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Transcriber's note:
The table of contents has been added for the reader's convenience.
Punctuation and obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
CALEB IN THE COUNTRY.
A Story for Children.
by
JACOB ABBOTT,
Author of "The Child at Home."
[Illustration: Caleb in the country.]
Halifax:
Milner and Sowerby.
1852.
PREFATORY NOTICE.
The object of this little work, and of others of its family, which may
perhaps follow, is, like that of the "Rollo Books," to furnish useful
and instructive reading to young children. The aim is not so directly to
communicate knowledge, as it is to develop the moral and intellectual
powers,--to cultivate habits of discrimination and correct reasoning,
and to establish sound principles of moral conduct. The "Rollo Books"
embrace principally intellectual and moral discipline; "Caleb," and the
others of its family, will include also _religious_ training, according
to the evangelical views of Christian truth which the author has been
accustomed to entertain, and which he has inculcated in his more serious
writings.
J. A.
CALEB IN THE COUNTRY
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I Caleb's Discovery 5
CHAPTER II Trouble 30
CHAPTER III Building the Mole 43
CHAPTER IV A Discussion 54
CHAPTER V The Story of Blind Samuel 61
CHAPTER VI Engineering 68
CHAPTER VII The Sofa 74
CHAPTER VIII The Cart Ride 90
CHAPTER IX The Fire 101
CHAPTER X The Captive 123
CHAPTER XI Mary Anna 129
CHAPTER XII The Walk 148
CHAPTER XIII The Junk 166
POETRY 189
CHAPTER I.
CALEB'S DISCOVERY.
Caleb was a bright-looking, blue-eyed boy, with auburn hair and happy
countenance. And yet he was rather pale and slender. He had been sick.
His father and mother lived in Boston, but now he was spending the
summer at Sandy River country, with his grandmother. His father thought
that if he could run about a few months in the open air, and play among
the rocks and under the trees, he would grow more strong and healthy,
and that his cheeks would not look so pale.
His grandmother made him a blue jacket with bright buttons. _She_ liked
metal buttons, because they would wear longer than covered ones, but
_he_ liked them because they were more beautiful. "Besides," said he, "I
can see my face in them, grandmother."
Little Caleb then went to the window, so as to see his face plainer. He
stood with his back to the window, and held the button so that the light
from the window could shine directly upon it.
"Why grandmother," said Caleb, "I cannot see now so well as I could
before."
"That is because your face is turned away from the light," said she.
"And the button is turned _towards_ the light," said Caleb.
"But when you want to see any thing reflected in a glass, you must have
the light shine upon the thing you want to see reflected, not upon the
glass itself; and I suppose it is so with a bright button."
Then Caleb turned around, so as to have his _face_ towards the light;
and he found that he could then see it reflected very distinctly. His
grandmother went on with her work, and Caleb sat for some time in
silence.
The house that Caleb lived in was in a narrow rocky valley. A stream of
water ran over a sandy bed, in front of the house, and a rugged mountain
towered behind it. Across the stream, too, there was a high, rocky hill,
which was in full view from the parlour window. This hill was covered
with wild evergreens, which clung to their sides, and to the interstices
of the rocks; and mosses, green and brown, in long festoons, hung from
their limbs. Here and there crags and precipices peeped out from among
the foliage, and a grey old cliff towered above, at the summit.
Caleb turned his button round again towards the window, and of course
turned his face _from_ the window. The reflection of his face was now
dim, as before, but in a moment his eye caught the reflection of the
crags and trees across the little valley.
"O, grandmother," said he again, "I can see the rocks in my buttons, and
the trees. And there is an old stump," he continued, his voice falling
to a low tone, as if he was talking to himself,--"and there is a
tree,--and,--why--why, what is that? It is a bear, grandmama,"--calling
aloud to her,--"I see a bear upon the mountain."
"Nonsense, Caleb," said the grandmother.
"I do certainly," said Caleb, and he dropped the corner of his jacket,
which had the button attached to it, and looked out of the window
directly at the mountain.
Presently Caleb turned away from the window, and ran to the door. There
was a little green yard in front of the house, with a large, smooth,
flat stone for a door-step. Caleb stood on this step, and looked
intently at the mountain. In a moment he ran back to his grandmother,
and said,
"Grandmother, _do_ come and see this black bear."
"Why, child," said she, smiling, "it is nothing but some old black stump
or log."
"But it moves, grandmother. It certainly moves."
