Cousin Lucy's Conversations

Royal attempted to roll this box out; but he found it much harder to move than the barrel was. This was partly because it was larger and heavier, and partly because it would not roll, on account of its square form.

However, they contrived to get it out, and to work it along through a gate which led into a large outer yard. By this time, however, they both got tired, and Royal said that he meant to get some rollers, and roll it along.

So he brought some round sticks of wood from the wood pile, for rollers; and with a bar of wood, which he found also upon the wood pile, he pried the box up, and Lucy put two rollers under it, one at each end. They also placed another roller a little way before the box. Royal then went behind the box, and with his bar of wood for a lever, he pried the box along; and he found it moved very easily upon the rollers.

Lucy wanted a lever too, – and she went and got one; and then they could both pry the box along, one at each corner, behind. They had to stop occasionally to adjust the rollers, when they worked out of place; but, by patience and perseverance, they gradually moved the box along until they came to the gate leading into the inner yard, where the place for the coop had been chosen.

They found some difficulty in getting it through the gate, because it was too large to go through in any way but by being lifted up upon its side. Royal, however, succeeded in lifting it up, and then in getting it through; and after that it was but a short work to move it along upon its rollers to its place of destination.

Royal sat down upon the great, flat stone, and said that he was tired, and that he had a great mind not to make a coop after all, – it was such hard work.

“Then,” said Lucy, “I don’t think you will be very persevering.”

“I don’t believe you know what persevering means,” said Royal.

“Yes, I do,” said Lucy; “Miss Anne told me. It is when you begin to make a coop, and then give up before you get it done.”

Royal burst into a fit of laughter.

“No,” said Lucy; “not that, exactly. I mean it is when you don’t give up – and I think you ought not to give up now – making this coop.”

“Well,” said Royal, “I believe you are right. It would be very foolish to give up our coop now, when we have got all the hardest part of our work done. I’ll go and get the corner stakes.”

Royal then went and made four strong stakes for the four corners, and brought them to the place, and drove them down into the ground. He took care to have them at just such a distance from each other, as that they should come as near as possible to the four corners of the box, when it should be placed over them.

Then he drove a row of stakes along where the sides of the box would come, between the corner stakes on each side; and he drove these all down a little lower than the corner stakes, so that, when the box should be placed over them, it would rest upon the corners, and not upon the sides. Before he closed the last side, he rolled the barrel in, and placed it along by the fence. Then he put a roller under it, on the outer side, – so that thus the barrel was confined, and could not move either way.

“Now, Lucy, we are ready for a raising,” said Royal; “but we shall never be able to get the box up, by ourselves, if we work all day.”

They concluded to ask Joanna to come out again, and help them get the box up. She came very willingly, and all three of them together easily succeeded in putting the heavy box into its place; and Royal had the satisfaction of perceiving that it fitted very well. Joanna then said that, for aught she could see, their structure would make a very safe and convenient coop.

When their father and mother came to see their work that evening, their father said that it would do very well for a coop, but that it was too late in the year to get hens.

“If I get some hens for you,” said he, “it will be several weeks before they lay eggs enough to hatch; and then the chickens would not have grown enough to get out of the way of the cold of the winter. It is full as late now as any brood of chickens ought to come out.”

Royal and Lucy looked greatly disappointed at this unexpected announcement. It was a difficulty that had not occurred to them at all. Their father was always very much pressed with his business, and could seldom give much time or attention to their plays; but they thought that, if they could make all the arrangements, so that they could take care of the hens without troubling him, there would be no difficulty at all. They did not know but that hens would lay and hatch as well and as safely at one time as at another.

Lucy had some corn in her hand. Her father asked her what that was for. She said it was to put into the coop for the hens. She had asked Joanna for some, and she had given it to her, because she said she wanted some corn all ready.

Here her mother whispered something to her father, which Lucy and Royal did not hear.

“Yes,” said he, in a low tone, in reply, speaking to her mother, “perhaps I can; very likely.”

Royal wondered what they were talking about, but he did not ask.

“Well, Lucy,” said her father, “throw your corn into the coop, and about the door; perhaps you can catch some hens in it. Who knows but that it will do for a trap?”

“O father,” said Royal, “you are only making fun of us.”

“Why, you have caught squirrels, haven’t you, time and again? and why not hens?”

“Nonsense, father,” said Royal; “there are no hens to come and get caught in traps.”

“Perhaps, Royal,” said Lucy, as she scattered her corn into the coop, “Perhaps. – We will put in the corn, at least, – and leave the door open.”

So Lucy put the corn in and about the door; and then the party all went away laughing. Lucy forgot her disappointment in the hope of catching some hens, and Royal in the amusement excited by such an idea as setting a trap for poultry.

CONVERSATION IX

EQUIVOCATION

Immediately after breakfast, the next morning, Lucy went out to look at the coop, to see if any hens had been caught; and when she came back, and said that there were none there, her father said that she must not despair too soon, – sometimes a trap was out several nights before anything was taken.

That day, after Royal had finished his lessons, Lucy called upon him to fulfil his promise of making her a garden.

“Why, Lucy,” said Royal, “I don’t think I am under any obligation to make you any garden.”

“Yes, Royal,” said Lucy, “you promised me that you would, if I would help you make the coop.”

“Well, that was because I expected that we could have some hens; but, now that we cannot have any hens, the coop will not do us any good at all; and I don’t see that I ought to make you a garden for nothing.”

Lucy did not know how to answer this reasoning, but she was very far from being satisfied with it. She, however, had nothing to say, but that he had agreed to make her a garden, and that she thought he ought to do it.

Royal said that he meant if they got any hens to put into the coop; and Lucy said she did not believe that he meant any such thing.

Royal was wrong in refusing thus to fulfil his agreement. And the reason which he gave was not a good reason. He did, indeed, expect, when he made the promise, that he should have some hens to put into his hen-coop; but he did not make his promise on that condition. The promise was absolute – if she would help him make his coop, he would make her a garden. When she had finished helping him make the coop, her part of the agreement was fulfilled, and he was bound to fulfil his.

At last Lucy said,

“If you don’t make me a garden, I shall go and tell Joanna of you.”

“Very well,” said Royal; “we will go and leave it to Joanna, and let her decide.”

They went in and stated the case to Joanna. When she heard all the facts, she decided at once against Royal.

“Certainly you ought to make her a garden,” said Joanna. “There being no hens has nothing to do with it. You took the risk. You took the risk.”

Lucy did not understand what Joanna meant by taking the risk, but she understood that the decision was in her favor, and she ran off out of the kitchen in great glee. Royal followed her more slowly.

“Well, Lucy,” said he, “I’ll make you a garden. I’d as lief make it as not.”

He accordingly worked very industriously upon the garden for more than an hour. He dug up all the ground with his hoe, and then raked it over carefully. Then he marked out an alley through the middle of it, for Lucy to walk in, when she was watering her flowers. He also divided the sides into little beds, though the paths between the beds were too narrow to walk in.

“Now,” said he, “Lucy, for the flowers.”

So they set off upon an expedition after flowers. They got some in the garden, and some in the fields. Some Royal took up by the roots; but most of them were broken off at the stem, so as to be stuck down into the ground. Lucy asked him if they would grow; and he said that he did not know that they would grow much, but they would keep bright and beautiful as long as she would water them.

Miss Anne lent Lucy her watering-pot, to water her flowers, and she said that, after dinner, she would go out and see her garden. Accordingly, after dinner, they made preparations to go. While Miss Anne was putting on her sun-bonnet, Royal waited for her; but Lucy ran out before them. In a moment, however, after she had gone out, she came running back in the highest state of excitement, calling out,