Rollo at Play

WHO KNOWS BEST, A LITTLE BOY OR HIS FATHER?

The next morning, Rollo awoke early, and he was very much pleased to see, as soon as he opened his eyes, that the sun was shining in at the windows. He was not only pleased to find that the prospect was so good for a pleasant ride, but his vanity was gratified at the thought that it had turned out that he knew better about the weather than his father. He began to dress himself, as far as he could without help, and was preparing to hasten down to his father, to tell him that it was going to be a pleasant day. When he was nearly dressed, he was surprised lo observe that the bright sunlight on the wall was gradually fading away, and at length it wholly disappeared. He went to look out the window to see what was the cause. He found that there was a broad expanse of dark cloud covering the eastern sky, excepting a narrow strip quite low down, near the horizon. When the sun first rose, it shone brightly through this narrow zone of clear sky; but now it had ascended a little higher, and gone behind the cloud.

"Never mind," said Rollo to himself. "The cloud is not so very large after all, and the sun will come out again above it when it gets up a little higher."

Rollo came down to breakfast, and he went out into the yard every two or three minutes, to look at the sky. The cloud seemed to extend, so that the sun did not come out of it, as he expected, but still he thought it was going to be pleasant Children generally think it is going to be pleasant, whenever they want to go away.

His father thought it was probably going to rain, and that at any rate it was very doubtful whether Uncle George would come. However, he said they should soon see, and, true enough, just as they were rising from the breakfast table, a chaise drove up to the door, and out jumped Uncle George and cousin Lucy.

Lucy was a very pleasant little blue-eyed girl, two or three years older than Rollo. She had a small tin pail in her hand, with a cover upon it.

"Good morning, Rollo," said she. "Have you got your basket ready?"

"Yes," said Rollo; "but I am afraid it is going to rain."

While the children were saying this, Uncle George said to Rollo's father,

"I suppose we shall have to give up our expedition to-day. I am in hopes we are going to have some rain."

"In hopes," thought Rollo; "that is very strange when we want to go a blueberrying."

Rollo's father and mother and his uncle looked at the clouds all around. They concluded that there was every appearance of rain, and that it would be best to postpone their excursion, and then went into the house. Rollo was very confident it would not rain, and was very eager to have them go. He asked Lucy if she did not think it was going to be pleasant, but Lucy was more modest and reasonable than he was, and said that she did not know; she could not judge of the weather so well as her father.

Rollo began by this time to be considerably out of humor. He said he knew it was not going to rain, and he did not see why they might not go. He did not believe it would rain a drop all day.

Lucy just then pointed down to a little dark spot on the stone step of the door, where a drop had just fallen, and asked Rollo what he called that.

"And that,-and that,-and that," said she, pointing to several other drops.

Rollo at first insisted that that was not rain, but some little spots on the stone.

Then Lucy reached out her hand and said,

"Hold out your hand so, Rollo, and you will feel the drops coming down out of the sky."

Rollo held out his hand a moment, but then immediately withdrew it, saying, impatiently, that he did not care; it was not rain; at any rate it was only a little sprinkling.

Lucy observed that Rollo was getting very much out of humor, and she tried to please him by saying,

"Rollo, I would not mind. If it does rain, I will ask my father to let me stay and play with you to-day, and we can have a fine time up in your little room."

"No, we cannot," said Rollo; "and besides, they will not let you stay, I know. I went yesterday to ask my father to let Jonas go with us to-day, and he would not."

It was certainly very unreasonable for Rollo to imagine that his father and uncle would be unwilling to have Lucy stay just because it had not been convenient to let Jonas go with them. But when children are out of humor, they are always very unreasonable.

"Why would not he let Jonas go?" asked Lucy.

"I do not know. Mother said it was because I did not ask him right."

"How did you ask him?"

"O, I interrupted him. He was reading."

"O, that is not the way. I never interrupt my father if I want to ask him any thing."

"Suppose he is busy, and you want to know that very minute; what do you do?"

"I will show you. Come with me and I will ask him to let me stay with you to-day."

So Lucy and Rollo walked in. When they came to the parlor door, they saw that their parents were sitting on the sofa, talking about other things.

