I eases. Let him manage with them just as he wants to. Can't you afford to lose two or three poppy-heads to please him?" " But I wanted to save my seeds to give to my sister Mary. She is going to have a gar- den next year." " Yes ; but you have enough more. And, besides, you may as well use a part of the poppy-heads for his enjoyment as for hers." So saying, Jonas walked on, leaving Rollo to think of what he had been saying. Rollo stood a moment in thought, and then slowly turned round and walked back into the garden. " Well, Thanny," said he, " you may have the poppy-head, and do whatever you have a mind to with it." But Thanny, he found, had thrown the hollo's vacation. 149 poppy-head away, and was playing with the gravel-stones of the walk. Then Rollo picked up his poppy-head and told him he might have it; but Nathan did not want it, and Rollo two or three times tried to make him take it. Presently, however, he thought he might as well let him be happy in his own way ; and so he left him, and began to gather some sweet peas, which grew pretty near there, and seemed pretty ripe. After getting one hand full of pea-pods, he gathered with the other several poppy-heads, as many, in fact, as he could take, and then, calling Nathan to come with him, he began to walk towards the house. But Nathan would not come. He seemed well contented to stay and play with his gravel-stones ; and, in fact, I don't think he supposed that he was under any obligation to obey Rollo. Rollo walked along slowly, looking back continually, and calling Nathan to follow him. But Nathan did not move. u Oh dear me," said Rollo; " what shall I do?" Then, calling aloud, he said, " Thanny, you must come along this mo- ment ; or else I shall go away and leave you all alone." After a minute or two more, little Nathan 13* 150 , got up, and walked along slowly towards Rollo ; and Rollo then went on to the piazza, where he sat down, and laid his poppy-heads and pea-pods down by his side. "Now I must have something to put my seeds in," said Rollo; and he got up to go into the house to get a plate. As soon as he went away, Nathan came up, and began to pull about his pea-pods. " No — Thanny, Thanny," said he, " no, — you must not touch." So he went back and led Thanny gently away. But he would come back as soon as Rollo began to go away again. Rollo tried to keep him from touching his seeds in every way he could think of, but all seemed to be to no purpose; and at last his patience was pretty nearly exhausted. He had thought it would be a fine thing to have little Nathan at home ; but now he began to wish him away again. " I can't do anything at all," said he to himself, "he troubles me so." Just at this moment he heard his mother's step in her chamber, the window of which was nearly over where he stood ; and so he called to her. ROLLO'S VACATION. 151 His mother came and looked out the win- dow. "Mother," said he, "will you speak to Thanny? he will pull my seeds about the moment I leave them. Or else, mother, if you would be so good as to bring me out a plate to put them in, while I stay here and keep him from touching them." "I can't come down very well now," said his mother, in reply; "but I think you can manage it. Give him one, of the pods, and show him how to get the peas out, and that will amuse him." Rollo then wondered that he had not thought of some such plan as this before; and he immediately gave Nathan a pod, and opened it for him a little, at one end, so as to let him see the peas. Nathan took it, with his interest and curiosity much excited, and sat down at once, and went to work to pull out the little round peas. Rollo immediately went in after his plates. He borrowed two of Dorothy, and then came immediately back, and found Nathan still busily employed about his pod. Rollo then began to shell his remaining pods into one of the plates, and after he had done that he shook out the poppy-seeds into 152 the other plate. This took him some time. At last, however, when he got it finished, he recollected that he had no bags made, as he intended, to put the seeds into ; and he thought therefore that he would go into the house and get some papers, and do up his seeds injthem. By this time Nathan had done playing with his pea-pod, but he had got a little stick and was digging in the path. So Rollo left him and went in, in search for some pieces of paper. He found a piece of newspaper in a drawer, where waste newspapers were usu- ally kept, and he tried to do his seeds up. But he could not succeed in doing it very neatly, and he began to wish he had some paper bags. After sitting for some minutes, looking upon the awkward-shaped parcels he had made in his attempts to put up his seeds in papers, he concluded to go and get his little gum- bottle and make a bag. This gum-bottle was one that Jonas had made him a day or two before. He had bought a little powdered gum-arabic, and Jonas had put it into a small phial and added a little water to it ; and then he had fitted a small brush, made of the top of a quill, into the cork, in such a manner that the feather 153 end of the brush extended down into the dis- solved gum-arabic. Thus by taking out the cork he always had a brush ready for use. He brought down his gum-bottle and a pair of scissors, and, taking a piece of newspaper, he cut out his bag. The way he did it was to cut out two pieces of paper, about two inches wide and three inches long, making one of them however a little smaller than the other at the bottom and at the two sides. Then he laid the largest paper down upon the piazza floor, and put the other upon it, in such a manner as to bring the tops of the two exactly even. Then he pasted all the edges of the lower paper, where they extended beyond the upper one, and then carefully folded them over and pressed them down, and thus joined the two papers strongly together by all the edges except the upper one, where he was going to put the seeds in. He looked at his bag when it was done, and liked it very well. "Now," said he, "if it was only dry I could put my peas right in, and carry it and show it to mother. 