When they had finished the story, Lucy shut the book, saying, “Maria
was a good girl, was not she, Rollo?”
“Yes,” said Rollo, “she was an excellent girl. I would have done just
so; would not you, Lucy?”
“I ought to, I know,” said Lucy, “but perhaps I should not.”
“I should, I am sure,” said Rollo.
Lucy was a polite girl, and she did not contradict Rollo, though she
recollected how much selfishness he had shown that morning, and it did
not seem to her very likely that he would have been willing to make any
very great sacrifice to oblige others.
“My father says we cannot tell what we should do until we are tried,”
said Lucy.
“Well, I _know_ I should have been willing to stay at home, if I had
been Maria,” replied Rollo.
“But, only think, that would be preferring another person’s pleasure
rather than your own.”
“Well, I _should_ prefer another person’s pleasure rather than my own.”
Rollo was beginning to get a little excited and vexed. People who boast
of excellences which they do not possess, are very apt to be
unreasonable and angry when any body seems to doubt whether their
boastings are true. He was thus going on, insisting upon it that he
should have acted as Maria had done, and was just saying that he should
prefer another person’s pleasure rather than his own, when Jonas came
into the entry from the kitchen, with an armful of wood, which he was
carrying into the parlor.
“When is it, Rollo,” said Jonas, “that you prefer another person’s
pleasure to your own?”
“Always,” said Rollo, with an air of self-conceit and consequence.
Jonas smiled, and went on with his wood.
It is always better for boys to be modest and humble-minded. They
appear ridiculous to others when they are boasting what _great_ things
they can do; and when they boast what _good_ things they do they are
very likely to be just on the eve of doing exactly the opposite.
In a moment Jonas came back out of the parlor, and said, as he passed
through,
“Self-praise
Goes but little ways;”
a short piece of versification which all boys and girls would do well
to remember.
Now it happened that, all this time, Rollo’s mother was sitting in a
little bedroom, which had a door opening into the entry where Lucy and
Rollo had been reading, and she heard all the conversation. She knew
that though Rollo was generally a good boy, and was willing to know his
faults, and often endeavored to correct them, still that he was, like
all other boys, prone to selfishness and to vanity, and she thought
that she must take some way to show him clearly what the truth really
was, about his disinterestedness.
In a few minutes, therefore, she went out of the room, and took from
the store closet an apple and a pear. They were both good, but the pear
was particularly fine. It was large, mellow, and juicy. She then went
back to her seat, and called, “Rollo.”
Rollo came running to her.
“Here,” said she, “is an apple and a pear for you.”
“Is one for me and one for Lucy?” said he.
“That is just as you please. I give them both to you. You may do what
you choose with them.”
Rollo took the fruit, much pleased, and walked slowly back, hesitating
what to do. He thought he must certainly give one to Lucy, and as he
had just been boasting that he preferred another’s pleasure to his own,
he was ashamed to offer her the apple; and yet he wanted the pear very
much himself.
If he had had a little more time, he would have hit upon a plan which
would have removed all the difficulty at once, by dividing both the
apple and the pear, and giving to Lucy half of each. But he did not
think of this. In fact his mother knew that, as he was going directly
bark to Lucy, he would not have much time to think but must act
according to the spontaneous impulse of his heart.
But though he did not think of dividing the apple and the pear, he
happened to hit upon a plan, which occurred to him just as he was going
back into the entry, that he thought would do.
He held the fruit behind him; the apple in one hand, and the pear in
the other. Lucy saw him coming, and said,
“What have you got, Rollo?”
“Which will you have, right hand or left?” said he in reply.
“Right.”
Rollo held forward his right hand, and, lo! it was the pear. But he
could not bear to part with it, and he brought forward the other, and
said,
“No, you may have the apple.”
“No,” said Lucy; “the pear is fairly mine; you asked me which I would
have, and I said the right.”
“But I want the pear,” said Rollo; “you may have the apple. Mother gave
them both to me.”
