. 151 
 
 " Then he will cenainly fly away, and 
 we shall lose him forever/' said Lucy. 
 
 " That is the only condition,'' replied 
 Rollo's mother. 
 
 "But why, mother," said he, -why 
 may we not keep him shut up safe ? " 
 
 '• If I were to tell you the reasons now, 
 they would not satisfy you, you are so eao^er 
 to keep him. J think you had better deter- 
 mine to comply whh the condition, good 
 humoredly, and say no more about it, but 
 try to think of a name for him." 
 
 " Well, mother, what do you think would 
 be a good name r " 
 
 " I do not know : vou and Lucy must 
 think of one." 
 
 Just then uncle George finished fixing 
 his horse, and came alons: to where the 
 children were standing, and, hearing their 
 conversation, and linding that Lucy and 
 Rollo were perplexed about a name, he 
 told them he thought they might, not im- 
 properly, call him Noah, as, like Noah, by 
 floating in a sort of ark, he was saved 
 from a flood. 
 
 " I think he was more like Moses than 
 Noah," said Lucy. 
 
 •' AVhy ? " said her father. 
 
152 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 " Because Moses was a little thing 
 when they found him, and then the ark of 
 bulrushes was something like a birdsnest. 
 I think you had better name him Moses, 
 Rolio," said she. 
 
 Rollo seemed a little at a loss : he said 
 he thought he was a good deal like Moses, 
 but then he did not think that Moses was 
 a very pretty name for a bird. 
 
 " Do you think it is, mother ? " said he. 
 
 " I do not know but that it would do 
 very well. You might alter it a little ; call 
 him Mosette, if you think that would be 
 any better for a bird's name." 
 
 Rollo and Lucy repeated the name Mo- 
 sette to themselves several times, and con- 
 cluded that they should like it very much. 
 By this time, the horses were all ready, 
 and Jonas recommended that they should 
 hide Mosette away somewhere, until they 
 returned from the mountain, for it would 
 be troublesome to them, and somewhat 
 dangerous to the bird, to carry him up and 
 down. 
 
 The children approved of this plan, 
 though they were rather unwilling to part 
 with the bird, at all. They went just into 
 the bushes, and found a very secret place, 
 
BLUEBERRYING 153 
 
 by the corner of a large rock, where the 
 shrubs and wild flowers grew thick, so that 
 it would be entirely out of sight. 
 
 GOING UP. 
 
 They then set forward, the children in 
 advance of the rest. Jonas walked wdth 
 RoUo and Lucy, and he had round his 
 waist a broad leather belt, which he al- 
 ways wore on such occasions, and which 
 had, on one side, his hatchet and knife, 
 and on the other a sort of bag or pocket, 
 containing several things, such as matches, 
 a little dipper, &c. 
 
 Rollo's father and mother, and his uncle 
 George, walked along behind them. The 
 way was, for some distance, a sort of cart- 
 path, too steep and rough for a chaise, 
 but hard and dry, and pretty comfortable 
 walking. RoUo and Lucy asked Jonas if 
 he would not tell them a story, as they 
 w^ent along, to beguile the w^ay. 
 
 Jonas began a story, about a boy that 
 lived a longtime on a mountain alone; 
 but he had not proceeded far, before they 
 
154 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 heard a voice behind, calling them. They 
 looked back, and saw that Rollo's father 
 was beckoning them to stop. 
 
 They waited till he came up, and he 
 told them he wanted to give them their 
 orders for the day ; and they were rules, he 
 said, which ought to be observed on all 
 berrying expeditions, by children. 
 
 " First,^^ said he, " always keep in 
 sight of me. For this purpose, watch me 
 all the time, when we are stopping, and 
 keep before, rather than behind, when we 
 are walking. 
 
 " Second. Take no unnecessary steps, 
 but keep in the right path, and walk 
 slowly and steadily there, so as to save 
 your strength. Otherwise you will get 
 tired out very soon. 
 
 '^ Third. Do not touch any flower or 
 berry that you see, except blueberries, 
 without first showing them to one of us." 
 
 The children listened to these rules, and 
 promised to obey them, and then walked 
 on. They tried to walk slowly and stead- 
 ily, listening to Jonas's story. They turned 
 off, after a time, into a narrower and steeper 
 path, and ascended, stepping from stone to 
 stone. The trees and bushes hung over 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 155 
 
 their heads, making the walk shady and 
 cool. 
 
 After slowly ascending in this way, for 
 some time, they came out of the woods 
 into an opening of rocky ground, and 
 patches of blueberry-bushes. They saw, 
 also, at some distance before them, three 
 or four boys, sitting upon a rock, with 
 pails and baskets in their hands, talking 
 and laughing loud. They did not take 
 much notice of them, but walked on quiet- 
 ly. They were going on directly towards 
 them, but Rollo's father called them, and 
 pointed for them to turn off to the right, 
 round a rocky precipice which was in that 
 direction. 
 
 The children were turning: accordindv, 
 when they heard a shout from the boys 
 before them, — •• Hallo, — come this way, 
 and we will show you where the blueber- 
 ries are." 
 