3 ' But it was not dry. He concluded to put it in the sun, and after let- ting it stay there a few minutes he thought it would do, and so he began to put the seeds in. 154 ROLLO S VACATION. He filled it nearly full of seeds, and then he began to fold over the top, to keep them in, when suddenly he began to hear a rat- tling upon the floor of the platform, and look- ing down he found that the peas were stream- ing out, one by one, but rapidly, from a hole at the bottom. They had burst out because the gum had not had time to dry. Nathan heard the rattling, and came run- ning to see. Rollo began hastily to gather up his peas again, and tried to make Nathan go away; but Nathan would not. He got several peas into his hand, and would not give them up. Rollo tried to take them away; Nathan struggled. Rollo held on to his hand, and Nathan began to scream. Their mother came to the door to see what was the matter. Rollo, still holding on to Nathan's hand, said, " He has got my peas." Nathan, still clasping his hand tight ovei the peas, said, "I want some peas, I want some peas." " Let go of his hand, Rollo," said their mo- ther. Rollo obeyed. " Give Rollo his peas, Nathan," she added, looking at Nathan. Nathan obeyed. He knew he must obey his mother, and he ac- 155 cordingly delivered up the peas to Rollo r though he did it slowly and reluctantly. " You did wrong, Rollo," said she. " You must never use violence with him." " Why, mother, he was getting all my peas." "No matter for that," said she. "You must never use violence with him, unless it is some very extraordinary case of absolute and immediate necessity." "What is that, mother?" said Rollo. " Why, suppose he was eating something which you knew was poison, and you had not time to come and tell me, you might take it away, rather than let him poison himself; or if he was in the road, and a cart or a drove of cattle were coming along, and there was great danger of his getting run over. Such cases as those are cases of immediate and absolute necessity. It is immediate because you have not time to come and see me, and it is absolute because he is in the utmost dan- ger. But in any common case, and especially if you are only going to lose a few peas, you never must resort to violence. You must come and tell me." " Well, mother," said Rollo, " I wish you 156 hollo's vacation. would take him in now, for he troubles me very much." She replied that she could not take him in then very well. In about an hour, she said, it would be time for him to go to sleep, but until then she must let him stay and play out in the yard ; but she said she would tell him he must not touch his seeds. So she charged Nathan not to touch Rollo's things, and then told Rollo that perhaps Na- than would like to wheel his wheelbarrow. Rollo accordingly went and brought it, and Nathan, as his mother had expected, was very much pleased with it, and began at once to try to wheel it about the yard, though it was so large that he could only get it along a few steps at a time. Rollo then undertook to mend his bag, but he got the paper very wet, and it stuck to his ringers and got torn, until at length he began to be quite discouraged. In fact, he began to feel very much dispirited and worried. He said he would give up ; and he threw away the seeds out of his plates and rose to carry the plates in. " Well, Rollo," said his mother, as she saw him putting the plates into the closet, "and how do you get along 7" 157 "Oh, I don't get along at all," said he. "My bag is burst, and my paste won't stick, and I have thrown all my seeds away." There was something impatient and fretful in the tone in which Rollo said this to his mother. " And have you cleared away the pods and stalks you scattered down about the piazza?" " Why no," said Rollo,— " must I V } " Certainly," said his mother. " You must never make any litter in such a place without afterwards clearing it up." Rollo looked rather more discontented still at this, but he did not reply. He went to the corner of the kitchen, where there was a broom hanging, and began to take it down. " You must not sweep them off upon the grass, or upon the walk, Rollo." " Why, mother?" said he. . " Oh, because it will look very untidy. You must clear it all away. You can sweep it up into a little heap, and then take it up carefully and put it into your wheelbarrow, and wheel it away." This was all very reasonable, and Rollo knew it ; but he was getting out of humor, and he did not like this additional trouble. He ought to have had something there to put 14 158 his pods and stalks into, and then he could easily have carried them away ; hut he was so much interested in getting in his seeds that he did not think of that. But now, since he had neglected taking the proper measures, he ought not to have repined at being obliged to submit to the trouble and inconvenience which he had brought upon himself by his own neg- lect. Though he felt wrong at heart, he did not say much against doing it. He took the broom and went out, intending with the broom