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 grass, 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 dickeys,” 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.”
“What are you resting from?” said Jonas.
“O, I am resting because I am tired.”
“What are you tired of?” said Jonas. “What have you been doing?”
Rollo had no answer at hand, for he had not been doing any thing at all.
The truth was, it was pleasanter for him to sit on the log and sing, and
see Jonas mend the wheelbarrow, than to go to work himself; and he mistook
that feeling for being tired. Boys often do so when they are set to work.
Rollo, finding that he had no excuse for sitting there any longer,
presently got up, and sauntered along towards the house, saying that he
was going to work, picking up chips.
Now there was, in a certain corner of the yard, a considerable space
covered with chips, which were the ones that Rollo had to pick up. He knew
that his father wished to have them put into a kind of a bin in the shed,
called the _chip-bin_. So he went into the house for a basket.
He found his mother busy; and she said she could not go and get a basket
for him; but she told him the chip-basket was probably in its place in the
shed, and he might go and get that.
“But,” said Rollo, “that is too large. I cannot lift that great basket
full of chips.”
“You need not fill it full then,” said his mother. “Put in just as many as
you can easily carry.”
Rollo still objected, saying that he wanted her very much to go and get a
smaller one. He could not work without a smaller one.
“Very well,” said she, “I would rather that you should not work then. The
interruption to me to get up now, and go to look for a smaller basket,
will be greater than all the good you will do in picking up chips.”
Rollo then told her that his father wanted him to work, and he related to
her all the conversation they had had. She then thought that she had
better do all in her power to give Rollo a fair experiment; so she left
her work, went down, got him a basket which he said was just big enough,
and left him at the door, going out to his work in the yard.
A Bad Beginning.
Rollo sat down on the chips, and began picking them up, all around him,
and throwing them into his basket. He soon filled it up, and then lugged
it in, emptied it into the chip-bin, and then returned, and began to fill
it again.
He had not got his basket more than half full the second time, before he
came upon some very large chips, which were so square and flat, that he
thought they would be good to build houses with. He thought he would just
try them a little, and began to stand them up in such a manner as to make
the four walls of a house. He found, however, an unexpected difficulty;
for although the chips were large and square, yet the edges were so sharp
that they would not stand up very well.
Some time was spent in trying experiments with them in various ways; but
he could not succeed very well; so he began again industriously to put
them into his basket.
When he got the basket nearly full, the second time, he thought he was
tired, and that it would be a good plan to take a little time for rest;
and he would go and see Jonas a little while.
Now his various interruptions and delays, his conversation with his
mother, the delay in getting the basket, and his house-building, had
occupied considerable time; so that, when he went back to Jonas, it was
full half an hour from the time when he left him; and he found that Jonas
had finished mending the wheelbarrow, and had put it in its place, and was
just going away himself into the field.
“Well, Rollo,” said he, “how do you get along with your work?”
“O, very well,” said Rollo; “I have been picking up chips all the time
since I went away from you.”
Rollo did not mean to tell a falsehood. But he was not aware how much of
his time he had idled away.
“And how many have you got in?” said Jonas.
“Guess,” said Rollo.
“Six baskets full,” said Jonas.
“No,” said Rollo.
“Eight.”
“No; not so many.”
“How many, then?” said Jonas, who began to be tired of guessing.
“Two; that is, I have got one in, and the other is almost full.”
“Only two?” said Jonas. “Then you cannot have worked very steadily. Come
here and I will show you how to work.”
What Rollo Might Do.
So Jonas walked along to the chips, and asked Rollo to fill up that
basket, and carry it, and then come back, and he would tell him.
So Rollo filled up the basket, carried it to the bin, and came back very
soon. Jonas told him then to fill it up again as full as it was before.
“There,” said Jonas, when it was done, “now it is as full as the other
was, and I should think you have been less than two minutes in doing it.
We will call it two minutes. Two minutes for each basket full would make
thirty baskets full in an hour. Now, I don’t think there are more than
thirty baskets full in all; so that, if you work steadily, but without
hurrying any, you would get them all in in an hour.”
“In an hour?” said Rollo. “Could I get them all in in an hour?”
“Yes,” said Jonas, “I have no doubt you can. But you must not hurry and
get tired out. Work moderately, but _steadily_;--that is the way.”
So Jonas went to the field, leaving Rollo to go on with his thirty
baskets. Rollo thought it would be a fine thing to get the chips all in
before his father should come home, and he went to work very busily
filling his basket the third time.
“I can do it quicker,” said he to himself. “I can fill the basket a great
deal faster than that. I will get it all done in half an hour.”
So he began to throw in the chips as fast as possible, taking up very
large ones too, and tossing them in in any way. Now it happened that he
did fill it this time very quick; for the basket being small, and the
chips that he now selected very large, they did not pack well, but lay up
in every direction, so as apparently to fill up the basket quite full,
when, in fact, there were great empty spaces in it; and when he took it up
to carry it, it felt very light, because it was in great part empty.
