The blueberries were very thick and large, and the bottoms of the
baskets were soon covered with them. Each one picked where he found
them most plenty.
Rollo and Lucy kept pretty near together, talking, and gradually
strayed away to some distance from the rest of the party. After a
little while, Rollo looked up, and saw the three boys pretty near them.
As soon as Lucy saw them so near, she moved along towards their
parents; and Rollo ought to have done so too, but he remained where he
was, and presently one of the boys came up to him.
“Why did you not come up where we were?” said he. “They were thicker
out there.”
“My father would not let me,” said Rollo.
“O, come along,” said the boy; “he will not care. Besides, he will not
know it. He is busy picking by himself. He does not mind where you
are.”
Rollo thought this was not exactly the way that a good boy would speak
of obeying a father, but he wanted very much to see the place where the
berries were so much thicker.
“How far is it?” said he to the boy.
“O, it is only a little way-just around that rock.”
By this time the other two boys came up, and they talked with Rollo a
little while, and endeavored to persuade him to go. He said finally
that he would go and ask his father. So he left his basket, and went
and asked his father if he might just go with those boys round the
rock. He said the blueberries were much thicker around there, and also
that he had been talking with the boys, and he was sure they were good
boys.
“No, Rollo,” said his father, decidedly, “I cannot think that any boys
that use bad language can be good boys, or safe companions for you. I
had rather you would keep with us. If they speak to you, answer them
civilly; but the less you have to say to them or do with them, the
better. In fact, I had rather you would not go back to them at all.”
“I must,” said Rollo, “to get my basket.”
He accordingly returned to his basket, and told the boys that his
father preferred that he should stay where he was.
The biggest boy of the three was a ragged and dirty-looking boy; the
others called him Jim, and he talked with Rollo a good deal. Rollo’s
conscience reproved him for not leaving them, and going back to his
father; but he wanted to stay and hear their talk, and he quieted his
conscience by saying to himself that his father told him to treat them
civilly. At first the boys were careful what they said to Rollo; but at
length Jim grew more and more hold. He used language which Rollo knew
was wrong, and he told Rollo that he was a fool to stick so close to
his father; that he was big enough to find his way alone all over the
mountain, if he was of a mind to.
All this Rollo was silly enough to believe, and, as his father only
required him to keep in sight, he thought he would show the boys that
he was not so much afraid as they thought he was; and so hi gradually
moved off farther and farther from his parents, as he went on gradually
filling up his basket. Lucy, in the mean time, went nearer and nearer
to them, and in a short time was safely gathering her blueberries by
her aunt’s side.
Things went on so for an hour. Rollo’s mother asked his father whether
he had not better call Rollo to them.
“No,” said he; “I have told him his duty once, plainly, and now, if he
does not do it, he must take the consequences. I believe I shall leave
him to himself.”
The boys went on talking to one another and to Rollo, telling various
stories about their running away from school, stealing apples, and such
things. Rollo was much interested in listening to them, though he knew,
all the time, that he was doing wrong. But he had not the courage to
leave them abruptly, as he ought to have done, and go back to his
father.
Rollo took a great deal of pains with the berries he picked; he chose
the largest and ripest, and was very careful not to get in any sticks
and leaves. His basket was small, and he intended, as soon as he got it
full, to carry it carefully to his mother, and pour his berries into
her large tin pail. He was succeeding finely in this, but then he had
insensibly strayed away so far from his father, that now he was
entirely out of his sight.
At length, as Jim was sitting on a log to rest himself, as he said, he
saw a little bird alight on the branch of a black stump near.
“Hash,” said he; “there is a Bob-a-link. See how I will fix him.”
So saying, he picked up a stone, and was going to throw it.
Rollo begged him not to kill that pretty little bird but he paid no
attention to what Rollo said. He threw the stone with all his force;
but fortunately it did not hit the bird. It struck the limb that the
bird was perched upon, and shivered it to fragments, and the bird flew
away, terrified.
“Now, what did you do that for?” said Rollo; “you might have hit him.”
“Hit him!” said he; “I meant to hit him, to be sure.”
“But what good does it do to kill little birds? I found one this
morning, and I would not kill him for any thing.”
“Where did you find him?” said Jim.
Rollo then told the boys all about his finding a little bird, in its
nest floating in the brook, and about their naming him Mosette; as is
described in the story called “BLUEBERRYING;” and Jim said, if he had
found him, he would have put him on a fence, for a mark to fire stones
at. “I would have made him peep, I tell you,” said he.
Rollo said he would not have him killed on any account. He was going to
carry him home, and feed him, and tame him.
“But where is he now?” said Jim.
“O, we hid him behind a stone, down at the foot of the mountain, where
our horses are tied.”
“But how can you find him again?” said Jim.
“O,” said Rollo, “we know; it was behind the corner of a stone, just in
the bushes, where we tied the horse.”
Jim winked at the other boys when Rollo said this, though Rollo did not
see it. He was vexed with Rollo, because he reproved him for stoning
the bird.
“I would set him up for a mark, if I had him,” said Jim. “I wish I had
been there when you found him; I would have taken him away from you.”
“No, you would not have taken him away. Jonas would not let you.”
“Jonas! who is Jonas? and what do you think I care for Jonas?” said he.
He then came up to Rollo, and looked into his basket, and saw it nearly
full of large ripe blueberries.
“And I believe,” said he, “that you have stolen some of my berries out
of my basket, while I have been sitting here.”
“No, I have not,” said Rollo. “I have not touched your basket.”
“You have,” said Jim, fiercely, “and I will have them back again.
Besides, I put some into yours, while you went to your father. So half
the berries in your basket are mine.”
This was a lie; but bad boys, like Jim, will always lie, when they have
any thing to gain by it. He came up to Rollo, and began to pull his
basket away from him. Rollo struggled against him, and began to cry.
But Jim was too strong for him: he tipped his basket over, poured a
great many of the berries into his own basket, and the rest were
spilled over on to the ground. Then, angry at Rollo’s screams and
cries, he trampled on all the berries that were on the ground, and was
beginning to run away. Rollo caught hold of the skirt of his coat,
screaming all the time for his father. Jim turned round, and struck
Rollo with his fist, knocked him down, and then he and the other boys
set off, as fast as they could run, through the bushes; and they
disappeared just as Rollo’s father and Jonas came hastening to his aid.
[Illustration]
They raised Rollo up, and his father took him in his arms to carry him
away. He saw that there had been some serious difficulty with the bad
boys, but he did not ask Rollo any thing about it, then; for he knew
that he could not talk intelligibly till he had done crying. Rollo laid
his head down on his father’s shoulder, as he walked along, and sobbed
bitterly.