to sweep up his litter into a little heap, and then to take it up. He did the work, however, very hastily and carelessly. Boys generally do their work so when they are discontented and out of humor. His mother expected it would be so, and accordingly, when he had been out about long enough to have finished his work, she came to the door, and looked to see how he had done it. "Rollo," said she, "when in your plays you put any place out of order, don't you think you ought to put it in as good oraer again as it was before?" "Why, yes," said Rollo. " Very well ; now look at the piazza, and 159 at the grass, and see if it is in as good order as it was when you began working here." Rollo looked, and he saw that there were several stalks and pods and broken poppy- heads lying about in the grass, and some were upon the floor of the piazza. He saw how the case was, but he did not answer. " You must take them all up clean," said his mother. Rollo began to fret, and even to cry a little. He said he was very tired and very hungry, and, besides, he did not feel very well. Rollo had a habit, which a good many boys have to a much greater degree than he, of say- ing, when things went wrong, and especially when he got tired of some unpleasant duty, that he did not feel very well. It is very true that Rollo did not feel very well just then, but it was not sickness. He had only got tired of play, and vexed and worried by the difficulties which he had got himself into. Now there is only one proper course for us to take when we get ourselves into difficulties of any sort, and that is to go on, good- naturedly and perseveringly, until we get ourselves out. Rollo ought to have said to himself, " Well, I'll do it thoroughly. Here, Than- 160 ROLLO'S VACATION. ny, come up here with your wheelbarrow and take in a load of rubbish." Thus he might have turned it into an amusement, having the wheelbarrow for a cart and Nathan for a horse, and then in a short time the work would all have been very easily done. Instead of that he worked away, slowly and discontentedly ; and after he had finished it he went into the house, put his cap upon its nail, and walked with a very melancholy face into the parlor, where his sister Mary was sitting, and threw himself down upon the sofa. Mary saw in a moment, by the expression of his countenance, that something had gone wrong, and that he was a little worried in mind. She looked at him pleasantly, saying, . "Well, Rollo, what is the matter with you?" "Oh, I don't know," said Rollo, mourn- fully. "I don't feel very well." "Don't you?" said Mary, walking up to him, with a pleasant countenance. " What is the matter?" " I don't know," said Rollo, turning over and hiding his face away from her. "If you will tell me how you feel, perliaps 161 I can tell you what the matter is ; for I know the symptoms of several kinds of sicknesses." "What kinds?" said Rollo. "Why, fever is one kind. Then people feel hot, and their pulse beats quick." "It is not that," said Rollo, " for I am cold, — as cold as I can be." " Then perhaps it is pleurisy" said Mary. "What sort of a sickness is that?" said Rollo, forgetting his ill-humor for a moment, and turning round to look at Mary. "Why, if you draw a long, full breath, then you feel a sharp pain all through your sides and back." Rollo very gravely drew a long breath. His chest swelled out full, but he felt no pain. " No," said he; "'tisn't that." "Well, consumption, then?" said Mary. "People that have the consumption have a very hard cough. Do you think it is con- sumption?" Mary had looked pretty grave and sober, but now Rollo thought he perceived a very slight tendency to a smile upon her counte- nance, and he began to think she might be secretly laughing at him a little. " No," said he, "it is not consumption ;" g* 14* 162 ROLLO'S VACATION. and so saying, he jumped off of the sofa and ran to Mary, and began to pull her round and round by her hand. She thought she would not tease him any more, and she said, " Oh, Rollo, did not I promise to make you a harness 3 If you will go and bring in Nathan I will try now." Away Rollo ran after Nathan, and while he was gone Mary went up stairs to get some list, to answer instead of leather, to make the harness of. In a short time they all three met in the parlor again, and Mary began to measure Rollo with the list for his harness. She first cut off two pieces long enough to go around his arms, near the shoulder, and sewed the ends together ; then she sewed a piece across behind, extending from one of these shoulder- pieces to the other. That she said might be called the saddle, as it went across his back. Where this cross-piece was joined to the two shoulder-pieces, she sewed the ends of the reins. Then she sewed two short pieces to the middle of the shoulder-pieces in front, and these were intended to tie in front, across the breast, when the harness was on. This kept it all snug and firm in its place. Rollo liked his harness very much, and 163 after it was finished Nathan drove him around the room with it several times, with great pleasure. While Mary had been making the harness, she asked Rollo what he had been doing all the morning; and he told her he had been gathering seeds. "How many have you gathered?" said Mary. "Oh, I gathered a very few, and those I had to throw away, because I could not make my paper bag do." He then gave Mary a full account of all his difficulties ; and she said that he had not gone to work systematically enough. "What is systematically?" said Rollo. "Don't you know?" said she. "Let me see ; — I'll