He ran along with it, forgetting Jonas’s advice not to hurry, and thinking
that the reason why it seemed so light was because he was so strong. When
he got to the coal-bin, the chips would not come out easily. They were so
large that they had got wedged between the sides of the basket, and he had
hard work to get them out.
This fretted him, and cooled his ardor somewhat; he walked back rather
slowly, and began again to fill his basket.
A New Plan.
Before he had got many chips in it, however, he happened to think that the
wheelbarrow would be a better thing to get them in with. They would not
stick in that as they did in the basket. “Men always use a wheelbarrow,”
he said to himself, “and why should not I?”
So he turned the chips out of his basket, thus losing so much labor, and
went after the wheelbarrow. He spent some time in looking to see how Jonas
had mended it, and then he attempted to wheel it along to the chips. He
found it quite heavy; but he contrived to get it along, and after losing
considerable time in various delays, he at last had it fairly on the
ground, and began to fill it.
He found that the chips would go into the wheelbarrow beautifully, and he
was quite pleased with his own ingenuity in thinking of it. He thought he
would take a noble load, and so he filled it almost full, but it took a
long time to do it, for the wheelbarrow was so large that he got tired,
and stopped several times to rest.
When, at length, it was full, he took hold of the handles, and lifted away
upon it. He found it very heavy. He made another desperate effort, and
succeeded in raising it from the ground a little; but unluckily, as
wheelbarrows are very apt to do when the load is too heavy for the
workman, it tipped down to one side, and, though Rollo exerted all his
strength to save it, it was in vain.
[Illustration: Too Heavy.]
Over went the wheelbarrow, and about half of the chips were poured out
upon the ground again.
“O dear me!” said Rollo; “I wish this wheelbarrow was not so heavy.”
He sat down on the side of the wheelbarrow for a time in despair. He had a
great mind to give up work for that day. He thought he had done enough; he
was tired. But, then, when he reflected that he had only got in three
small baskets of chips, and that his father would see that it was really
true, as he had supposed, that Rollo could not work, he felt a little
ashamed to stop.
So he tipped the wheelbarrow back, which he could easily do now that the
load was half out, and thought he would wheel those along, and take the
rest next time.
By great exertions he contrived to stagger along a little way with this
load, until presently the wheel settled into a little low place in the
path, and he could not move it any farther. This worried and troubled him
again. He tried to draw the wheelbarrow back, as he had often seen Jonas
do in similar cases, but in vain. It would not move back or forwards. Then
he went round to the wheel, and pulled upon that; but it would not do. The
wheel held its place immovably.
Rollo sat down on the grass a minute or two, wishing that he had not
touched the wheelbarrow. It was unwise for him to have left his basket,
his regular and proper mode of carrying the chips, to try experiments with
the wheelbarrow, which he was not at all accustomed to. And now the proper
course for him to have taken, would have been to leave the wheelbarrow
where it was, go and get the basket, take out the chips from the
wheelbarrow, and carry them, a basket full at a time, to the bin, then
take the wheelbarrow to its place, and go on with his work in the way he
began.
But Rollo, like all other boys who have not learned to work, was more
inclined to get somebody to help him do what was beyond his own strength,
than to go quietly on alone in doing what he himself was able to do. So he
left the wheelbarrow, and went into the house to try to find somebody to
help him.
He came first into the kitchen, where Mary was at work getting dinner, and
he asked her to come out and help him get his wheelbarrow out of a hole.
Mary said she could not come then, but, if he would wait a few minutes,
she would. Rollo could not wait, but went off in pursuit of his mother.
“Mother,” said he, as he opened the door into her chamber, “could not you
come out and help me get my wheelbarrow along?”
“What wheelbarrow?” said his mother.
“Why, the great wheelbarrow. I am wheeling chips in it, and I cannot get
it along.”
“I thought you were picking up chips in the basket I got for you.”
“Yes, mother, I did a little while; but I thought I could get them along
faster with the wheelbarrow.”
“And, instead of that, it seems you cannot get them along at all.”
“Why, mother, it is only one little place. It is in a little hole. If I
could only get it out of that little hole, it would go very well.”
“But it seems to me you are not a very profitable workman, Rollo, after
all. You wanted me very much to go and get you a small basket, because the
common basket was too large and heavy; so I left my work, and went and got
it for you. But you soon lay it aside, and go, of your own accord, and get
something heavier than the common chip-basket, a great deal. And now I
must leave my work and go down and wheel it along for you.”
“Only this once, mother. If you can get it out of this hole for me, I will
be careful not to let it get in again.”
“Well,” said his mother at length, “I will go. Though the common way with
wagoners, when they get their loads into difficulty, is to throw a part
off until they lighten it sufficiently, and then go on. I will go this
time; but if you get into difficulty again, you must get out yourself.”
So Rollo and his mother went down together, and she took hold of the
wheelbarrow, and soon got it out. She advised Rollo not to use the
wheelbarrow, but to return to his basket, but yet wished him to do just as
he thought best himself.