 " Father,'' said RoUo, as he stopped 
 and turned round to his father, " the boys 
 say they will show us the blueberries, out 
 that way : shall we go and see ? " 
 
 " No," said his father in a low voice, 
 so that the boys did not hear. ''No: so 
 the way I told you.*' 
 
156 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 They went along, and presently got 
 round the precipice out of sight of the 
 boys again. They walked slowly until 
 their parents overtook them. - 
 
 ''Father," said Rollo, "why could you 
 not let us go out with those boys ? They 
 said they were thickest out there." 
 
 '.' Because," said he, " I presume they 
 are not good boys, and I do not want you 
 to have any thing to do with them." 
 
 " But, father, they must be good boys, 
 or they would not want to show us the 
 blueberries. If they were bad, selfish 
 boys, they would want to keep all the 
 good places to themselves." 
 
 If Rollo had only asked his fatherj in a 
 modest manner, how it could be that the 
 boys were bad, when they wanted to 
 show him the best place for blueberries, it 
 would have been very proper ; but his man- 
 ner of speaking showed a silly confidence 
 in his own opinion, which was very wrong. 
 His father, however, did not attempt to 
 reason with him, but only said, 
 
 "I think they are bad boys, for I over- 
 heard them using bad language ; and I 
 wish you to have nothing to do with 
 them." 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 157 
 
 He then found a good place for them 
 to begin to pick their berries. It was a 
 beautiful spot of open ground, between 
 the thick woods on one side, and a broken, 
 rocky precipice on the other. 
 
 Uncle George took Jonas forward alone, 
 until they were out of sight, and presently 
 returned without him. Rollo asked where 
 Jonas was gone, and his uncle told him 
 that that was a secret at present. They 
 heard, soon after, the strokes of his hatchet 
 in the woods, on before them, but could 
 not imafrine what he could be doing:. 
 
 Thus things went on very pleasantly, 
 and they gathered a large quantity of ber- 
 ries. There was, indeed, in the course of 
 the day, a serious difficulty between Rollo 
 and the bad boys ; and there is an account 
 of it given in the story called '• Trouble 
 ON THE JMouNTAiN." With this excep- 
 tion, every thing went on well, until about 
 noon, when Rollo observed that Jonas had 
 been missing a long time. 
 
158 BLUEBERRYING- 
 
 THE SECRET OUT. 
 
 "Where is Jonas, all this time?" said 
 Rollo to Lucy. 
 
 Lucy said that he had been busy, a 
 long time, doing something over beyond 
 some rocks, but she did not know what, 
 for her father told her she must not go to 
 see. Rollo wondered what the secret 
 was, and he was just going to ask his 
 father to let him go and see what Jonas 
 was doing, when they saw him coming 
 out from the bushes. He came up to 
 Rollo's father, and told him that it was all 
 ready. Then Rollo's father called to all 
 the company, and told them it was time to 
 stop gathering berries, and they might 
 take up their baskets and follow him. 
 
 The baskets and pails were heavy and 
 full, and the whole party walked along, 
 carrying them carefully towards the place 
 where Jonas had come from. Rollo's 
 father led the way. They entered into a 
 little thicket, and passed through it by a 
 narrow path. They came out presently 
 into a sort of opening, on a brow of the 
 mountain. On one side they could look 
 
BLUEBERRYING. 159 
 
 down upon a vast extent of country, ex- 
 hibiting a beautiful variety of forests, 
 rivers, ^dllages, and farms. On the other 
 side was a rocky precipice, rising abruptly 
 to a considerable height, and then sloping 
 off towards the summit of the mountain. 
 They walked along a few steps on a 
 smooth surface of the rock, between patches 
 of grass and blueberry-bushes, until Lucy 
 and Rollo ran forward to a brook which 
 came foaming down the precipice, and 
 then, after tumbling along over rocks a 
 little way, took another foaming leap 
 down the mountain, and was lost among 
 the trees below\ 
 
 The party all stepped carefully over this 
 brook, and then walked along up the bank 
 on the opposite side until they came to 
 the precipice. Here they were surprised 
 and pleased to see a large bovver built, in 
 front of a little sort of cavern or recess in 
 the rock. Jonas had built it of large limbs 
 of trees and bushes, which he had leaned 
 up ao:ainst the rock, in such a manner as to 
 enclose a large space within. There was 
 an opening left round on the farther side, 
 next the rock, and they all went round 
 and went in — Rollo first, then Lucy, then 
 
160 BLUEBERRYING. 
 
 the Others. Thej found that smooth 
 and clean logs and stones were arranged 
 around the sides of the bower ; and in the 
 middle, on a carpet of leaves, was very 
 abundant provision for a rustic dinner.* 
 
 There was bread, and butter, and ham, 
 and gingerbread, and pie, and glasses for 
 water from the brook. Rollo and Lucy 
 wondered how all those things could have 
 got up the mountain. Presently, however, 
 they recollected that, when they were com- 
 ing up, Jonas had two covered baskets to 
 bring, and they thought, at the time, that 
 they seemed to be heavy. 
 