tell you what. I can go out after dinner, and you and I will undertake to gather some seeds, and I will show you how to do it systematically." "Well," said Rollo; "I should like that very much." 164 THE SEED-GATHERING. " Now," said Mary to Rollo, after dinner, as they walked together out into the garden yard, u the first thing, if we are going to pro- ceed systematically, is to go out into the gar- den and see how many kinds of flower-seeds we want to gather." So they walked along and began to examine the various flowers, to ascertain which were ripe enough to be gathered. They found twelve kinds. Then Mary set out to go back towards the house. "But a'n't you going to gather them?" said Rollo. " Not yet," said Mary. She went in and opened the same drawer where Rollo had been that morning, and took out three newspapers. She then went out into the piazza, and tore each paper into quarters. " Three newspapers, all torn into four parts," said she. " Three times four are twelve. Now we have got papers enough to hold our seeds." 165 "But sha'n't we put them in bags?" said Rollo. "Yes," said Mary, "presently; but first we must gather them and spread them out in papers a little while, to get them thoroughly dry, while we make the bags. " And now," continued Mary, "to go on systematically, we must consider where will be the best place to spread them out. It must be some place where they will be safe, and also where our stalks and chaff will not do any damage." " Jonas's bench in the barn will do exactly," said Rollo. " Let us go and see," said Mary. So they went into the barn, and Mary said the bench would do very well. She and Rollo arranged the papers regularly upon it, and then, each one taking one of the papers, they went out into the garden. "Now we must consider," said Mary, "what is the best way to gather the ripe seeds. If we try to break them off, we shall shake out a good many." " I can cut the stems off with my knife," said Rollo. "Scissors will be better," said Mary, "for they will not jar the flowers so much. Sup- 166 pose you go and get my large scissors out of my work-basket." Rollo ran into the house and brought out the scissors. "Now which shall we take first?" said Mary. "You may take the mignonette and I will take the balsams." They accordingly cut off a plenty of stems, with the ripe seeds in their little husky cover- ings, and when they had got a sufficient quantity to fill their papers they carried them carefully along and laid them on the bench, beginning regularly at one corner. Then they returned with two other papers, which they filled in the same way ; and m a short time the whole twelve were filled, each with the stalks and tops of one kind of. flower, and these were arranged in regular order upon the bench, forming two rows, with six in each row. Then they proceeded to separate the seeds from the husks in each parcel, which they did by rubbing the tops between their hands. The coarse chaff they gathered up with their fingers and threw into Rollo' s wheelbarrow, which had been previously placed before the bench for that purpose. The fine chaff and dust Mary blew away from off the seeds ; and 167 thus after a time they were all separated, and all the twelve kinds were spread out before them, nice and clean, and ready, after they should have been dried a little, to go into the paper bags. v "And now," said Mary, " for the bags." " We get along finely this afternoon," said Rollo ; " but it is because Nathan is not here." "Not altogether that," said Mary. "It is because we go to work regularly and sys- tematically." "But if Nathan was out here it would spoil all." " No, I hope not," said Mary, " for I should first stop and contrive some way to amuse him." " How should you amuse him ?" said Rollo. "Oh, I don't know exactly," said Mary; " but I am going in to get some paper to make some bags, and I will bring him out and let you see how I should do it." So saying, Rollo and Mary walked along together to the house, and Mary led the way to a large closet, where they kept paper and twine, and some old books and papers. Mary looked over several kinds of wrapping paper to find some that was suitable for the bags. 168 " There is some, Mary," said Rollo. " How will that do V " That is too heavy and stiff," said Mary, feeling of it, " to make such little bags of." "Well this?" said Rollo, putting his hand upon another quire. " That would do, only it is rather coarse. There is some that is beautiful" continued Mary, pointing up to a higher shelf. Rollo looked up and saw the edges of some nice straw-colored paper, projecting a little from the edge of the shelf. He went and got a chair, and Mary stepped up into it and took down a quire of the paper, and began to look at it, standing still as if she was thinking. "Well, Mary, a'n't you going to take some?" " Yes, but I must first calculate how much we shall want. Let me see ; — we ought to have two or three dozen." " Then you will want a great many sheets," said Rollo. Mary did not answer, but stood musing in silence. Presently she said, "No; one sheet will make two dozen at least. I will take two sheets." " Oh, I guess it will take more," said Rollo, " and I am pretty good at guessing," 169 "But I have calculated" said Mary, "and calculating is better than guessing." They walked along, carrying the two sheets of paper, until they got to the back door, and then Mary asked Rollo to go back and get little Nathan and bring him out. Rollo did so. He found Nathan running about in the kitchen, and he led him along carefully out at the door, and through the