Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Country life -- Juvenile fiction; Cousins -- Juvenile fiction
"You have done wrong now twice this morning; you have neglected your
duty of reading, and now you are out of humor with me because I require
you to attend to it. Now it is _my_ duty not to yield to such feelings
as you have now, but to punish them. So I must say that, instead of a
quarter of an hour, you must wait _half_ an hour, before you go out
with Jonas."
Rollo stood silent a minute,--he perceived that he had done wrong, and
was sorry. He did not know how he could find Jonas in the woods, but he
did not say any thing about that then. He only asked his mother what he
must do for the half hour. She said he must read a quarter of an hour,
and the rest of the time he might do as he pleased.
So Rollo took his book, and went out and sat down upon the platform, and
began to read aloud. When he had finished one page, which usually took a
quarter of an hour, he went in to ask his mother what time it was. She
looked at the clock, and told him he had been reading seventeen minutes.
"Is seventeen minutes more than a quarter of an hour, or not so much?"
asked Rollo.
"It is more;--_fifteen_ minutes is a quarter of an hour. Now you may do
what you please till the other quarter has elapsed."
Rollo thought he would go and read more. It is true he was tired; but
he was sorry he had done wrong, and he thought that if he read more
than he was obliged to, his mother would see that he was penitent, and
that he acquiesced in his punishment.
So he went on reading, and the rest of the half hour passed away very
quickly. In fact, his mother came out before he got up from his reading,
to tell him it was time for him to go. She said she was very glad he had
submitted pleasantly to his punishment, and she gave him something
wrapped up in a paper.
"Keep this till you get a little tired of play, down there, and then sit
down on a log and open it."
Rollo wondered what it was. He took it gladly, and began to go. But in a
minute he turned round and said,
"But how shall I find Jonas?"
"What is he doing?" said his mother.
"He said he was going to clear up some land."
"Then you will hear his axe. Go down to the edge of the woods and
listen, and when you hear him, call him. But you must not go into the
woods unless you hear him."
BRIDGE BUILDING
Rollo went on, down the green lane, till he came to the turn-stile, and
then went through into the field. He then followed a winding path until
he came to the edge of the trees, and there stopped to listen.
He heard the brook gurgling along over the stones, and that was all at
first; but presently he began to hear the strokes of an axe. He called
out as loud as he could,
"Jonas! Jonas!"
But Jonas did not hear.
Then he walked along the edge of the woods till he came nearer the place
where he heard the axe. He found here a little opening among the trees
and bushes, so that he could look in. He saw the brook, and over beyond
it, on the opposite bank, was Jonas, cutting down a small tree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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