 Thus the day passed away, and towards 
 evening they came down the mountain. 
 Some remarkable things happened when 
 they were coming down, which will be 
 related in the story called " Trouble on 
 THE Mountain." 
 
 * See picture at the beginning of tliis story. 
 
Coming down the mountain." — p. 181, 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 BOASTING. 
 
 " How pleasant it is here ! " said Rollo 
 to his cousin Lucy, as they were gath- 
 ering blueberries high up on old Mount 
 Benalgon, the day they went up with 
 Rollo'S father and mother, and uncle ; 
 *'and how thick the blaeberries are, 
 Lucy ! " 
 
 " Yes," said Lucy, " they are very thick, 
 1 think ; and how far we 'can see now, 
 we are up here so high ! I wish we were 
 up on that great high rock/' 
 
 Rollo looked where Lucy pointed, and 
 he saw, away above them, a rocky sum- 
 mit projecting out from the mountain. 
 The front of the rock was ras^ged and pre- 
 cipitous, but it was flat and mossy upon 
 the top, and firs and other evergreen trees 
 grew there, some of them hanging over 
 the edge. 
 
164 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 " I wish I could get up there," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " I wish I could too," said Rollo. " I 
 should like to climb up one of those trees 
 which hangs over, and then I could look 
 down." 
 
 '^ O, Rollo," said Lucy, " you would not 
 dare to climb up one of those trees." 
 
 " Yes, I should dare to," said Rollo. 
 
 Rollo was sometimes a proud, boasting 
 boy, pretending that he could do great 
 things, and talking very largely. This 
 was one of his greatest faults ; and when- 
 ever he seemed to be in this boasting mood, 
 he almost always got hito some difficulty 
 after it. There is a text in the Bible that 
 was proved true, very often, in Rollo's 
 case. It is this — " Pride cometh before 
 destruction, and a haughty spirit before a 
 fall." Rollo had a sad fall this day, though 
 it was not from that high rock. It was a 
 different sort of a fall from that, as w^o 
 shall presently see. 
 
 " Lucy," said he again, " I do not be- 
 lieve but that I could get up upon that 
 rock myself. I can climb rocks." 
 
 '' O no, you could not," said Lucy. 
 
 a "Why, yes, I see a way." 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 165 
 
 " Which way ? " 
 
 *' O, round by that great black log. 
 There is a path there through the bush- 
 es." 
 
 "O no," said Lucy, "you could not 
 get up there. But there are some boys 
 by that log ; what boys are they ? " 
 
 Rollo looked. They were some boys 
 which they had seen coming up the moun- 
 tain, and Rollo's father had warned him 
 not to go near them. They had wanted 
 Rollo to go with them before, but his 
 father had forbidden it. Rollo wanted to 
 go, and now he was glad to see them 
 again ; but Lucy was sorry. 
 
 GETTING IN TROUBLE. 
 
 The blueberries were very thick and 
 large, and the bottoms of the baskets 
 were soon covered with them. Each 
 one picked where he found them most 
 plenty. 
 
 Rollo and Lucy kept pretty near to- 
 gether, talking, and gradually strayed away 
 to some distance from the rest of the party. 
 
166 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 After a little while, Rollo looked up, and 
 saw the three boys pretty near them. As 
 soon as Lucy saw them so near, she moved 
 along towards their parents ; and Rollo 
 ought to have done so too, but he remained 
 where he was, and presently one of the 
 boys came up to him. 
 
 " Why did you not come up where we 
 were ? " said he. *' They w^ere thicker out 
 there." 
 
 " My father would not let me," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 ^' O, come along," said the boy; '^he 
 will not care. Besides, he will not know 
 it. He is busy picking by himself. He 
 does not mind where you are." 
 
 Rollo thought this was not exactly the 
 way that a good boy would speak of obey- 
 ing a father, but he wanted very much to 
 see the place where the berries were so 
 much thicker. 
 
 " How far is it ? " said he to the boy. 
 
 " O, it is only a little way — -just around 
 that rock." 
 
 By this time the other two boys came 
 up, and they talked with Rollo a little 
 while, and endeavored to persuade him to 
 go. He said finally that he would go and 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 167 
 
 ask his father. So he left his basket, and 
 M'ent and asked his father if he might 
 just go with those boys round the rock. 
 He said the blueberries were much thick- 
 er around there, and also that he had been 
 talking with the boys, and he was sure 
 they were good boys. 
 
 " No, Rollo," said his father, decidedly, 
 *' I cannot think that any boys that use 
 bad language can be good boys, or safe 
 companions for you. I had rather you 
 would keep with us. If they speak to 
 you, answer them civilly ; but the less you 
 have to say to them or do with them, the 
 better. In fact, I had rather you would 
 not go back to them at all." 
 
 " 1 must," said Rollo, " to o:et my bas- 
 ket." 
 
 He accordingly returned to his basket, 
 and told the boys that his father preferred 
 that he should stay where he vras. 
 