yard, until he reached the barn. Here he found Mary spreading out the sheets' of paper upon the bench. Mary said she must first provide for Na- than's amusement. So she lifted him up upon the bench, and put him back in a cor- ner, and gave him a pair of scissors and a piece of paper, and set him at work cutting. Then she and Rollo stood up at the side of the bench, between the part where Nathan was sitting and that where they had placed their twelve papers of seeds. Mary then laid down one of her sheets of paper, folded once, as it was upon the shelf. "There," said she, "that is folded once, and that is folio." Then she took Nathan's scissors and cut the sheet in two where it was folded, and then put the two halves together. She adjusted h 15 170 hollo's vacation. them carefully at the sides and corners, so as to make them even, and then she folded them over again. "There," said she, "now it is folded into quarters, and that makes quarto" "What do you mean by your folios and quartos?" said Rollo. "Oh, that is the way they name books," said Mary ; " father told me one day. They name them according to the number of times that they fold the paper in making them. If they fold it only once, like a newspaper, it is folio. If they fold it twice it is quarto ; and that makes a book like our great Bible." While Mary was saying this, she cut her papers in two again, where they were folded last, and then she folded them again. And so she went on, until at length the number of thicknesses became so great that she could not cut them very well, and then she took half at a time. Thus, in a short time, she had cut the whole sheet into small squares, about big enough for a bag, and these lay together in a pile before her. Then she said, "Now I will do the other sheet." But Rollo was desirous of seeing some of the bags pasted first, and he proposed that 171 Mary should paste what she had cut, before she cut any more. " No," said Mary; " that would not be pro- ceeding systematically." "Why?" saidRollo. "Because," said Mary, "we must finish one kind of work before we begin to do any of a different kind. You see now I have got the paper and the scissors all here, and I can finish cutting out the papers best now." So Mary cut out the other sheet just as she did the first, and piled up the squares all be- fore her upon the bench, and then gave the scissors back to Nathan. These papers now were large enough to make a whole bag of. Rollo thought that she was going to paste two together to make one bag; but she showed him that one would be large enough folded over again. She accord- ingly took up a considerable number at a time, and folded them over, and cut them with her scissors, in such a manner that the edges of the under halves projected beyond the edges* of the upper halves. Then she showed Rollo how to paste them. She took some of Rollo' s gum-arabic, made very thick and stiff, and with it pasted the 172 ROLLo's VACATION. edges that projected, and then showed Rollo how to fold them over and press them down. " Now," said she, " Rollo, you may take this bundle and go out to the other end of the bench, and paste them while I cut out the rest." Rollo did so, talking all the time with Mary and Thanny, who sat still upon the corner of the bench, cutting. Rollo soon began to be surprised to see how fast he was making bags. " I have made six already, Mary," said he. "Yes," said Mary; "that is because we went to work systematically. We are making them all together, and so we work to advan- tage." Presently Mary came, with the rest of her papers cut out, to the end of the bench where Rollo was working; and Nathan, when he saw them going away from where he was sitting, wanted to come and paste too. "Oh no, Nathan," said Rollo; "you stay and cut paper." But Nathan threw down his scissors, and began to get up to come to Mary and Rollo. " Now what shall we do?" said Rollo, in a desponding tone. " He will come and spoil all our pasting." 173 " Oh no," said Mary. " We will manage it We will let him paste too." So Mary moved away some of the papers of seeds that were nearest to the place where she and Rollo were at work, and thus made a place for Nathan. " Oh dear me," said Rollo. " He can't paste — he will only spoil the bags." , " No matter," said Mary. "We have got so many we can let him spoil one or two." So Mary told Nathan she would show him how to paste; and while Rollo was folding down and pressing one which he had just pasted, Mary pasted hers, talking all the time to Nathan, telling him first he must do so, and then so, and then fold it down so. Nathan looked on, very much interested; and after she had pasted one or two bags she let him have the brush. Rollo began to want it before Nathan was done, and he said he wished they had more brushes. But Mary said they could get along with it, without being detained much. When Nathan had got his bag pasted, it took him some time to fold over the edges and press them down. While he was busy about this, Rollo and Mary got several more bags pasted; and then at length Rollo asked if it 15* 174 hollo's vacation. would not be a good plan to spread them out in the sun to dry. Mary said* it would be an excellent plan. She looked round and saw that the sun was shining in at the great barn door, so as to cover a large square space upon the floor. Rollo got a broom and swept this clean, and then Mary said that Rollo might let Nathan help him put the bags down in the sun. Nathan was much pleased with this plan, and Mary lifted him down from the bench. Rollo showed Nathan how to lay the bags down upon the floor, and then he and Mary stood at the bench making the bags ; and as fast as they finished them Nathan would carry them and spread them in the sun. They worked so for some time, and manu- factured their bags quite rapidly. Presently they set Nathan at work to turn the bags over, so as to dry the other side. The bags, however, did not need much drying, for the gum they had used was very thick, and it did not wet the paper very much. Thus half an hour passed away, at the end of which time they had made all the bags. " Now," said Mary, " we can begin to put the seeds into those that are the driest, but we must write the names upon the outside ROLLO'S VACATION. 