Rollo at Play

BOASTING.

"How pleasant it is here!" said Rollo to his cousin Lucy, as they were gathering blueberries high up on old Mount Benalgon, the day they went up with Rollo's father and mother, and uncle; "and how thick the blueberries are, Lucy!"

"Yes," said Lucy, "they are very thick, I think; and how far we can see now, we are up here so high! I wish we were up on that great high rock."

Rollo looked where Lucy pointed, and he saw, away above them, a rocky summit projecting out from the mountain. The front of the rock was ragged and precipitous, but it was flat and mossy upon the top, and firs and other evergreen trees grew there, some of them hanging over the edge.

"I wish I could get up there," said Lucy.

"I wish I could too," said Rollo. "I should like to climb up one of those trees which hangs over, and then I could look down."

"O, Rollo," said Lucy, "you would not dare to climb up one of those trees."

"Yes, I should dare to," said Rollo.

Rollo was sometimes a proud, boasting boy, pretending that he could do great things, and talking very largely. This was one of his greatest faults; and whenever he seemed to be in this boasting mood, he almost always got into some difficulty after it. There is a text in the Bible that was proved true, very often, in Rollo's case. It is this-"Pride cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Rollo had a sad Tall this day, though it was not from that high rock. It was a different sort of a fall from that, as we shall presently see.

"Lucy," said he again, "I do not believe but that I could get up upon that rock myself. I can climb rocks."

"O no, you could not," said Lucy.

"Why, yes, I see a way."

"Which way?"

"O, round by that great black log There is a path there through the bushes."

"O no," said Lucy, "you could not get up there. But there are some boys by that log; what boys are they?"

Rollo looked. They were some boys which they had seen coming up the mountain, and Rollo's father had warned him not to go near them. They had wanted Rollo to go with them before, but his father had forbidden it. Rollo wanted to go, and now he was glad to see them again; but Lucy was sorry.