When she had returned to the house, Rollo went on with his load, slowly
and with great difficulty. He succeeded, however, in working it along
until he came to the edge of the platform which was before the shed door,
where he was to carry in his chips. Here, of course, he was at a complete
stand, as he could not get the wheel up such a high step; so he sat down
on the edge of the platform, not knowing what to do next.
He could not go to his mother, for she had told him that she could not
help him again; so, on the whole, he concluded that he would not pick up
chips any more; he would pile the wood. He recollected that his father had
told him that he might either pick up chips or pile wood; and the last, he
thought, would be much easier.
“I shall not have any thing to carry or to wheel at all,” said he to
himself, “and so I shall not have any of these difficulties.”
So he left his wheelbarrow where it was, at the edge of the platform,
intending to ask Jonas to get it up for him when he should come home. He
went into the shed, and began to pile up the wood.
It was some very short, small wood, prepared for a stove in his mother’s
chamber, and he knew where his father wanted to have it piled--back
against the side of the shed, near where the wood was lying Jonas had
thrown it down there in a heap as he had sawed and split it.
Hirrup! Hirrup!
He began to lay the wood regularly upon the ground where his pile was to
be, and for a few minutes went on very prosperously. But presently he
heard a great trampling in the street, and ran out to see what it was, and
found that it was a large herd of cattle driving by--oxen and cows, and
large and small calves. They filled the whole road as they walked slowly
along, and Rollo climbed up upon the fence, by the side of the gate, to
look at them. He was much amused to see so large a herd, and he watched
all their motions. Some stopped to eat by the road side; some tried to run
off down the lane, but were driven back by boys with long whips, who ran
after them. Others would stand still in the middle of the road and bellow,
and here and there two or three would be seen pushing one another with
their horns, or running up upon a bank by the road side.
Presently Rollo heard a commotion among the cattle at a little distance,
and, looking that way, saw that Jonas was in among them, with a stick,
driving the about, and calling out, HIRRUP! HIRRUP! At first he could not
think what he was doing; but presently he saw that their own cow had got
in among the others, and Jonas was trying to get her out.
Some of the men who were driving the herd helped him, and they succeeded,
at length, in getting her away by herself, by the side of the road. The
rest of the cattle moved slowly on, and when they were fairly by, Jonas
called out to Rollo to open the gate and then run away.
Rollo did, accordingly, open the gate and run up the yard, and presently
he saw the cow coming in, with Jonas after her.
“Jonas,” said Rollo, “how came our cow in among all those?”
“She got out of the pasture somehow,” said Jonas, in reply, “and I must go
and drive her back. How do you get along with your chips?”
“O, not very well. I want you to help me get the wheelbarrow up on the
platform.”
“The wheelbarrow!” said Jonas. “Are you doing it with the wheelbarrow?”
“No. I am not picking up chips now at all. I am piling wood. I _did_ have
the wheelbarrow.”
In the mean time, the cow walked along through the yard and out of the
gate into the field, and Jonas said he must go on immediately after her,
to drive her back into the pasture, and put up the fence, and so he could
not stop to help Rollo about the chips; but he would just look in and see
if he was piling the wood right.
He accordingly just stepped a moment to the shed door, and looked at
Rollo’s work. “That will do very well,” said he; “only you must put the
biggest ends of the sticks outwards, or it will all tumble down.”
So saying, he turned away, and walked off fast after the cow.
An Overturn.
Rollo stood looking at him for some time, wishing that he was going too.
But he knew that he must not go without his mother’s leave, and that, if
he should go in to ask her, Jonas would have gone so far that he should
not be able to overtake him. So he went back to his wood-pile.
He piled a little more, and as he piled he wondered what Jonas meant by
telling him to put the largest ends outwards. He took up a stick which had
a knot on one end, which made that end much the largest, and laid it on
both ways, first with the knot back against the side of the shed, and then
with the knot in front, towards himself. He did not see but that the stick
lay as steadily in one position as in the other.
“Jonas was mistaken,” said he. “It is a great deal better to put the big
ends back. Then they are out of sight; all the old knots are hid, and the
pile looks handsomer in front.”
So he went on, putting the sticks upon the pile with the biggest ends back
against the shed. By this means the back side of the pile began soon to be
the highest, and the wood slanted forward, so that, when it was up nearly
as high as his head, it leaned forward so as to be quite unsteady. Rollo
could not imagine what made his pile act so. He thought he would put on
one stick more, and then leave it. But, as he was putting on this stick,
he found that the whole pile was very unsteady. He put his hand upon it,
and shook it a little, to see if it was going to fall, when he found it
was coming down right upon him, and had just time to spring back before it
fell.
He did not get clear, however; for, as he stepped suddenly back, he
tumbled over the wood which was lying on the ground, and fell over
backwards; and a large part of the pile came down upon him.
He screamed out with fright and pain, for he bruised himself a little in
falling; though the wood which fell upon him was so small and light that
it did not do much serious injury.
Rollo stopped crying pretty soon, and went into the house; and that
evening, when his father came home, he went to him, and said,
“Father, you were right, after all; I _don’t_ know how to work any better
than Elky.”