Jacob Abbott

“ With Jonas's help, Rollo planned his garden beautifully. He put double rows of peas and beans all around, so that when they should grow up, they would enclose his garden like a fence or hedge, and make it look snug and pleasant within. Then, he had a row of corn, for he thought he should like some green corn himself to roast. Then, he had one bed of beets and some hills of muskmelons, and in one corner he planted some flower seeds, so that he could have some flowers to put into his mother's glasses, for the mantel-piece. ”

“ There, Said He, See How Men Work. “And do men always appoint a head,” said Rollo, “when they work together?”
“No,” said the farmer, “they do not always appoint one regularly, but they always have one, in some way or other. Even when no one is particularly authorized to direct, they generally let the one who is oldest, or who knows most about the business, take the lead, and the rest do as he says.” ”

“ But if you conclude to have a real garden, and to work industriously a little while every day upon it, I should give it to you there, just beyond the pear-tree.”
Rollo looked at the two places, but he could not make up his mind. That evening he asked Jonas about it, and Jonas advised him to ask his father to let him have both. “Then,” said he, “you can work on your real garden as long as there is any necessary work to be done, and then you could go and play about the other with James or Lucy, when they are here.” ”

“ Then, if you have any thing else to play with, you can neglect your garden a long time, and let the weeds grow, and not come and pull them up until you get tired of other play, and happen to feel like working in your garden.”
“I should not think that that would be a very good plan,” said Rollo.
“Why, yes,” replied his father; “I do not know but that it is a good plan enough,—that is, for play. It is right for you to play sometimes; and I do not know why you might not play with a piece of ground, and seeds, as well as with any thing else.” ”

“ His mother and James looked up, wondering what Rollo meant. He was looking out at the side of the carryall, at something about the wheel.
“What is it,” said his mother.
“Why, here is a large fly trying to light on the wheel, and every time his legs touch it, it knocks them away. See! See!”
“Yes, but you must not attend to him now. You must listen to my lecture. You promised to give your attention to me.”
So James and Rollo turned away from the window, and began to listen again.
“I have told you now,” said she, “of one kind of playthings—those that give pleasure from their novelty only. ”

“ After Rollo and James had thrown in several apples, George came and turned them all out.
“You must not put them in so,” said he; “all the good and bad ones together.”
“How must we put them in?” asked Rollo.
“Why, first we must get a load of good, large, whole, round apples, and then a load of small and wormy ones. We only put the good ones into the barrels.” ”

“ When one wanted the wagon to be on one side of the tree, the others wanted it the other; and when George thought it was time to draw the load along towards home, Rollo and James thought it was not nearly full enough. ”

“ Rollo observed, however, that his uncle almost always took Lucy with him when he went to ride. And one day, when he was playing in the yard where Jonas was at work setting out trees, he saw his uncle riding by, with another person in the chaise, and Lucy sitting between them on a little low seat. Lucy smiled and nodded as she went by; and when she had gone, Rollo said,
“There goes Lucy, taking a ride. Uncle almost always takes her, when he goes any where. I wonder why father does not take me as often.” ”

“ Because I want you, when you grow up to be a man, to be bound by your agreements. Men will hold you to your agreements when you are a man, and I want you to be accustomed to it while you are a boy. I should rather give up twice as much land as your garden, than take yours away from you now ”

“ And now the proper course for him to have taken, would have been to leave the wheelbarrow where it was, go and get the basket, take out the chips from the wheelbarrow, and carry them, a basket full at a time, to the bin, then take the wheelbarrow to its place, and go on with his work in the way he began.
But Rollo, like all other boys who have not learned to work, was more inclined to get somebody to help him do what was beyond his own strength, than to go quietly on alone in doing what he himself was able to do. ”

“ You are really beginning to get over some of the faults of boy work.”
“What are the faults of boy work?” said Rollo.
“One of the first is, confounding work with play,—or rather expecting the pleasure of play, while they are doing work. There is great pleasure in doing work, as I have told you before, when it is well and properly done, but it is very different from the pleasure of play. It comes later; [pg 125] generally after the work is done. While you are doing your work, it requires exertion and self-denial, and sometimes the sameness is tiresome. ”

“ Georgie had been sick a great many years, and when Rollo and Jonas first knew him, he used to be very sad and unhappy. It was because the poor little fellow had nothing to do. His father had to work pretty hard to get food and clothing for his family; he loved little Georgie very much, but he could not buy him many things. Sometimes people who visited him, used to give him playthings, and they would amuse him a little while, [pg 166] but he soon grew tired of them, and had them put away. It is very hard for any body to be happy who has not any thing to do. ”

“ This comes from the first fault; for you expect, when you go to work, the kind of pleasure you have in play, and when you find you do not obtain it, or meet with any difficulties, you grow impatient, and get tired of what you are doing.
“From this follows the third fault—changeableness, or want of perseverance. Instead of steadily going forward in the way they commence, boys are very apt to abandon one thing after another, and to try this new way, and that new way, so as to accomplish very little in any thing.”
“Do you think I have overcome all these?” said Rollo. ”

“ They walked along together, and the boys told Jonas what their father had said. Jonas said he should be very glad to have the quagmire filled up, but he was afraid it would not do any good for him to give them any directions.
“Why?” said James.
“Because,” said Jonas, “little boys will never follow any directions. They always want to do the work their own way.”
“O, but we will obey the directions,” said Rollo.
“Do you remember about the wood-pile?” said Jonas. ”