So his grandmother smiled, and said, "Well, I suppose I must come and
see." So she laid down her work, and took off her spectacles, and Caleb
took hold of her hand, and trotted along before her to the step of the
door. It was a beautiful sunny morning in June.
"There," said Caleb, triumphantly pointing to a spot among the rocks and
bushes half-way up the mountain,--"there, what do you call that?"
His grandmother looked a moment intently in silence, and then said,
"I do see something there under the bushes."
"And isn't it moving?" said Caleb.
"Why, yes," said she.
"And isn't it black?"
"Yes," said she.
"Then it is a bear," said Caleb, half-delighted, and half afraid, "Isn't
it, grandmother? I'll go and get the gun."
There was an old gun behind the high desk, in the back sitting-room; but
it had not been loaded for twenty years, and had no back upon it. Still
Caleb always supposed that some how or other it would shoot.
"Shall I, grandmother?" said he eagerly,
"No," said she. "I don't think it is a bear."
"What then?" said Caleb.
"I think it is Cherry."
"Cherry!" said Caleb.
"Yes, Cherry," said she. "Run and see if you can find the boys."
Cherry was the cow. She had strayed from the pasture the day before, and
they could not find her. She was called Cherry from her colour; for
although she had looked almost black, as Caleb had seen her in the
bushes, she was really a Cherry colour. Caleb saw at once, as soon as
his grandmother said that it was Cherry, that she was correct. In fact,
he could see her head and horns, as she was holding her head up to eat
the leaves from the bushes. However he did not stop to talk about it,
but, obeying his grandmother immediately, he ran off after the boys.
He went out to the back door, where the boys had been at play, and
shouted out, "_David_! DA--VID! DWI--GHT! DA--VID!" But there was no
reply, except a distant echo of "_David_" and "_Dwight_" from the rocks
and mountains.
So Caleb came back, and said that he could not find the boys, and that
he supposed that they had gone to school.
"Then we must call Raymond," said she.
"And may I ring for him, grandmother?" said Caleb.
Grandmother said he might: and so Caleb ran off to the porch at the back
door, and took down quite a large bell, which was hanging there. Caleb
stood upon the steps of the porch, and grasping the great handle of the
bell with both hands, he rang it with all his might. In a minute or two
he stopped; and then he heard a faint and distant "Aye-aye" coming, from
a field. Caleb put the bell back into its place, and then went again to
his grandmother.
In a few minutes Raymond came in. He was a thick-set and rather tall
young man, broad-shouldered and strong,--slow in his motions, and of a
very sober countenance. Caleb heard his heavy step in the entry, though
he came slowly and carefully, as if he tried to walk without making a
noise.
"Did you want me, Madam Rachel?" said he, holding his hat in his hand.
Caleb's grandmother was generally called Madam Rachel.
"Yes," said she. "Cherry has got up on the rocks. Caleb spied her there;
he will shew you where, and I should like to have you go and drive her
down."
Caleb wanted to go too; but his grandmother said it would not do very
well, for he could not keep up with Raymond; and besides, she said that
she wanted him. So Caleb went out with Raymond under the great elm
before the house, and pointed out the place among the rocks, where he
had seen Cherry. She was not there then, at least she was not in sight;
but Raymond knew that she could not have gone far from the place, so he
walked down over the bridge, and soon disappeared.
While Caleb stood watching Raymond, as he walked off with long strides
towards the mountain, his grandmother came to the door and said,
"Come, Caleb."
Caleb turned and ran to his grandmother. She had in her hand a little
red morocco book, and taking Caleb's hand, she went slowly up stairs, he
frisking and capering around her all the way. There was a bed in the
room, with a white covering, and by the window an easy chair, with a
high back, and round well-stuffed arms. Madam Rachel went to the easy
chair and sat down and took Caleb in her lap. Caleb looked out upon the
long drooping branches of the elm which hung near the window.
Caleb's countenance was pale; and he was slender in form, and delicate
in appearance. He had been sick, and even now, he was not quite well.
His little taper fingers rested upon the window-sill, while his
grandmother opened her little Bible and began to read. Caleb sat still
in her lap, with a serious and attentive expression of countenance.
"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a pharisee, the other
a publican."
"What is a pharisee and a publican?" asked Caleb.
"You will hear presently. 'And the pharisee stood and prayed thus with
himself: God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers."
"What are all those?" asked Caleb.
"O, different kinds of crimes and sins. The pharisee thanked God that
he had not committed any of them."
"Was he a good man, grandmother?"
"Very likely he had not committed any of these great crimes."
"Very well, grandmother, go on."