175 of the bags as fast as we put them in ; and so I will go in and get a pen and ink, while you look over the bags and pick out those that are driest. So Mary went in after the pen and ink, and Rollo looked over the bags ; and wherever he found one that was dry he gave it to Na- than, and he carried it to the bench. When Mary came back, she and Rollo went to the bench, and Rollo began to fill the bags with seeds, and to fold over the top and paste it down. As fast as he did this he handed the bag to Mary, and she wrote the name of the seed upon the back of the bag. Where the seeds were large, they put in enough to fill the bag ; but where they were small they put,in only a few, about as many as they would want to plant of one kind in one place. Pretty soon Nathan became tired of having nothing to do, and he came up to the bench, and, putting his hands upon the edge, stood up upon tiptoe, trying to see. So Mary looked around to see if they had not got more than they should want of some kinds of seeds, so that she could give Nathan some to put into his bag. As she looked over the papers, Rollo seemed 176 to think there were none that they could spare very well ; but presently he thought of a plan. "I will run out into the garden," said he, " and get him a great sunflower, and let him get out the seeds himself. They will be very good to fill up his bag." Mary approved of this plan, and away Rollo went. Presently he returned with a large sunflower, the leaves and little flowerets dropping off, and the black seeds shining m patches all over its face. He broke this up and gave some pieces to Nathan, and showed him how he must rub out the seeds. Nathan was well satisfied with this arrangement, and sat down and amused himself a long time with his seeds and his bag. At length, however, he got tired again, and, laying down his things, came back, and wanted to come to the bench again. He said he wanted to carry some more bags to dry. So Mary handed him the bags which were finished; and as the top of each had been pasted down over, she thought it would be well to have them lie in the sun again a few minutes. So Nathan found a very pleasant employment, for some time, in carrying the bags and putting them down upon the floor. ROLLO'S VACATION. 177 At last the work was done. The bags were all rilled, and the seeds were all used, except a few of the most common kinds, and those they threw away. Mary then sent Rollo in for a small basket, and they put all the bags into it. They also gathered up all the loose papers, and laid them away together where they could get them again, if they should want to gather more seeds some other day. The children then walked along together into the house, Nathan coming after them with the basket of seeds, which Mary had given him to carry. It was now nearly sup- per-time. As there was a prospect of a cool evening, Rollo and Mary made a little fire in the parlor ; Nathan standing by and looking on with pleasure to see the curling smoke and blue flame bursting out from among the chips and shavings. " What a beautiful boy Nathan has been this afternoon," said Rollo. "What a good boy, yon mean," said Mary. ^Yes," said Rollo; "he has not troubled us at all." "And don't you know the reason?" said Mary. 178 "No," replied Rollo. " Why, we have anticipated him."' . " What do you mean by that ?" " Why, to anticipate is to do something beforehand. If now you should hear father coming, and should go and place a chair for him by the fire, you would anticipate his wishes. If you should wait till he comes in and tells you to get a chair for him, then you would not anticipate him. So if you should give Nathan a piece of bread as soon as he gets up in the morning, before he had asked for it, that would be anticipating his wishes for bread." " Is that it ? " said Rollo. " Well, I think it is an excellent way." "Yes; it is. Now the way we have kept Nathan pleasant is, we have not waited till he got impatient and fretful because he had nothing to do. We have got him amusements beforehand." Nathan stood by, listening very attentively to this discourse, with his hands behind him, and his eyes fixed, first on Rollo, then on Mary. He knew that they were talking about him, but he could not understand one word of what they were saying, from begin- 179 ning to end. So he turned away when they stopped talking and marched off singing. " I'll go and get him some playthings now,' 1 said Rollo. "Here, Nathan, I will get yon your blocks. ' r ' So saying, he opened a closet door, and from under a shelf there he pulled out a bas- ket of blocks. They were Nathan's blocks. Rollo had pasted some letters upon these blocks some days.