“Father,” said Rollo, at the dinner-table, “do you think it will rain
all the afternoon?”
“It looks like it,” replied his father, “but why? Do you not enjoy
yourselves in the house?”
“O yes, sir,” said Rollo, “we have had a fine time this morning; but
Lucy and I thought that, if it did not rain this afternoon, we might go
out in the garden a little.”
“It may clear up towards night; but, if it does, I think it would be
better to go down to the brook and see the freshet, than to go into the
garden.”
“The freshet? Will there be a freshet, do you think?”
“Yes, if it rains this afternoon as fast as it does now, I think the
brook will be quite, high towards night.”
Rollo was much pleased to hear this. He told Lucy, after dinner, that
the brook looked magnificently in a freshet; that the banks were
brimming full, and the water poured along in a great torrent, foaming
and dashing against the logs and rocks.
“Then, besides, Lucy,” said he, “we can carry down our little boats and
set them a sailing. How they will whirl and plunge along down the
stream!”
Lucy liked the idea of seeing the freshet, too, very much; though she
said she was afraid it would be too wet for her to go. Rollo told her
never to fear, for his father would contrive some way to get her down
there safely, and they both went to the back entry door again, looking
out, and wishing now that it would rain faster and faster, as they did
before dinner that it would cease to rain.
“But,” said Lucy, “what if it should not stop raining at all,
to-night?”
“O, it will,” said Rollo, “I know it will. Besides, if it should not,
we can go down to-morrow morning, you know, and then there will be a
bigger freshet. O how full the brook will be by to-morrow morning!”
And Rollo clapped his hands, and capered with delight.
“Yes,” said Lucy, soberly, “but I must go home to-night.”
“Must you?” said Rollo. “So you must. I did not think of that.”
“But I think,” continued he, “that it will certainly clear up to-night.
I will go and ask father if he does not think so too.”
They both went together back into the parlor to ask the question.
“I cannot tell, my children, whether it will or not. I see no
indications, one way or the other. I think you had better forget all
about it, and go to doing something else; for if you spend all the
afternoon in watching the sky, and trying to guess whether it will
clear up or not, you cannot enjoy yourselves, and may be sadly
disappointed at last.”
“Why, we cannot help thinking of it, father.”
“You cannot, if you stand there at the back door, doing nothing else;
but, if you engage in some other employment, you will soon forget all
about it.”
“What do you think we had better do?” said Lucy.
“I think you had better go up and put your room and your desk all in
order, Rollo; Lucy can help you.”
“But, father, I have put it in order a great many times, and it always
gets out of order again very soon, and I cannot keep it neat.”
“That is partly because you do not put it in order right. You do not
understand the principles of order.”
“What are the principles of order?” said Lucy.
“There are a good many. I will tell you some of them, and then you may
go and apply them in arranging Rollo’s things.
“One principle is to have the things that are most frequently used in
the most accessible place, so that they can be taken out and returned
to their proper places easily.
“Another good principle for you is to distinguish between the things
which you wish to _use_, and those you only wish to _preserve_. The
former ought to be in sight, and near at hand. The latter may be packed
away more out of view.
“Another principle is to avoid having your desk and room encumbered
with things of little or no value, as stones you have picked up, and
papers, and sticks. The place to keep such things is in the barn or
shed, not in your private room.
“Then you must arrange your things systematically, putting things of
the same nature together. Once I looked into your desk after you had
put it in order, and I found that, in the back side of it, you had
piled up hooks, and white paper, and pictures, and a slate, and a
pocket-book or two, all together. You thought they were in order,
because they were in a _pile_. Now, they ought to have been separated
and arranged; all the white paper by itself in front, where you can
easily get it to use; the pictures all by themselves in a portfolio;
and the books should be arranged, not in a _pile_, but in a _row_, on
their edges, so that you can get out any one without disturbing the
others. Those are some of the principles of order.”
“Well, come, Rollo,” said Lucy, “let us go and see your things, and try
to put them in order, right.”
Rollo went, but, as he left the room, he turned round to ask his father
if he would not come with them, and just show them a little about it.
His father said he could not come very well then, but if they would try
and do as well as they could, he would come and look over their work
after it was done, and tell them whether it was right or not.
Rollo and Lucy went up into Rollo’s room, and, true enough, they found
not a little confusion there. But they went to work, and soon became
very much interested in their employment. A great many of the things
were new to Lucy, and as they went on arranging them, they often
stopped to talk and play. In this way several hours passed along very
pleasantly; and when, at last, they had got them nearly arranged, Rollo
went to the window to throw out some old stones that he concluded not
to keep any longer, when he exclaimed aloud,
“O, Lucy, Lucy, come here quick.”
[Illustration]
Lucy ran. Rollo pointed out to the western horizon, and said, “See
there!”
There was a broad band of bright golden sky all along the western
horizon—clear and beautiful, and extending each way as far as they
could see. The dark clouds overhead reached down to the edge of this
clear sky, where they hung in a fringe of gold, and the dazzling rays
of the sun were just peeping under it. The rain had ceased.
Rollo and Lucy gazed at it a moment, and then ran down stairs as fast
as they could go, calling out,
“It is clearing away! It is clearing away! Father, it is clearing away.
We can go and see the freshet.”