"'Or even as this publican.' A publican, you must know, was a
tax-gatherer. He used to collect the taxes from the people. They did not
like to pay their taxes, and so they did not like the tax-gatherers, and
despised them. And thus the pharisee thanked God that he was not like
that publican. 'I fast twice in the week. I pay tithes of all that I
possess.'
"Tithes?" said Caleb.
"Yes, that was money which God had commanded them to pay. They were to
pay in proportion to the property they had. But some dishonest men used
to conceal some of their property, so as not to have to pay so much;
but this pharisee said _he_ paid tithes of _all_ that he possessed."
"That was right, grandmother," said Caleb.
"Yes," said his grandmother, "that was very well."
"If he really did it," continued Caleb doubtfully. "Do you think he did,
grandmother?"
"I think it very probable. I presume he was a pretty good man,
_outside_."
"What do you mean by that, grandmother?"
"Why, his heart might have been bad, but he was probably pretty careful
about all his _actions_, which could be seen of men. But we will go on."
"'And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his
eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me
a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other.'"
"Which man?" said Caleb.
"The publican."
"The publican was justified?" said Caleb, "what does _justified_ mean?"
"Forgiven and approved. God was pleased with the publican, because he
confessed his sins honestly; but he was displeased with the pharisee,
because he came boasting of his good deeds."
Here there was a pause. Caleb sat still and seemed thoughtful. His
grandmother did not interrupt him, but waited to hear what he would say.
"Yes; but, grandmother, if the pharisee really was a good man, it wasn't
right for him to thank God for it?"
"It reminds me of Thomas's acorns," said Madam Rachel.
"Thomas's acorns!" said Caleb, "tell me about them, grandmother."
"Why, Thomas and his brother George were sent to school. They stopped to
play by the way, until it was so late that they did not dare to go in.
Then they staid playing about the fields till it was time to go home.
They felt pretty bad and out of humour, and at last they separated and
went home different ways.
"In going home, Thomas found an oak-tree with acorns under it. 'Ah!'
said he, 'I will carry mother home some acorns.' He had observed that
his mother was pleased whenever he brought her things; and he had an
idea of soothing his own feelings of guilt, and securing his mother's
favour, by the good deed of carrying her home some acorns. So, when he
came into the house, he took off his hat carefully, with the acorns in
it, and holding it in both hands, marched up to his mother with a
smiling face, and look of great self-satisfaction, and said, 'Here,
mother, I have got you some acorns.'"
"And what did his mother say?" asked Caleb.
"She shook her head sorrowfully, and told him to go and put the acorns
away. She knew where he had been.
"Then presently George came in. He put away his cap, walked in softly,
and put his face down in his mother's lap, and said, with tears and
sobs, 'Mother, I have been doing something very wrong.' Now, which of
these do you think came to his mother right?'"
"Why,--George," said he, "certainly."
"Yes, and that was the way the publican came; but the pharisee covered
up all his sins, being pleased and satisfied himself, and thinking that
God would be pleased and satisfied with his _acorns_."
Here Madam Rachel paused, and Caleb sat still, thinking of what he had
heard.
Madam Rachel then closed her eyes, and, in a low, gentle voice, she
spoke a few words of prayer; and then she told Caleb that he must always
remember in all his prayers to confess his sins fully and freely, and
never cover them up and conceal them, with an idea that his good deeds
made him worthy. Then she put Caleb down, and he ran down stairs to
play.
He asked his grandmother to let him go over the bridge, so as to be
ready to meet Raymond, when he should come back with the cow. She at
first advised him not to go, for she was afraid, she said, that he might
get lost, or fall into the brook; but Caleb was very desirous to go, and
finally she consented. He had a little whip that David had made for him.
The handle was made from the branch of a beach-tree, which David cut
first to make a cane of, for himself; but he broke his cane, and so he
gave Caleb the rest of the stick for a whip-handle. The lash was made
of leather. It was cut out of a round piece of thick leather, round and
round, as they made leather shoe-strings, and then rolled upon a board.
This is a fine way to make lashes and reins for boys.
Caleb took his whip for company, and sauntered along over the bridge.
When he had crossed the bridge, he walked along the bank of the stream,
watching the grass-hoppers and butterflies, and now and then cutting off
the head of a weed with the lash of his whip.
The banks of the brook were in some places high, and the water deep; in
other places, there was a sort of beach, sloping down to the water's
edge; and here, the water was generally shallow, to a considerable
distance from the shore. Caleb was allowed to come down to the water at
these shallow places; but he had often been told that he must not go
near the steep places, because there was danger that he would fall in.