 The bio^sest boy of the three was a rag-- 
 ged and dirty-looking boy; the others 
 called him Jim, and he talked with Rollo 
 a good deal. Rollo's conscience reproved 
 him for not leaving them, and going back 
 to his father ; but he wanted to stay and 
 
168 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 hear their talk, and he quieted his con- 
 science bj saying to himself that his father 
 told him to treat them civilly. At first 
 the boys were careful what they said to 
 Rollo; but at length Jim grew, more and 
 more bold. He used language which 
 Rollo knew was wrong, and he told Rollo 
 that he was a fool to stick so close to his 
 father ; that he was . big enough to find 
 his way alone all over the mountain, if he 
 was of a mind to. 
 
 All this Rollo was silly enough to be- 
 lieve, and, as his father only required him 
 to keep in sight, he thought he would 
 show the boys that he was not so much 
 afraid as they thought he was ; and so he 
 gradually moved off farther and farther 
 from his parents, as he went on gradually 
 filling up his basket. Lucy, in the mean 
 time, went nearer and nearer to them, and 
 in a short time was safely gathering her 
 blueberries by her aunt's side. 
 
 Things went on so for an hour. Rollo's 
 mother asked his father whether he had 
 not better call Rollo to them. 
 
 " No," said he ; "I hav e told him his 
 duty once, plainly, and now, if he does not 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 169 
 
 do it, he must take the consequences. 
 I believe I shall leave him to himself." 
 
 The bojs went on talking to one an- 
 other and to Rollo, tellino^ various stories 
 about their running away from school, 
 stealing apples, and such things. Rollo 
 was much interested in listening to them, 
 though he knew, all the time, that he was 
 doing wrong. But he had not the cour- 
 age to leave them abruptly, as he ought to 
 have done, and go back to his father, 
 
 Rollo took a great deal of pains with 
 the berries he picked ; he chose the largest 
 and ripest, and was very careful not to 
 get in any sticks and leaves. His bas- 
 ket was small, and he intended, as soon as 
 he got it full, to carry it carefully to his 
 mother, and pour his berries into her large 
 tin pail. He was succeeding finely in 
 this, but then he had insensibly strayed 
 away so far from his father, that now he 
 was entirely out of his sight. 
 
 At length, as Jim was sitting on a log to 
 rest himself, as he said, he saw a little 
 bird alight on the branch of a black stump 
 near. 
 
 •'Hush," said he; "there is a Bob-a- 
 link. See how I will fix him." 
 h p 
 
170 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 So saying, he picked up a stone, and was 
 going to throw it. 
 
 Rollo begged him not to kill that pretty 
 little bird • but he paid no attention to 
 what Rollo said. He threw the stone 
 with all his force ; but fortunately it did 
 not hit the bird. It struck the limb that 
 the bird was perched upon, and shivered 
 it to fragments, and the bird flew away, 
 terrified. 
 
 " Now, what did you do that for ? " said 
 Rollo; " you might have hit him." 
 
 '• Hit him ! " said he ; " I meant to hit 
 him, to be sure." 
 
 " But what good does it do to kill little 
 birds ? I found one this morning, and I 
 would not kill him for any thing." 
 
 " Where did you find him ? " said Jim. 
 
 Rollo then told the boys all about his 
 finding a little bird, in its nest floating in 
 the brook, and about their naming him 
 Mosette; as is described in the story 
 called ^' Blueberrying ; " and Jim said, if 
 he had found him, he would have put him 
 on a fence, for a mark to fire stones at. 
 " I would have made him peep, I tefl you," 
 said he. 
 
 Rollo said he would not have him killed 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 171 
 
 on any account. He was going to carry 
 him home, and feed him, and tame him. 
 
 " But where is he now ? " said Jim. 
 
 " O, we hid him behind a stone, down 
 at the foot of the mountain, where our 
 horses are tied." 
 
 "But how can you find him again .^" 
 said Jim. 
 
 "O," said Rollo, "we know; it was 
 behind the corner of a stone, just in the 
 bushes, w^here we tied the horse," 
 
 Jim winked at the other boys when 
 Rollo said this, though Rollo did not see 
 it. He was vexed with RoUo, because he 
 reproved him for stoning the bird. 
 
 " I would set him up for a mark, if I had 
 him," said Jim. " I wish I had been there 
 when you found him ; I would have taken 
 him away from you." 
 
 "No, you would not have taken him 
 away. Jonas would not let you." 
 
 " Jonas ! who is Jonas ? and what do 
 you think I care for Jonas ? " said he. 
 
 He then came up to Rollo, and looked 
 into his basket, and saw it nearly full of 
 large ripe blueberries. 
 
 " And I believe," said he. "that vou 
 
172 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 have stolen some of my berries out of my 
 basket, while I have been sitting here." 
 
 " No, I have not," said Rollo. " I have 
 not touched jour basket." 
 
 " You have," said Jim, fiercely, " and I 
 will have them back again. Besides, I put 
 some into yours, while you went to your 
 father. So half the berries in your basket 
 are mine." 
 