“ Jolly was a sleek, black, beautiful little horse, not old enough to do much work, but a very good horse to ride. George took down a bridle, and, after leading Jolly to a horse-block, where he could stand up high enough to reach his head, he put the bridle on, and then jumped up upon his back, and walked him out of the barn by a door where Nappy could not see them. ”

“ There is a noble large apple tree on one side of the house, which bears a beautiful, sweet, and mellow kind of apple, called golden pippins. A great many other trees and flowers are around the house, and in the little garden on the side of it towards the brook. There is a small white gate that leads to the house, from the road; and there is a pleasant path leading right out from the front door, through the garden, down to the water. This is the house that Georgie lives in.
One evening, just before sunset, Rollo was coming along over the stone bridge, towards home. ”

“ Jonas looked and saw Rollo's father coming out of the wood, leading a horse. The colt and the horse had been feeding together in the field, and Rollo's father had caught the horse, for he wanted to take a ride. Rollo's father had a little basket in his hand, and when he saw the colt coming towards him, he held it up and called him, “Elky, Elky, Elky, Elky,” for the colt's name was Elkin, though they often called him Elky. Elkin walked slowly up to the basket, and put his nose in it. ”

“ No person can do anything they please with their property. There are limits and restrictions in all cases. And in all cases where children have property, whether it [pg 93] is money, hats, toys, or any thing, they are always limited and restricted to such a use of them as their parents approve. So, when I give you money, it becomes yours just as your clothes, or your wheelbarrow, or your books, are yours. ”

“ Rollo often went there with Jonas, to carry a chair to be mended, or to get a lock or latch put in order; and sometimes to buy a basket, or a rake, or some simple thing that the corporal knew how to make. A corporal, you must know, is a kind of an officer in a company. This man had been such an officer; and so they always called him the corporal. I never knew what his other name was.
That evening Rollo and his father set off in the chaise to go to the corporal's. It was not very far. They rode along by some very pleasant farm-houses, and came at length to the house where Georgie lived. ”

“ The first sight of a ball would not give you any very special pleasure. Its value would consist in the pleasure you would take in playing with it.
“Now, it is generally best to buy such playthings as you can use a great many times, and in a great many ways; such as a top, a ball, a knife, a wheelbarrow. But things that please you only by their novelty, will soon lose all their power to give you pleasure, and be good for nothing to you. Such, for instance, as jumping men, and witches, and funny little images. Children are very often deceived in buying their playthings ”

“ You begin to work when I give you any thing to do, but if you do not find amusement in it, you soon give it up. But if you would only persevere, you would find, at length, a solid satisfaction, that would be worth a great deal more. ”

“ When the boys first came in, there was a little girl standing by the counter with a small slate in her hand. She looked like a poor girl, though she was neat and tidy in her dress. She was talking with the shopman about the slate.
“Don't you think,” said she, “you could let me have it for ten cents?”
“No,” said he, “I could not afford it for less than fifteen. It cost me more than ten.”
The little girl laid the slate down, and looked disappointed and sad. Rollo's mother came up to her, took up the slate, and said,
“I should think you had better give him fifteen cents. It is a very good slate. ”

“ It is so with men when they work, but they expect it will be so, and persevere notwithstanding; but boys, who have not learned this, expect their work will be play; and, when they find it is not so, they get tired, and want to leave it or to find some new way.
“You showed your wish to make play of your work, that day when you were getting in your chips, by insisting on having just such a basket as you happened to fancy; and then, when you got a little tired of that, going for the wheelbarrow ”

“ Rollo took great interest in laying out and planting his ground, and in watching the garden when the seeds first came up; for all this was easy and pleasant work. In the intervals, he used to play on his [pg 111] pleasure-ground, planting and digging, and setting out, just as he pleased.
Sometimes he, and James, and Lucy, would go out in the woods with his little wheelbarrow, and dig up roots of flowers and little trees there, and bring them in, and set them out here and there. ”

“ He told Rollo, a minute or two after, that he might go, then, where he pleased, and that he would consider what he should do, and tell him some other time.
A Conversation. That evening, when Rollo was just going to bed, his father took him up in his lap, and told him he had concluded what to do.
“You see it is very necessary,” said he, “that you should have the power of confining yourself steadily and patiently to a single employment, even if it does not amuse you. I have to do that, and all people have to do it, and you must learn [pg 53] to do it, or you will grow up indolent and useless. ”

“ I mean playthings which give you pleasure, but give other persons pain. A drum and a whistle, for example, are disagreeable to other persons; and children, therefore, ought not to choose them, unless they have a place to go to, to play with them, which will be out of hearing. I have known boys to buy masks to frighten other children with, and bows and arrows, which sometimes are the means of putting out children's eyes. So you must consider, when you are choosing playthings, first, whether the pleasure they will give you will be from the novelty or the use ”

“ He would not give his brothers any, for he said they had had their money as well as he. When he got home, he went about the house, up and down, through parlor and chamber, kitchen and shed, springing his rattle, and calling out, “Stop thief! Stop thief!” or “Fire! Fire!” Every body got tired, and asked him to be still; but he did not [pg 186] mind, until, at last, his father took his rattle away from him, and put it up on a high shelf.
Then Selfish and Shallow went out and found Wise playing beautifully with his ball in the yard; and he invited them to play with him. ”