- before. He had cut out the letters from a newspaper which his father had given him, and pasted them upon the blocks, one upon the middle of each side. He thought that this would help Nathan learn the letters, as he would always see them when he was playing with his blocks. Nathan liked the blocks with the letters pasted upon them very much, but he seemed to like picking the letters off better than learn- ing them ; for the first day he had them he picked off four, before Rollo knew what he was doing. His mother then told him that he must not pick off the letters, and Rollo got his gum- bottle and pasted them on as well as he could, though they were somewhat torn. Still they came off pretty easily, because Rollo only pasted the letters at the four corners, and 180 therefore the paper did not stick to the wood in the middle. Notwithstanding his mother's prohibition, however, he did pull off one or two more ; and his mother punished him by- making him sit down in a corner of the room alone for some time. After that he did not pull off any more.. • When Rollo, therefore, gave Nathan his blocks at this time, he did net expect that he would pull off any of the letters ; and he left him playing with them before the fire, while he and Mary began to set the table for supper. Rollo brought out the cups and plates and knives from the closet, and Mary arranged them properly upon the table. While they were doing this, Mary talked with Rollo about Nathan. She told him that he was old enough to take a good deal of care of his little brother. " If you take pains to anticipate his wishes and wants," said she, "you can keep him pleasant a long time; and then, besides, Rollo, you can teach him a good many things." "Canl?" said Rollo. . :• " Yes ; you can explain things to him, and when he does anything wrong you can tell him why it is wrong. You see he is a little fellow yet, and does not know much." It was not long before a case occurred by ROLLO'S VACATION. 181 which Mary showed Rollo how an older bro- ther or sister could teach a younger one ; for it happened that as Rollo was passing back and forth to the closet, he cast his eyes down to the basket, and saw a block with four little bits of paper pasted upon it near the middle. He took it up, and found that they were the four corners of one of his letters, the middle part having been torn out. " There, now, Thanny has been tearing off another of my letters," said he, taking up the block. " Did you, Thanny?" said Mary, coming up to the basket and taking the block from Rollo' s hand. "No," said Nathan. " Did not you tear it off?" said Mary. "No," said Nathan, positively. "I did not." Mary looked at him, somewhat uncertain whether he was telling the truth or not. "I know he did," said Rollo. " Perhaps he did not," said Mary. "It may have been one which was torn off before." Rollo was not convinced, but he went on with his work ; and presently, when the table was set, Mary told Nathan to pick up his blocks and put them in the basket, so as to be 16 182 ready for supper. Rollo helped him do this, and after they had got the blocks all in Rollo looked upon the carpet, and there, behold, the very letter was lying which came off of the block. Mary saw it too. She took it up, and then looked in the basket to find the block which it belonged to. The letter was a G, and the corners were off. They had been left stick- ing to the block. Mary applied the letter to the block, and found that the corners of it fit- ted exactly to the corners which had been left adhering to the block. Mary then led little Thanny to a chair by the side of the fire, and showed him the block and the letter. He stdod before her, looking at them as she held them in her lap, and with an expression of great seriousness in his coun- tenance. " You tore it off, Nathan, didn't you?" " Yes," said Nathan. "But," said Mary, "a little while ago I asked you if you tore it off, and you said no ; but you did tear it off. That is naughty. It is naughty for you to tell me you did not tear it off when you did." Nathan looked on with a countenance of considerable concern, but he did not speak. 183 " That is a lie" said Mary, slowly and seri- ously; "and a lie is very naughty and wicked*. God heard you tell the lie." Here Nathan looked up all around the room, and said, " I guess not, — I don't see him anywhere." " No, you can't see him, but he sees you, and he knows when you tell a lie. God does not love little boys that say they didn't when they did." Nathan now began to look anxious and distressed. He took up a corner of his apron to wipe away a tear that started into his eye, and said, with a mournful voice, " I am sorry I made a lie. I will not make a lie any more." Mary then told him that God would forgive him if he was sorry-, and took him up in her lap. Rollo came, and took the block and the letter and put them into the basket, and had just time to put the basket away, when his father and mother came in to supper. 184 CONCLUSION. The first week of Rollo's vacation passed away very rapidly, but by that time he began to get a little out of employment. About the beginning of the second week, his father said one evening that he was going to send Jonas into the city to get a box which came up the river in a packet. Rollo asked his father to let him go too, and after some hesitation he consented. " Do you think you can get ready without making any trouble?" said his father. " Yes, sir," said Rollo. "One great objection- to letting boys go anywhere," said his father, "is, that they make a great deal of trouble sometimes about being dressed. Now you must be careful and not give Mary any trouble. Mary, I should like to have you get him ready before break- fast to-morrow morning." Accordingly the next morning, at breakfast- time, Rollo came into the room with bright looks, and neatly dressed, Mary following him. ROLLO'S VACATION. 