Rollo at Work

A Bad Beginning.

Rollo sat down on the chips, and began picking them up, all around him, and throwing them into his basket. He soon filled it up, and then lugged it in, emptied it into the chip-bin, and then returned, and began to fill it again.

He had not got his basket more than half full the second time, before he came upon some very large chips, which were so square and flat, that he thought they would be good to build houses with. He thought he would just try them a little, and began to stand them up in such a manner as to make the four walls of a house. He found, however, an unexpected difficulty; for although the chips were large and square, yet the edges were so sharp that they would not stand up very well.

Some time was spent in trying experiments with them in various ways; but he could not succeed very well; so he began again industriously to put them into his basket.

When he got the basket nearly full, the second time, he thought he was tired, and that it would be a good plan to take a little time for rest; and he would go and see Jonas a little while.

Now his various interruptions and delays, his conversation with his mother, the delay in getting the basket, and his house-building, had occupied considerable time; so that, when he went back to Jonas, it was full half an hour from the time when he left him; and he found that Jonas had finished mending the wheelbarrow, and had put it in its place, and was just going away himself into the field.

"Well, Rollo," said he, "how do you get along with your work?"

"O, very well," said Rollo; "I have been picking up chips all the time since I went away from you."

Rollo did not mean to tell a falsehood. But he was not aware how much of his time he had idled away.

"And how many have you got in?" said Jonas.

"Guess," said Rollo.

"Six baskets full," said Jonas.

"No," said Rollo.

"Eight."

"No; not so many."

"How many, then?" said Jonas, who began to be tired of guessing.

"Two; that is, I have got one in, and the other is almost full."

"Only two?" said Jonas. "Then you cannot have worked very steadily. Come here and I will show you how to work."