 This was a lie ; but bad boys, like Jim, 
 will always lie, when they have any thing 
 to gain by it. He came up to Rollo, and 
 began to pull his basket away from him. 
 Rollo struggled against him, and began to 
 cry. But Jim was too strong for him : he 
 tipped his basket over, poured a great 
 many of the berries into his own basket, 
 and the rest were spilled over on to the 
 ground. Then, angry at Rollo's screams 
 and cries, he trampled on all the berries 
 that were on the ground, and was begin- 
 ning to run away. Rollo caught hold of 
 the skirt of his coat, screaming all the 
 time for his father. Jim turned round, and 
 struck Rollo with his fist, knocked him 
 down, and then he and the other boys set 
 off, as fast as they could run, through the 
 
TROUBLE OX THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 173 
 
 bushes ; and they disappeared just as 
 Rollo's father and Jonas came hastening 
 to his aid. 
 
 They raised Rollo up, and his father 
 took him in his arms to carry him away. 
 He saw that there had been some serious 
 difficulty with the bad boys, but he did 
 iiot ask Rollo any thing about it, then ; 
 for he knew that he could not talk intelii- 
 
174 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 gibly till he had done crying. Rollo laid 
 his head down on his father's shoulder, as 
 he walked along, and sobbed bitterly. 
 
 A TEST OF PENITENCE. 
 
 His father carried him back to where 
 his mother and uncle were, w^ho w^re com- 
 ing towards him looking anxiously. 
 
 They presently got pretty near them, 
 Rollo still continuing to cry. His father 
 then said to him, 
 
 " Rollo, be still a moment. I w^ant to 
 speak to you." 
 
 When he first took Rollo up, he did not 
 command him to be still, for he knew that 
 it w^ould do no good. He was then so 
 overwhelmed with pain and terror, that 
 he could not help crying; and his father 
 never commanded impossibilities. By 
 this time, however, the pain, and the im- 
 mediate terror, had so far subsided, that 
 his father knew he could now control him- 
 self, and Rollo knew that he must obey 
 He accordingly stopped crying aloud, ana 
 tried to listen to his father. 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 11 o 
 
 "Rollo," said his father, ''I pity you 
 very much. 1 warned you against this 
 bad company, and now I perceive you 
 have got into some ditBculty with them ; 
 but I cannot bear your story about it till 
 we get home. It is your own fault that 
 has brouo^ht you into trouble ; and now 
 you must not extend your trouble over all 
 our party, and spoil our happiness, as you 
 have your own. I must go and put you 
 by yourself, until you get entirely com- 
 posed and pleasant, and then you may 
 join us again." 
 
 •' But, father," saidRollo, beginning to 
 cry afresh at the thoughts of the boys' treat- 
 ment of him, ''they came up to me, and 
 — and — " 
 
 ''Stop, Rollo," said his father. "Be 
 still. You cannot tell the story intelligi- 
 bly now, and if you could, I should not be 
 willing to listen to it. You must not say 
 any thing about it, unless you are ques» 
 tioned, until we get home." 
 
 By tlrs time they came up pretty near 
 the place where the rest of the party were ; 
 but his father did not take him there. He 
 turned aside, and, putting Rollo down, he 
 led him along to a smooth log, which lay 
 
176 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 among some old trees, close hy, and told 
 him to sit there, until he was entirely com- 
 posed and pleasant again, and then to 
 come to him, or to go to picking berries 
 again, just as he pleased. 
 
 Rollo sat on the log, for some time, 
 with his empty basket by his side, mourn- 
 ing over his sorrows. Lucy came to him, 
 and endeavored to console him. She 
 begged him not to cry ; and she poured 
 out half of her own berries into his basket, 
 and told him that they could soon fill it full 
 again, if he would come with her to a 
 good thick place she had found. Rollo 
 became gradually quiet and composed, and 
 walked along with Lucy. 
 
 Lucy had indeed found a place where 
 the berries were very thick and large, and 
 Rollo determined to be as industrious as 
 possible. They worked away very busi- 
 ly for half an hour, and Rollo gradually 
 recovered his spirits. 
 
 His mother watched him from time to 
 time, and when she saw that he was good- 
 humored again, she said to his father, 
 
 " Rollo seems to be picking his berries 
 very pleasantly. I rather think he is sorry 
 for his conduct." 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 177 
 
 *' Yes, I see he is getting good-humored 
 again, but I am afraid he is not truly pen- 
 Jtent. It is easier to forget a sin, than to 
 be sorry for it. It is very easy, however, 
 for us to ascertain." 
 
 " How can we ascertain?" asked his 
 mother. 
 
 ''Why, if you should go and ask him 
 about it, if he is really penitent, he will be 
 troubled most to think of his disobedience 
 in going into the bad company ; but if he 
 is not penitent, he will not think of that, 
 but only go to scolding about the bad 
 boys." 
 
 " That is true," said she. " I have a 
 great mind to go and try him." 
 
