Rollo at Work

The next morning, James and Rollo went together to the farmer's. They found George at the gate waiting for them, with his dog Nappy. As the boys were walking along into the yard, George said that his dog Nappy was the best friend he had in the world, except his lamb.

“Your lamb!” said James; “have you got a lamb?”

“Yes, a most beautiful little lamb. When he was very little indeed, he was weak and sick, and father thought he would not live; and he told me I might have him if I wanted him. I made a bed for him in the corner of the kitchen.”

“O, I wish I had one,” said James. “Where is he now?”

“O, he is grown up large, and he plays around in the field behind the house. If I go out there with a little pan of milk, and call him so,—Co-nan, Co-nan, Co-nan,—he comes running up to me to get the milk.”

“I wish I could see him,” said James.

“Well, you can,” said George. “My sister Ann will go and show him to you.”

So George called his sister Ann, and asked her if she should be willing to go and show James and Rollo his lamb, while he went and got the little wagon ready to go for the apples.

Ann said she would, and she went into the house, and got a pan with a little milk in the bottom of it, and walked along carefully, James and Rollo following her. When they had got round to the other side of the house, they found there a little gate, leading out into a field where there were green grass and little clumps of trees.

Ann went carefully through. James and Rollo stopped to look. She walked on a little way, and looked around every where, but she saw no lamb. Presently she began to call out, as George had said, “Co-nan, Co-nan, Co-nan.”

In a minute or two, the lamb began to run towards her out of a little thicket of bushes; and it drank the milk out of the pan. James and Rollo were very much pleased, but they did not go towards the lamb. Ann let it drink all it wanted, and then it walked away.

Then James ran back to the yard. He found that George and Rollo had gone into the garden-house. He went in there after them, and found that they were getting a little wagon ready to draw out into the field. There were three barrels standing by the door of the garden-house, and George told them that they were to put their apples into them.

The Meadow-Russet

There was a beautiful meadow down a little way from Farmer Cropwell's house, and at the farther side of it, across a brook, there stood a very large old apple-tree, which bore a kind of apples called russets, and they called the tree the meadow-russet. These were the apples that the boys were going to gather. They soon got ready, and began to walk along the path towards the meadow. Two of them drew the wagon, and the others carried long poles to knock off the apples with.

As the party were descending the hill towards the meadow, they saw before them, coming around a turn in the path, a cart and oxen, with a large boy driving. They immediately began to call out to one another to turn out, some pulling one way and some the other, with much noise and vociferation. At last they got fairly out upon the grass, and the cart went by. The boy who was driving it said, as he went by, smiling,

“Who is the head of that gang?”

James and Rollo looked at him, wondering what he meant. George laughed.

“What does he mean?” said Rollo.

“He means,” said George, laughing, “that we make so much noise and confusion, that we cannot have any head.”

“Any head?” said James.

“Yes,—any master workman.”

“Why,” said Rollo, “do we need a master workman?”

“No,” said George, “I don't believe we do.”

So the boys went along until they came to the brook. They crossed the brook on a bridge of planks, and were very soon under the spreading branches of the great apple-tree.

The Harvesting Party.

Insubordination

The boys immediately began the work of getting down the apples. But, unluckily, there were but two poles, and they all wanted them. George had one, and James the other, and Rollo came up to James, and took hold of his pole, saying,

“Here, James, I will knock them down; you may pick them up and put them in the wagon.”

“No,” said James, holding fast to his pole; “no, I'd rather knock them down.”

“No,” said Rollo, “I can knock them down better.”

“But I got the pole first, and I ought to have it.”

Rollo, finding that James was not willing to give up his pole, left him, and went to George, and asked George to let him have the pole; but George said he was taller, and could use it better than Rollo.

Rollo was a little out of humor at this, and stood aside and looked on. James soon got tired of his pole, and laid it down; and then Rollo seized it, and began knocking the apples off of the tree. But it fatigued him very much to reach up so high; and, in fact, they all three got tired of the poles very soon, and began picking up the apples.

But they did not go on any more harmoniously with this than with the other. After Rollo and James had thrown in several apples, George came and turned them all out.

“You must not put them in so,” said he; “all the good and bad ones together.”

“How must we put them in?” asked Rollo.

“Why, first we must get a load of good, large, whole, round apples, and then a load of small and wormy ones. We only put the good ones into the barrels.”

“And what do you do with the little ones?” said James.

“O, we give them to the pigs.”

“Well,” said Rollo, “we can pick them all up together now, and separate them when we get home.”

As he said this, he threw in a handful of small apples among the good ones which George had been putting in.

“Be still,” said George; “you must not do so. I tell you we must not mix them at all.” And he poured the apples out upon the ground again.

“O, I'll tell you what we will do,” said James; “we will get a load of little ones first, and then the big ones. I want to see the pigs eat them up.”

But George thought it was best to take the big ones first, and so they had quite a discussion about it, and a great deal of time was lost before they could agree.

Thus they went on for some time, discussing every thing, and each wanting to do the work in his own way. They did not dispute much, it is true, for neither of them wished to make difficulty. But each thought he might direct as well as the others, and so they had much talk and clamor, and but very little work. When one wanted the wagon to be on one side of the tree, the others wanted it the other; and when George thought it was time to draw the load along towards home, Rollo and James thought it was not nearly full enough. So they were all pulling in different directions, and made very slow progress in their work. It took them a long time to get their wagon full.

When they got the load ready, and were fairly set off on the road, they went on smoothly and pleasantly for a time, until they got up near the door of the garden-house, when Rollo was going to turn the wagon round so as to back it up to the door, and George began to pull in the other direction.

“Not so, Rollo,” said George; “go right up straight.”

“No,” said Rollo, “it is better to back it up.”

James had something to say, too; and they all pulled, and talked loud and all together, so that there was nothing but noise and clamor. In the mean time, the wagon, being pulled every way, of course did not move at all.

Subordination