Rollo stopped at the door, but Lucy went in gently. She walked up to her father's side, and stood there still.

Her father took no notice of her at first, but went on talking with Rollo's father. Lucy stood very patiently until, after a few minutes, her father stopped talking, and said,

"Lucy, my dear, do you want to speak to me?"

"Yes, sir," said Lucy, "I wanted to ask you if you were willing to let me stay here to-day and play with Rollo, if you do not go to the mountain."

"I do not know," said her father, hesitating, and patting Lucy on the head-"that is a new idea; however, I believe I have no objection."

Lucy ran back joyfully to Rollo, and after a short time, her father went home. Rollo, however, did not feel in any better humor, and all Lucy's endeavors to engage him in some amusement, failed. She proposed building with bricks, or going up into his little room, and drawing pictures on their slates, or getting his storybooks out and reading stories, and various other things, but Rollo would not be pleased.

Rollo ought, now, when he found that he must be disappointed about his ride, to have immediately banished it from his mind altogether, and turned his thoughts to other pleasures; but like all ill-humored people, he would keep thinking and talking, all the time, about the thing which caused his ill-humor. So he sat in a large back entry, where he and Lucy were, looking out at the door, and saying a great many ill-natured things about the weather, and his father's giving up the ride just for a little sprinkling of rain that would not last half an hour. He said it was a shame, too, for it to rain that day, just because he was going to ride.

Just then, his father spoke to him from the window, and called him in.

He and Lucy went in together into the parlor.

"Rollo," said his father, "did you know you were doing very wrong?"

Rollo felt a little guilty, but he said rather faintly, "No, sir, I was not doing any thing."

"You are committing a great many sins, all at once."

Rollo was silent. He knew his father meant sins of the heart.

"Your heart is in a very wicked state. You are under the dominion of some of the worst of feelings; you are self-conceited, ungrateful, undutiful, unjust, selfish, and," he added in a lower and more solemn tone, "even impious."

Rollo thought that these were heavy charges to bring upon him; but his father spoke calmly and kindly, and he knew that he could easily show that what he said was true.

"You are self-conceited-vainly imagining that you, a little boy of seven years old, can judge better than your father and mother, and obstinately persisting in your opinion that it is not going to rain, when the rain has actually commenced, and is falling faster and faster. You are ungrateful, to speak reproachfully of me, and give me pain, by your ill-will, when I have been planning this excursion, in a great degree, for your enjoyment, and only give it up because I am absolutely compelled to do it by a storm; undutiful, in showing such a repining, unsubmissive spirit towards your father; unjust in making Lucy and all of us suffer, because you are unwilling to submit to these circumstances that we cannot control; selfish, in being unwilling that it should rain and interfere with your ride, when you know that rain is so much wanted in all the fields, all over the country; and, what is worse than all, impious, in openly rebelling against God, and censuring the arrangements of his providence, and pretending to think that they are made just to trouble you."

When he had said this, he paused to hear what Rollo would say. He thought that if he was convinced of his sin, and really penitent, he would acknowledge that he was wrong, or at least be silent;-but that if, on the other hand, he were still unsubdued, he would go to making excuses.

After a moment's pause, Rollo said,-"I did not know that there was need of rain in the fields."

"Did not you?" said his father. "Did not you know that the ground was very dry, and that, unless we have rain soon, the crops will suffer very much?"

"No, sir," said Rollo.

"It is so," said his father; "and this rain, which you are so unwilling to have descend, is going down into the ground all over the country, and into the roots of all the plants growing in the fields, carrying in the nourishment which will swell out all the corn and grain, and apples and pears. In a few days there will be thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of fruit and food more than there would have been without this rain; and yet you are very unwilling to have it come, because you want to go and get a few blueberries!"

Rollo was confounded, and had not a word to say.

"Now, Rollo," continued his father, "all the rest of us are disposed to be good-humored, and to acquiesce in God's decision, and try to have a happy day at home; and we cannot have it spoiled by your wicked repinings. So you must go away by yourself, until you feel willing to submit pleasantly and with good humor. Then you may come back, but be sure not to come back before."