 RoUo's father thought it \^'ouId be a 
 good plan, and she, accordingly, walked 
 alons: towards Rollo slowly, satherins: 
 berries as she went. 
 
 Rollo saw her coming, and said, " Here 
 is mother, Lucy ; let us go and giye her 
 our berries." 
 
 So saying, he carried his basket up to 
 her yery pleasantly, and said, " Here, moth- 
 er ; see, here are all these berries I have 
 been picking for you." 
 "12 
 
178 TROUBLK ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 ** Ah," said she, " did jou pick all 
 these for me ? " 
 
 " E — h — no," said he ; " not all ; Lucy 
 gave me some." 
 
 " Well, Lucy, I am very much obliged 
 to you, and I am glad to see that you, 
 Rollo, are pleasant again ; I am sorry you 
 went and got into difficulty with those 
 boys." 
 
 *' They came and took away my berries," 
 said he, " and struck me — that great ugly 
 Jim." 
 
 The feelings of vexation and anger 
 against the bad boys began to rise again 
 in Rollo's mind, the moment he began to 
 talk about them, and he was just going to 
 cry. His mother stopped him, saying, 
 
 " You need not tell me about him any 
 more. 1 see how it is." 
 
 " How what is ? " said Rollo. 
 
 " How it is about your being sorry. 
 Your father told me that, if you were truly 
 penitent for what happened about those 
 boys, I should find you, when 1 came to 
 talk with you about it, grieved for your 
 own fault, and if you were not penitent, 
 you would only be angry at theirs, \ see 
 which it is." 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 179 
 
 Rollo was silent a moment. He felt 
 the truth and justice of the distinction ; 
 but. like all boys who are not sorry for the 
 wrong they have done, he could not resist 
 the temptation to try to justify himself by 
 throwing the blame on others. So he 
 be":an to tell her somethins: more about 
 •• that cross old Jim," but she interrupted 
 him, and told him she did not wish to hear 
 any thing about that " cross old Jim." 
 He was not her boy, she said, and she had 
 nothing to do with him or his faults. 
 
 She then went to talking aJDOut other 
 things, and helped Rollo begin to hll his 
 basket again. He showed her where the 
 berries were thickest, and led her round 
 behind a rock to show her a beautiful wdld 
 flower that he had found ; he said he 
 did not bring it to her, for his father had 
 told him not to touch any flowers or ber- 
 ries that they did not know, for fear they 
 might be poisonous. 
 
 After a little while, Rollo's mother left 
 him and Lucy together, and went back to 
 where his father and uncle were. 
 
 '' Well," said they, " how did you find 
 Rollo ? " 
 
 " Pleasant, but not jpeniient,^^ said she. 
 
180 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Lucy and Rollo went on gathering ber- 
 ries some time after Rollo's mother left 
 him, in silence. Rollo felt rather unhappy, 
 but he was not subdued. His heart was 
 still proud and unhumbled, and after a 
 time, he sadd to Lucy, 
 
 " It seems to me very strange that my 
 mother does not think those boys wxre to 
 blame any for doing so." 
 
 " She does think they were to blame, 
 Rollo," I know. 
 
 " No, she does not : she will not hear mo, 
 say any thing about them." 
 
 Lucy did not answer, because she knew 
 it would do no good to dispute with Rollo, 
 while he was so unreasonable. Rollo ought 
 to have been willing to have seen his 
 fault, and to have felt truly sorry for it ; 
 but he w^as not, and so Lucy thought it 
 was better not to talk with him about it 
 at all. If he had been truly sorry, and 
 had gone and told his father so, and asked 
 his forgiveness, he would have been happy 
 again. 
 
 But as it was, he was not happy. The 
 recollection of his disobedience and sin 
 would remain in his mind, and though he 
 tried to talk, and laugh, and play, as usual, 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 181 
 
 nis mind was not much at ease. In fact, 
 he was secretly glad when the time arrived 
 for going home. 
 
 The party all gathered together on a 
 smooth piece of ground, about the middle 
 of the afternoon, to make their arrange- 
 ments for going down the mountain. 
 They put their baskets, filled beautifully 
 with blueberries, together on the grass, 
 while they sat on the stones and logs 
 around, to rest a little before walking 
 down. 
 
 Then Rollo's father arranged the order 
 of march. Jonas was to go first, with two 
 of the heaviest baskets of berries. Next 
 came Lucy, with her little basket about 
 two thirds full, and with leaves and some 
 beautiful pieces of moss she had found, 
 put in upon the top. Then came Rollo's 
 mother leaning on his uncle's arm. His 
 uncle had a basket of berries in his oth- 
 er hand. Finally, Rollo and his father 
 walked together behind, with each a bas- 
 ket in his hand.* 
 
 Thus they walked along down the steep 
 path, until they began to enter the bushes. 
 
 • See picture at the beginning of this story. 
 
182 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Rollo's father had made this arrangement 
 so that he might have an opportunity to 
 talk with him about the difficulty with the 
 boys, for he thought, on the whole, it 
 would be better to talk with him now 
 than to wait till they got home. 
 