“I want the pear too,” said Lucy; “it is mine, and you must give it to
me.”
Just then a voice called from the bedroom,
“Children!”
“What, mother?” said Rollo.
“I want you both to come here.”
Rollo and Lucy would both have been ashamed of their contention, were
it not that the pear looked so very rich and tempting, that they were
both very eager to have it.
“What is the difficulty?” said Rollo’s mother, as soon as they stood
before her.
“Why, Lucy wants the pear,” said Rollo, “and you gave them both to me,
and said I might do as I pleased with them. I am willing to give her
the apple.”
“Yes, but he offered me my choice,” said Lucy, “right hand or left, and
I chose the right, and now he ought to give it to me.”
“And are you willing that I should decide it?” said the lady.
“Yes, mother,” and “Yes, aunt,” said Rollo and Lucy together.
“You have both done wrong; not _very_ wrong, but a little wrong; and I
think neither ought to have the whole of the pear. So I shall divide
the pear and the apple both between you; and I will tell you how you
have done wrong.
“You, Rollo, by asking her which she would have, implied that you would
leave it to chance to decide, and that you would let her have her fair
chance. Then you ought to have submitted to the result. If she had
chosen the left hand, she ought to have been content. If she had got
the apple, you would have had the credit of giving her an equal chance
with you, and she ought therefore to have had the full benefit of the
chance.
“And then you, Lucy, did wrong, for, although Rollo asked you to
choose, he did not _actually promise_ you your choice, and as he was
under no obligation to give you either, you ought not to have insisted
upon his fulfilling his _implied promise_. Is it not so?”
The children both saw and admitted that it was.
“The best way, I think,” she continued, “would have been for you,
Rollo, to have given the _pear_ to Lucy, as she was your visitor, and a
young lady too. Then she would have given you half in eating it.
However, you were not very much in the wrong, either of you. It was a
sort of a doubtful case. But I hope you see from it, Rollo, what I
wanted to teach you, that you are no more inclined to prefer other
persons’ pleasure to your own, than other children are. Remember
Jonas’s couplet hereafter. I think it is a very good one. Now go and
get a knife, and cut the fruit; and see, it does not rain but little;
you can go and get your pea-pods now.”
Away went the children out into the kitchen after a knife. Rollo wanted
to cut the apple and the pear himself, and Lucy made no objection; and
we must do him the justice to say that he gave rather the largest half
of each to Lucy. They then went out into the shed, Rollo taking with
him a dipper of water to wash his feet when he came back from the
garden. Rollo then took off his shoes, and gave Lucy his share of the
fruit, to keep for him, and then sallied forth into the yard, holding
the umbrella over his head, as a few drops of rain were still falling.
He waded into the little pond at the garden gate, and then turned round
to look at Lucy and laugh. He began, too, to caper about in the water,
but Lucy told him to take care, or he would fall down, and they could
not wash his _clothes,_ as they could his feet, with their dipper of
water.
[Illustration: He waded into the little pond at the garden gate]
So he went carefully forward till he came to the peas, and gathered as
many as he wanted, and then returned.
As he was coming back, he saw Jonas in the barn. Jonas called out to
him to ask what he had got.
“I have been to get some pea-pods,” said he, “to make boats with.”
“Where are you going to sail them?” said Jonas.
“O, in this little pond, when it is done raining.”
“But you had better have a little pond _now_, in the shed.”
“How can we?” said Rollo.
“You might have it in a milk-pan.”
“So we can. Could you come and get it for us?”
“Yes, in a few minutes—by the time you get your boats made.”
Rollo and Lucy were much pleased with this, and they sat down, one on
each side of the milk-pan pond, and sailed their boats a long time. He
cut small pieces of the apple and of the pear for cargo, and Rollo put
in the stem of the pear for the captain of his boat. Each one was
good-humored and obliging, and the time passed away very pleasantly,
until it was near dinner-time. When they came in to dinner, they
observed that it was raining again very fast.