Rollo at Work.

by Jacob Abbott.

LABOR LOST.

Elky.

When Rollo was between five and six years old, he was one day at work in his little garden, planting some beans. His father had given him a little square bed in a corner of the garden, which he had planted with corn two days before. He watched his corn impatiently for two days, and, as it did not come up, he thought he would plant it again with beans. He ought to have waited longer.

He was sitting on a little cricket, digging holes in the ground, when he heard a sudden noise. He started up, and saw a strange, monstrous head looking at him over the garden wall. He jumped up, and ran as fast as he could towards the house.

It happened that Jonas, the boy, was at that time at work in the yard, cutting wood, and he called out, "What is the matter, Rollo?"

Rollo had just looked round, and seeing that the head remained still where it was, he was a little ashamed of his fears; so at first he did not answer, but walked along towards Jonas.

"That's the colt," said Jonas; "should not you like to go and see him?"

Rollo looked round again, and true enough, it was a small horse's head that was over the wall. It looked smaller now than it did when he first saw it.

Now there was behind the garden a green field, with scattered trees upon it, and a thick wood at the farther side. Jonas took Rollo by the hand, and led him back into the garden, towards the colt. The colt took his head back over the fence as they approached, and walked away. He was now afraid of Rollo. Jonas and Rollo climbed up upon a stile which was built there against the fence, and saw the colt trotting away slowly down towards the wood, looking back at Rollo and Jonas, by bending his head every minute, first on one side, and then on the other.

"There comes father," said Rollo.

Jonas looked and saw Rollo's father coming out of the wood, leading a horse. The colt and the horse had been feeding together in the field, and Rollo's father had caught the horse, for he wanted to take a ride. Rollo's father had a little basket in his hand, and when he saw the colt coming towards him, he held it up and called him, "_Elky, Elky, Elky, Elky_," for the colt's name was Elkin, though they often called him Elky. Elkin walked slowly up to the basket, and put his nose in it. He found that there were some oats in it; and Rollo's father poured them out on the gra.s.s, and then stood by, patting Elky's head and neck while he ate them. Rollo thought his head looked beautifully; he wondered how he could have been afraid of it.

Rollo's father led the horse across the field, through a gate, into a green lane which led along the side of the garden towards the house; and Rollo said he would run round into the lane and meet him. So he jumped off of the stile, and ran up the garden, and Jonas followed him, and went back to his work.

Rollo ran round to meet his father, who was coming up the green lane, leading the horse with a rope round his neck.

"Father," said Rollo, "could you put me on?"

His father smiled, and lifted Rollo up carefully, and placed him on the horse's back. Then he walked slowly along.

"Father," said Rollo, "are you going away?"

"Yes," said he, "I am going to ride away in the wagon."

"Why did not you catch Elky, and let him draw you?"

"Elky? O, Elky is not old enough to work."

"Not old enough to work!" said Rollo, "Why, he is pretty big. He is almost as big as the horse. I should think he could draw you alone in the wagon."

"Perhaps he is strong enough for that; but Elky has never learned to work yet."

"Never learned!" said Rollo, in great surprise. "Do horses have to _learn_ to work? Why, they have nothing to do but to pull."

"Why, suppose," said his father, "that he should dart off at once as soon as he is harnessed, and pull with all his strength, and furiously."

"O, he must not do so: he must pull gently and slowly."

"Well, suppose he pulls gently a minute, and then stops and looks round, and then I tell him to go on, and he pulls a minute again, and then stops and looks round."

"O no," said Rollo, laughing, "he must not do so; he must keep pulling steadily all the time."

"Yes, so you see he has something more to do than merely to pull; he must pull right, and he must be taught to do this. Besides, he must learn to obey all my various commands. Why, a horse needs to be taught to work as much as a boy."

"Why, father, I can work; and I have never been taught."

"O no," said his father, smiling, "you cannot work."

"I can plant beans," said Rollo.

Just then, Rollo, who was all this time riding on the horse, looked down from his high seat into a little bush by the side of the road, and saw there a little bunch that looked like a birdsnest; and he said, "O, father, please to take me down; I want to look at that birdsnest."

His father knew that he would not hurt the birdsnest; so he took him off of the horse, and put him on the ground. Then he walked on with the horse, and Rollo turned back to see the nest. He climbed up upon a log that lay by the side of the bush, and then gently opened the branches and looked in. Four little, unfledged birds lifted up their heads, and opened their mouths wide. They heard the noise which Rollo made, and thought it was their mother come to feed them.

"Ah, you little d.i.c.keys," said Rollo; "hungry, are you? _I_ have not got any thing for you to eat."

Rollo looked at them a little while, and then slowly got down and walked along up the lane, saying to himself, "_They_ are not big enough to work, at any rate, but _I_ am, I know, and I do not believe but that _Elky_ is."

Preparations.

When Rollo got back into the yard, he found his father just getting into the wagon to go away. Jonas stood by the horse, having just finished harnessing him.

"Father," said Rollo, "I can work. You thought I could not work, but I can. I am going to work to-day while you are gone."

"Are you?" said his father. "Very well; I should be glad to have you."

"What should you like to have me do?" asked Rollo.

"O, you may pick up chips, or pile that short wood in the shed. But stand back from the wheel, for I am going to start now."

So Rollo stood back, and his father drew up the reins which Jonas had just put into his hands, and guided the horse slowly and carefully out of the yard. Rollo ran along behind the wagon as far as the gate, to see his father go off, and stood there a few minutes, watching him as he rode along, until he disappeared at a turn in the road. He then came back to the yard, and sat down on a log by the side of Jonas, who was busily at work mending the wheelbarrow.

Rollo sat singing to himself for some time, and then he said,

"Jonas, father thinks I am not big enough to work; don't you think I am?"

"I don't know," said Jonas, hesitating. "You do not seem to be very industrious just now."

"O, I am resting now," said Rollo; "I am going to work pretty soon."