 After they had walked along a little 
 w^ay, Rollo's father asked him whether he 
 had a good time blueberrying ? 
 
 " Why, yes, sir," said Rollo, " pretty 
 good." 
 
 " Have you seen any thing more of thosq 
 boys ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Your mother went to talk with you, 
 and said you did not seem very sorry for 
 your fault." 
 
 " Why, father," said Rollo, " I did not 
 do any thing to the boys at all : it was all 
 their fault, entirely." 
 
 " 1 don't suppose you did do any thing 
 wrong towards them, but you committed 
 a great fault in respect to me." 
 
 " What fault ? " said Rollo. 
 
 " Disobedience." 
 
 " Why, father, how ? You did not 
 tell me to stay close by you." 
 
 " And is a boy guilty of disobedience 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUxNTAIN 183 
 
 only when he does what his father forbids 
 in words ? " 
 
 " I suppose so," said Rollo. 
 
 '' What is disobedience ? " asked his 
 father. 
 
 " Why, it is doing what you tell me 
 not to do ; is it not ? " 
 
 " That is not a sufficient definition of 
 it ; for suppose you were out there in the 
 bushes, and I was to beckon you to come 
 here, and you should not come, would not 
 that be disobedience ?" 
 
 " Why, yes, sir." 
 
 " And yet I should not tell you to 
 come." 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 ''And so, if I were to shake my head 
 at you when you were doing any thing 
 wrong, and you were to continue doing 
 it, th-at would be disobedience." 
 
 Rollo admitted that it would. 
 " So that it is not necessary that I should 
 tell you in words what my wishes are : if 
 I express them in any way so that you 
 plainly understand it, that is enough. The 
 most important orders that are given by 
 men, are often given without any words." 
 
 " How, father? " 
 
184 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 " Why, at sea, sometimes, where there is 
 a great fleet of ships, and the admiral, who 
 commands them all, is in one of them. 
 Now, if he wants all the fleet to sail in 
 any way ; or if he wishes to have some one 
 vessel come near to his, or go back home, 
 or go away to any other part of the world ; 
 or if he wants any particular person in the 
 fleet to come on board his vessel, — he does 
 not send an order in ivords ; he only 
 hoists flags of a particular kind upon the 
 masts of his vessel, and they all obey 
 them. 
 
 ''Now, suppose," continued he, "one 
 of the ships did not sail as he wished, 
 and when he called the captain to account 
 for it, he should say that he was not guilty 
 of disobedience, because he did not tell 
 kirn to sail so." 
 
 Rollo laughed, and said he thought 
 that would not be a very good excuse. 
 
 ** Well, it is Just such an excuse as 
 yours. I did not positively command you 
 not to go near the boys, or not to have 
 any conversation with them at all, though I 
 expressed my wish that you would not, 
 so that you could not help understand- 
 ing it." 
 
TROUBLE ON THE iMOUNTAIN. 185 
 
 Rollo could not deny that this was so. 
 
 "But that is not the only case of diso- 
 bedience. For you did one thing which 
 was contrary to my express command in 
 icords.^'' 
 
 Rollo looked concerned, and said he was 
 sure he did not know it. 
 
 " I told you not to go out of my sight." 
 
 "Well, but, father," said Rollo eagerly, 
 in reply, "I am sure 1 did not mean to. 
 1 was picking berries so busy, I did not 
 observe v/here I was." 
 
 " I know you were, and that was the 
 disobedience ; for when I command you to 
 keep in sight of me, that means that you 
 must take good care that you do mind 
 where you are. Suppose 1 were to tell 
 Jonas that he might go and take a walk, 
 but that he must be srure to come back 
 in half an hour, and he should go, and pay- 
 no attention to the time, and so not come 
 back until three quarters of an hour ; 
 would that be obedience r " 
 
 '• No, sir ; but it would not be so bad as 
 it would be if he should stay away when 
 he knew that the time was out." 
 
 " No, it would not be so wilful an act 
 of disobedience, but it would be disobedi- 
 
186 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 ence, notwithstanding. You see, Rollo,' 
 he continued, " when I tell jou or any 
 boy to come back in half an hour, there 
 are two things implied in the command — 
 first, that you should notice the time, and, 
 secondly, that you should come back when 
 the time is out. Now, you may disobey the 
 command by neglecting either of these." 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Rollo, " I see we may, 
 but I did not think of it before." 
 
 " No, I presume you did not," said his 
 father ; " but I want you to understand it, 
 and remember it after this forever. You 
 have disobeyed, to-day, in two ways, in 
 which boys are very apt to disobey, when 
 they do not mean to do it wilfully. I will 
 tell you what the principles are, again, so 
 that you can remember and tell me when 
 1 ask you. 
 
 *' 1. Boys must take care to comply 
 with their parents' directions, if they are 
 expressed in any way whatsoever ; and, 
 
 " 2. When directed to do anv thins: in a 
 particular time or way, they must see to it 
 themselves, that they notice and keep in 
 mind the circumstances which they are re- 
 quired to attend to." 
 
