Rollo at Work

The next morning, his father said to him,

“Well, Rollo, you did very well yesterday; but doing right once is a very different thing from forming a habit of doing right. I can hardly expect you will succeed as well to-day; or, if you should to-day, that you will to-morrow.”

Rollo thought he should. His work was to pick up all the loose stones in the road, and carry them, in a basket, to a great heap of stones behind the barn. But he was not quite faithful. His father observed him playing several times. He did not speak to him, however, until the hour was over, and then he called him in.

“Rollo,” said he, “you have failed to-day. You have not been very idle, but have not been industrious; and the punishment which I have concluded to try first, is, to give you only bread and water for dinner.”

So, when dinner time came, and the family sat down to the good beefsteak and apple-pie which was upon the table, Rollo knew that he was not to come. He felt very unhappy, but he did not cry. His father called him, and cut off a good slice of bread, and put into his hands, and told him he might go and eat it on the steps of the back door. “If you should be thirsty,” he added, “you may ask Mary to give you some water.”

Rollo took the bread, and went out, and took his solitary seat on the stone step leading into the back yard, and, in spite of all his efforts to prevent it, the tears would come into his eyes. He thought of his guilt in disobeying his father, and he felt unhappy to think that his father and mother were seated together at their pleasant table, and that he could not come because he had been an undutiful son. He determined that he would never be unfaithful in his work again.

He went on, after this, several days, very well. His father gave him various kinds of work to do, and he began at last to find a considerable degree of satisfaction in doing it. He found, particularly, that he enjoyed himself a great deal more after his work than before, and whenever he saw what he had done, it gave him pleasure. After he had picked up the loose stones before the house, for instance, he drove his hoop about there, with unusual satisfaction; enjoying the neat and tidy appearance of the road much more than he would have done if Jonas had cleared it. In fact, in the course of a month, Rollo became quite a faithful and efficient little workman.

The Corporal's Again

“Now,” said his father to him one day, after he had been doing a fine job of wood-piling,—“now we will go and talk with the corporal about a wheelbarrow. Or do you think you could find the way yourself?”

Rollo said he thought he could.

“Very well, you may go; I believe I shall let you have a wheelbarrow now, and you can ask him how soon he can have it done.”

Rollo clapped his hands, and capered about, and asked his father how long he thought it would be before he could have it.

“O, you will learn,” said he, “when you come to talk with the corporal.”

“Do you think it will be a week?”

“I think it probable that he could make one in less than a week,” said his father, smiling.

“Well, how soon?” said Rollo.

“O, I cannot tell you: wait till you get to his shop, and then you will see.”

Rollo saw that, for some reason or other, his father was not inclined to talk about the time when he should have his wheelbarrow, but he could not think why; however, he determined to get the corporal to make it as quick as he could, at any rate.

It was about the middle of the afternoon that Rollo set off to go for his wheelbarrow. His mother told him he might go and get his cousin James to go with him if he chose. So he walked along towards the bridge, and, instead of turning at once off there to go towards the mill, he went on over the bridge towards the house where James lived. James came with him, and they walked back very pleasantly together.

When they got back across the bridge again, they turned off towards the mill, talking about the wheelbarrow. Rollo told James about his learning to work, and about his having seen the wheelbarrow at the corporal's, and how he trundled it about, and liked it very much.

“I should like to see it very much,” said James. “I suppose I can, when we get to the corporal's shop.”

“No,” said Rollo, “he said that that wheelbarrow was engaged; and I suppose it has been taken away before this time.”

Just then the corner of the corporal's shop began to corner into view, and presently the door came in sight, and James called out,

“Yes, yes, there it is. I see it standing up by the side of the door.”

“No,” said Rollo, “that is not it. That is a green one.”

“What color was the wheelbarrow that you saw?” asked James.

“It was not any color; it was not painted,” said Rollo. “I wonder whose that wheelbarrow can be?”

The boys walked along, and presently came to the door of the shop. They opened the door, and went in. There was nobody there.

Various articles were around the room. There was a bench at one side, near a window; and there were a great many tools upon it, and upon shelves over it. On another side of the shop was a lathe, a curious sort of a machine, that the corporal used a great deal, in some of his nicest work. Then there were a good many things there, which were sent in to be mended, such as chairs, a spinning-wheel, boys' sleds, and one or two large wheelbarrows.

The boys walked around the room a few minutes, looking at the various things; and at last Rollo spied another little wheelbarrow, on a shelf. It was very much like the one at the door, only it was painted green.

Rollo said that that one looked exactly like the one he trundled when he was there before, only it was green.

“Perhaps he has painted it since,” said James; “let us go to the door, and look at the other one, and see which is the biggest.”

So they went to the door, and found that the blue one was a little the biggest.

Just then they saw the corporal coming across the road, with a hatchet in his hand. He had been to grind it at the mill, where there was a grindstone, that went round by water.

“Ah, boys,” said he, “how do you do? Have you come for your wheelbarrow, Rollo.”

“Yes, sir,” said Rollo; “how soon can you get it done?”

“Done? it is done now,” said he; “there it is.” And he took the blue wheelbarrow, which was at the door, and set it down in the path.

“That is not mine,” said Rollo, “is it?”

“Yes,” said the corporal; “your father spoke for it a week ago.”

Rollo took hold of his wheelbarrow, and began to wheel it along. He liked it very much.

Rollo Took Hold of His Wheelbarrow.

James said he wished he could have one too, and while Rollo was talking with the corporal, he could not help looking at the green one on the shelf, which he thought was just about as big as he should like.

The corporal asked him if he wanted to see that one, and he took it down for him. James took hold of the handles, and tried it a little, back and forth on the floor, and then he said it was just about big enough for him.

“Who is this for?” said he to the corporal.

“I do not know,” said the corporal; “a gentleman bespoke it some time ago. I do not know what his name is.”

Just then he seemed to see somebody out of the window.

“Ah! here he comes now!” he exclaimed suddenly.

Just then the door opened, and whom should the boys see coming in, but their uncle George!

“Why, James,” said he, “have you got hold of your wheelbarrow already?”

“My wheelbarrow!” said James. “Is this mine?”