Now, boys are not very naturally inclined to obey their parents. They
have to be taught with great pains and care. They must be punished for
disobedience, in some way or other, a good many times. But neglected
children, that is, those that are left to themselves, are almost always
very disobedient and unsubmissive. Caleb, now, was not a neglected
child. He had been taught to submit and obey, when he was very young,
and his grandmother could trust him now.
Besides, Caleb, had still less disposition now to disobey his
grandmother than usual, for he had been sick, and was still pale and
feeble; and this state of health often makes children quiet, gentle, and
submissive.
So Caleb walked slowly along, carefully avoiding all the high banks,
but sometimes going down to the water, where the shore was sloping and
safe. At length, at one of these little landing places he stopped longer
than usual. He called it the cotton landing. David and Dwight gave it
that name, because they always found, wedged in, in a corner between a
log and the shore, a pile of cotton, as they called it. It was, in
reality, light, white froth, which always lay there; and even if they
pushed it all away with a stick, they would find a new supply the next
day. Caleb stood upon the shore, and with the lash of his whip, cut into
the pile of "cotton." The pile broke up into large masses, and moved
slowly and lightly away into the stream. One small tuft of it floated
towards the shore, and Caleb reached it with his whip-handle, and took a
part of it in, saying, "Now I will see what it is made of."
On closely examining it, he found to his surprise, that it was composed
of an infinite number of very small bubbles, piled one upon another,
like the little stones in a heap of gravel. It was white and beautiful,
and in some of the biggest bubbles, Caleb could see all the colours of
the rainbow. He wondered where this foam could come from, and he
determined to carry some of it home to his grandmother. So he stripped
off a flat piece of birch bark from a neighbouring tree, and took up a
little of the froth upon it, and placed it very carefully upon a rock on
the bank, where it would remain safely, he thought, till he was ready to
go home.
Just above where he stood was a little waterfall in the brook. The
current was stopped by some stones and logs, and the water tumbled over
the obstruction, forming quite a little cataract, which sparkled in the
sun.
Caleb threw sticks and pieces of bark into the water, above the fall,
and watched them as they sailed on, faster and faster, and then pitched
down the descent. Then he would go and _whip_ them into his landing, and
thus he could take them out, and sail them down again. After amusing
himself some time in this manner, he began to wonder why Raymond did not
come, and he concluded to take his foam, and go along. He went to the
rock and took up his birch bark; but, to his surprise, the foam had
disappeared. He was wondering what had become of it, when he heard
across the road, and at a little distance above him, a scrambling in the
bushes, on the side of the mountain. At first, he was afraid; but in a
moment more, he caught a glimpse of the cow coming out of the bushes,
and supposing that Raymond was behind, he threw down his birch bark, and
began to gallop off to meet him, lashing the ground with his whip.
At the same time, the cow, somewhat worried by being driven pretty fast
down the rocks, came running out into the road, and when she saw Caleb
coming towards her, and with such antics, began to cut capers too. She
came on, in a kind of half-frolicsome, half-angry canter, shaking her
horns; and Caleb, before he got very near her, began to be somewhat
frightened. At first he stopped, looking at her with alarm. Then he
began to fall back to the side of the road, towards the brook. At this
instant Raymond appeared coming out of the bushes, and, seeing Caleb,
called out to him to stand still.
"Stand still, Caleb, till she goes by: she will not hurt you." But Caleb
could not control his fears. His little heart beat quick, and his pale
cheek grew paler. He could not control his fears, though he knew very
well that what Raymond said must be true. He kept retreating backwards
nearer and nearer to the brook, as the cow came on, whipping the air,
towards her to keep her off. He was now at some little distance above
the cotton landing, and opposite to a part of the bank where the water
was deep. Raymond perceived his danger, and as he was now on the very
brink, he shouted out suddenly,
"Caleb! Caleb! take care!"
But the sudden call only frightened poor Caleb still more; and before
the "Take care" was uttered, his foot slipped, and he slid back into the
water, and sank into it until he entirely disappeared.
Raymond rushed to the place, and in an instant was in the water by his
side, and pulling Caleb out, he carried him gasping to the shore. He
wiped his face with his handkerchief, and tried to cheer and encourage
him.
"Never, mind, Caleb," said he; "it won't hurt you. It is a warm sunny
morning." Caleb cried a few minutes, but, finally, became pretty nearly
calm, and Raymond led him along towards home, sobbing as he went, "O
dear me!--what _will_ my grandmother say?"