185 " Mary," said he, " can't I do anything for you in the city?" "Yes," said Mary; "I want a new draw- ing-pencil. Could you get me one?" " Oh yes," said Rollo. " I can buy a pen- cil well enough, I know." " Well, I will get you the money." So Mary went to a table at the side of the room, where her workbox stood. She opened the box and took out a little purse, and from the purse took a quarter of a dollar, and handed it to Rollo. She gave him the direc- tions, and had just finished telling him where to go, when his father and mother came in to breakfast. After breakfast Rollo and his father went out to the yard, and there they found the horse already harnessed, and fastened to a j)Ost. Jonas was just opening the great gate. Rollo went to the wagon and began to climb in, but his father told him to stop a minute, for he wanted first to give them their direc- tions. So Jonas and Rollo came to him, where he stood, upon the piazza. He had a paper in his hand, on which was written his instruc- tions to Jonas, and directions to the places where he wished him to go. ' The city was h* 16* 186 hollo's vacation. not a very large city, and both Rollo and Jo- nas had often been there. He charged Jonas to be very careful of Rollo when they went down to the wharf, and also to be very care- ful of his driving when he should get into the streets of the city. Then, finally, when he had finished his directions, he took out a dol- lar and handed it to Jonas. " The freight of the box," said he, "I sup- pose will be a quarter of a dollar, and the rest will pay for your dinner. You can stop at the Eagle tavern." "I think, sir," said Jonas, "we can get along without spending anything for dinner." "Oh, you must have something to eat." " Yes, sir ; and I have got Dorothy to put us up some bread and butter," said Jonas, pointing to a small parcel done up in brown paper, which was in a little basket in the front part of the wagon. "Very well," said Hollo's father. "But then the horse?" " I have got some oats for him," said Jonas, " under the seat." Rollo looked back and forth, first at Jonas, then at his father, during this dialogue. The latter smiled as Jonas told him of his arrange- ments, and, after a moment's pause, said, 187 " Very well ; if you get along without ex- pense, you may have the three quarters of a dollar to spend for anything you want, half for you and half for Rollo. Now get into the wagon." There was a good comfortable buffalo-skin Upon the back seat, and another in the bottom of the wagon before. Rollo and Jonas both had their great coats on ; for it was a coolj though pleasant morning. Rollo clambered up while Jonas unfastened the horse. Then he also took his seat, and the boys drew up the buffalo around them. Jonas drove the horse slowly out of the yard, and then, turn- ing round into the road, set off upon the trot, Rollo bowing a good bye to his mother and sister, who stood smiling at the window. They rode along pleasantly over -a smooth and level road, with fields, and trees, and farm- houses on each side. Rollo asked Jonas how far it was to the city. He said it was about fifteen miles ; but it was about twelve to the tavern where he was going to stop to dinner. Rollo asked what tavern it was. Jonas said it was called the Roadside Hotel. "But I thought," said Rollo, "you was not going to stop at any tavern, and so save the money." 188 " But they don't make us pay anything at the tavern I am going to stop at." " Not pay !" said Rollo. " Why not?" " Oh, because. I have stopped there a good many times, and I never had to pay any- thing." Rollo thought this was strange; but at length, when they had rode about twelve miles, Jonas said he had almost come to the hotel. So he turned off into a narrow road, that led through a little wood, into a valley. At the bottom of the valley was a brook; and when Jonas reached it, he turned off out of the road, upon a level piece of grass by the side of an old wall, with trees hanging over it. It was just large enough to hold the wagon. "This is the Roadside Hotel," said he, laying down the reins and jumping out of the wagon. They watered the horse at the brook, and then gave him his oats upon the grass, by the side of the wall. Jonas and Rollo then went under the bushes to the bank of the brook, where they sat down upon some flat stones and ate their bread and butter. Rollo liked the Roadside Hotel very much.* * See Frontispiece. RCLLO'S VACATION. 189 They waited here some time, and then got into the wagon and rode into the city. Rollo had a fine time going down to the wharf, after the "box, and Jonas told him a great deal about the sails and rigging of the vessel. They looked about afterwards some time to find something to buy with their money, but could not exactly suit themselves. At length, how- ever, they went to the bookstore, to buy Mary's pencil ; and then, after Rollo had bought the pencil, he was just going out of the store, when he saw a book, pretty long, and with thin covers, open at a very handsome pic- ture. " What is the price of this picture-book?'' said Rollo. "It is a drawing-book," said the man; " not a picture-book. There are four of them that go together, and the price is half a dollar." "A drawing-book?" said Jonas, going. up to look at it. "I should like to learn to draw." "'Well," said the man, "all you have got to do is to take these books, and begin at the beginning, and copy all these drawings care- fully." ■LJ5B «c: ««*$ 3^ 2|S~ < ' * - ^-tm 1 ...t - — ^CjC3* •