"It is worse yet to bring stones so far, and enough of them," added John. "You must like to lift better than I do, to strain yourself in tugging stones here." "Look there," continued Benjamin, pointing to a heap of stones only a few rods distant. "There are stones enough for our purpose, and one or two hours is all the time we want to build a wharf with them." "But those stones belong to the man who is preparing to build a house there," said Fred. "The workmen are busy there now." "That may all be," said Benjamin, "but they can afford to lend them to us awhile. They will be just as good for their use after we have done with them." "Then you expect they will lend them to you, I perceive; but you'll be mistaken," answered Fred. "My mode of borrowing them is this,--we will go this evening, after the workmen have gone home, and tug them over here, and make the wharf long before bedtime;" and Benjamin looked queerly as he said it. "And get ourselves into trouble thereby," replied another boy. "I will agree to do it if you will bear all the blame of stealing them." "Stealing!" exclaimed Benjamin. "It is not stealing to take such worthless things as stones. A man couldn't sell an acre of them for a copper." "Well, anyhow, the men who have had the labour of drawing them there won't thank you for taking them." "I don't ask them to thank me. I don't think the act deserves any thanks," and a roguish twinkle of the eye showed that he knew he was doing wrong. And he added, "I reckon it will be a joke on the workmen to-morrow morning to find their pile of stones missing." "Let us do it," said John, who was taken with the idea of playing off a joke. "I will do my part to carry the thing through." "And I will do mine," said another; and by this time all were willing to follow the example of Benjamin, their leader. Perhaps all were afraid to say "No," according to the dictates of conscience, now that the enterprise was indorsed by one or two of their number. Boys are too often disposed to go "with the multitude to do evil." They are often too cowardly to do what they know is right. The salt marsh, bounding a part of the millpond where their boat lay, was trampled into a complete quagmire. The boys were accustomed to fish there at high water, and so many feet, so often treading on the spot, reduced it to a very soft condition. It was over this miry marsh that they proposed to build a wharf. The evening was soon there, and the boys came together on their rogue's errand. They surveyed the pile of stones, and found it ample for their purpose, though it looked like a formidable piece of work to move them. "Some of them are bigger than two of us can lift," said Fred. "Then three of us can hitch to and carry them," said Benjamin. "They must all be worked into a wharf this evening. Let us begin,--there is no time to lose."