“A ROUND RAINBOW.”
About six miles from the house where Rollo lived, there was a mountain
called Benalgon, which was famous for bears and blueberries. There were
no bears on it, but there were plenty of blueberries. The reason why it
was so famous for bears, when in fact there were none there, was
because the boys and girls that went there for blueberries every year,
used to see black logs and stumps among the trees and bushes of the
mountain, and they would run away very hastily, and insist upon it,
when they got down the mountain, that they had seen a bear.
Now, Rollo’s father and mother, together with his uncle George, formed
a plan for going up this mountain after blueberries, and they were
going to take Rollo and his cousin Lucy with them. Uncle George and
cousin Lucy were to come in a chaise to Rollo’s house immediately after
breakfast, and Rollo was to ride with them, and his father and mother
were to go in another chaise.
Rollo got his little basket to pick his blueberries in, all ready the
night before, and he got a string to tie around his neck, intending to
hang his basket upon it, so that he could have both his hands at
liberty, and pick faster. He also thought he would take all the heavy
things out of his pocket, so that he could run the faster, in case he
should see any bears. He put them all on a window in the shed. The
things were a knife, a piece of chalk, two white pebble stones, and a
plummet. When he got them all out, he asked Jonas, who was splitting
wood in the shed, if he would not take care of them for him, till he
came back.
“Why, yes,” said Jonas, “I will take care of them if you wish; but what
are you going to leave them for?”
“O, so that I can run faster,” said Rollo.
“Run faster? I do not think you will run much, up old Benalgon, unless
he holds his back down lower than when I went up.”
Rollo did not mean that he was going to run up the mountain, but he did
not explain what he did mean, for he thought that Jonas would laugh at
him, if he told him he was afraid of the bears. So he said, “Jonas,
don’t you wish you were going with us?”
“I should like it well enough, but I must stay at home and mind my
work.”
“I wish you could go. I will go and ask my father if he will not let
you.”
Rollo ran into the house with great haste and eagerness, leaving all
the doors open, and calling out, “Father, father,” as soon as he had
begun to open the parlor door.
“Father, father,” said he, running up to him, “I wish you would let
Jonas go with us to-morrow.”
Now, Rollo’s father had come home but a short time before, and was just
seated quietly in his arm-chair, reading a newspaper, and Rollo came up
to him, pulling down the paper with his hands, and looking up into his
father’s face, so as to stop his reading at once. Heedless boys very
often come to ask favors in this way.
His father gently moved him back and said,
“No, my son, it is not convenient for Jonas to go to-morrow. Besides, I
am busy now, and cannot talk with you;—you must go away.”
Rollo turned away disappointed, and went slowly back through the
kitchen. His mother, who was there, and who heard all that passed, as
the doors were open, said to him, as he walked by her, “What a foolish
way that was to ask him, Rollo! You might have known it would have done
no good.”
Rollo did not answer, but he went and sat down on the step of the door,
and was just beginning to think what the foolishness was in his way of
asking his father, when a little bird came hopping along in the yard.
He ran in to ask his mother to give him some milk to feed the bird
with. She smiled, and told him milk was good for kittens, but not for
birds; and she gave him some crumbs of bread. Rollo threw the crumbs
out, but they only frightened the little thing away.
That night, when Rollo went to bed, his father said, that when he was
all ready, he would come up and see him. When he came into his chamber,
Rollo called out to him,
“O, father, look out the window, and see what a beautiful ring there is
round the moon.”
“So there is,” said his father; “I am rather sorry to see that.”
“Sorry, father! why? It is beautiful, I think.”
“It does look pretty, but it is a sign of rain to-morrow.”
“Of rain? O no, father; it is a kind of a rainbow. It is a round
rainbow. I am sure it will be pleasant to-morrow.”
“Very well,” said his father, “we shall see in the morning.” Then he
sat down on Rollo’s bed-side some time, talking with him on various
subjects, and then heard him say his prayers. At length he took the
light, and bade Rollo good night.
Rollo’s eye caught another view of the moon as his father was going,
and he said,
“O, father, just look at the moon once more; that _is_ a rainbow; I see
the colors. I expect it will grow into a large one, such as you told me
was a sign of fair weather. I will watch it.”
“Yes,” said his father, “you can watch it as you go to sleep.”
So Rollo laid his face upon his pillow in such a way that he could see
the moon through the window; and he began to watch the bright circle
around it, but before it grew any bigger, he was fast asleep.