 Rollo said he would try to remember it, 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 187 
 
 and as he seemed attentive and docile, 
 his father did not talk with him any more 
 about his fault at that time. Besides, thej 
 came now to some very rough places in 
 the path, and RoUo's father had to lift 
 Lucy over them. 
 
 Lucy spilled some of her berries in one 
 place, and Rollo was going to help her 
 pick them up, but Jonas said they had 
 better leave them for the birds, and walk 
 on. 
 
 " So we will, Lucy," said Rollo, " and 
 I rather think that iMosette is hungry by 
 this time." 
 
 '' Yes," said Jonas, " and what are you 
 going to do with Mosette ? " 
 
 '• O, put him in a cage, and bring him 
 up tame," said Rollo. I mean to teach 
 him to eat out of my hand. 1- shall treat 
 him very kindly, though he is my little 
 prisoner." 
 
 '' I would give him the liberty of the 
 yard, if I were you," said some one behmd, 
 laughing. 
 
 Rollo looked round. It was his uncle 
 Georo;e, walking close behind him. 
 
 "What is the liberty of the yard?'* 
 said Rollo. 
 
188 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 " Why, when men intend to treat a pris- 
 oner kindly, they leave the prison door 
 open, and let him walk about the yard ; and 
 this is called letting him have the liberty of 
 the yard ; and sometimes they let them go 
 over half the town." 
 
 " Do you think I had better do so with 
 Mosette ? " said Rollo. 
 
 " Yes," said his uncle George ; " leave 
 his cage open, and let him go where he 
 pleases." 
 
 " O, he would fly entirely away," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " Perhaps not, if you should feed him 
 well, and treat him very kindly. He 
 might like his cage better than any nest." 
 
 " I shall treat him as kindly as I can," 
 said Rollo ; " only think, Jonas, that Jim 
 said, if he had found him, he should have 
 set him up upon the fence for a mark to 
 fire stones at ! " 
 
 " Jim said so ? " said Jonas ; " how did 
 Jim know any thing about it ? " 
 
 " Why — e — h — why — I told him," said 
 Rollo. 
 
 " What did you tell him for ? " 
 
 " O, because," said Rollo, " w^e were 
 talking, and I told him." 
 
TROUELE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 189 
 
 *• 1 hope you did not tell him where we 
 hid Mosette, behind the rock.'' 
 
 " Why — yes," said Rollo, '' I believe 
 1 did." " 
 
 *' Then I am afraid you will never see 
 poor Mosette again," said Jonas. 
 
 "Why," said Rollo, "you don't think 
 that he would go and get him." 
 
 '- 1 don't know," said Jonas, " what 
 he would do ; but I should not have want- 
 ed to tell such a boy any thing about him." 
 
 Rollo began to be alarmed. He went 
 back to his father, and asked him to let 
 him and Jonas go on before the rest, to 
 see if their bird was safe. His father told 
 him he might go. " But," said he, "I am 
 afraid you have lost your bird ; when a 
 I'oy allows himself to get into bad com- 
 pany, he does not know how many troubles 
 he plunges himself into." 
 
 Rollo and Jonas ran on, and soon disap- 
 peared among the trees. Rollo found it 
 hard to keep up, as the road was not very 
 smooth, though they had got down the 
 steepest part of the mountain. Jonas 
 kept hold of RoUo's hand, and went on 
 running and walking alternately, until 
 they got down to the end of the trees 
 
190 TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 
 
 and bushes, and then they came out in 
 sight of the place where the horses were 
 tied 
 
 It was fortunate for poor Mosette, and 
 for Rollo too, that they did thus run on 
 before, for it happened that Jim, and the 
 boys with him, had come down the moun- 
 tain by another road, and were just going 
 up to the place as Jonas and Rollo came 
 out of the woods. 
 
 " There they are," said Jonas. " You 
 stay here ; I must run on." And he let go 
 of Rollo's hand, sprang forward, and ran 
 with all his might. Rollo tried to follow, 
 but soon stopped and looked on. 
 
 Jim and his boys did not see Jonas 
 coming, and they went to work looking 
 around the bushes and stones after Mo- 
 sette. In a few minutes, one soialler boy 
 came out from the bushes, close by the 
 place where Rollo recollected the nest 
 was hid, with something in his hand, and 
 Rollo could distinctly hear him calHng out, 
 
 " Here he is, Jim — I have got him, 
 Jim." 
 
 Just that moment, Jonas came running 
 up among the boys, calling out, 
 
 " Let that bird alone ! Let that bird 
 
TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN. 191 
 
 alone ! " The boys, terrified at this unex- 
 pected onset, started and ran in every 
 direction. The boy who had the nest, 
 dropped it upon the ground, and dodged 
 back into the bushes. Jonas took it up 
 carefully, put little Mosette, who had fall- 
 en out, back carefully, and walked out 
 into the road to meet Rollo, who was 
 coming down as fast as he could come, on 
 the other side. 
 
 They saw Jim and his comrades no 
 more, and Rollo said he believed he should 
 never again want to have any thing to do 
 with bad boys. 
 
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