TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN
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.
GETTING IN TROUBLE.
The blueberries were very thick and large, and the bottoms of the baskets were soon covered with them. Each one picked where he found them most plenty.
Rollo and Lucy kept pretty near together, talking, and gradually strayed away to some distance from the rest of the party. After a little while, Rollo looked up, and saw the three boys pretty near them. As soon as Lucy saw them so near, she moved along towards their parents; and Rollo ought to have done so too, but he remained where he was, and presently one of the boys came up to him.
"Why did you not come up where we were?" said he. "They were thicker out there."
"My father would not let me," said Rollo.
"O, come along," said the boy; "he will not care. Besides, he will not know it. He is busy picking by himself. He does not mind where you are."
Rollo thought this was not exactly the way that a good boy would speak of obeying a father, but he wanted very much to see the place where the berries were so much thicker.
"How far is it?" said he to the boy.
"O, it is only a little way-just around that rock."
By this time the other two boys came up, and they talked with Rollo a little while, and endeavored to persuade him to go. He said finally that he would go and ask his father. So he left his basket, and went and asked his father if he might just go with those boys round the rock. He said the blueberries were much thicker around there, and also that he had been talking with the boys, and he was sure they were good boys.
"No, Rollo," said his father, decidedly, "I cannot think that any boys that use bad language can be good boys, or safe companions for you. I had rather you would keep with us. If they speak to you, answer them civilly; but the less you have to say to them or do with them, the better. In fact, I had rather you would not go back to them at all."
"I must," said Rollo, "to get my basket."
He accordingly returned to his basket, and told the boys that his father preferred that he should stay where he was.
The biggest boy of the three was a ragged and dirty-looking boy; the others called him Jim, and he talked with Rollo a good deal. Rollo"s conscience reproved him for not leaving them, and going back to his father; but he wanted to stay and hear their talk, and he quieted his conscience by saying to himself that his father told him to treat them civilly. At first the boys were careful what they said to Rollo; but at length Jim grew more and more hold. He used language which Rollo knew was wrong, and he told Rollo that he was a fool to stick so close to his father; that he was big enough to find his way alone all over the mountain, if he was of a mind to.
All this Rollo was silly enough to believe, and, as his father only required him to keep in sight, he thought he would show the boys that he was not so much afraid as they thought he was; and so hi gradually moved off farther and farther from his parents, as he went on gradually filling up his basket. Lucy, in the mean time, went nearer and nearer to them, and in a short time was safely gathering her blueberries by her aunt"s side.
Things went on so for an hour. Rollo"s mother asked his father whether he had not better call Rollo to them.
"No," said he; "I have told him his duty once, plainly, and now, if he does not do it, he must take the consequences. I believe I shall leave him to himself."
The boys went on talking to one another and to Rollo, telling various stories about their running away from school, stealing apples, and such things. Rollo was much interested in listening to them, though he knew, all the time, that he was doing wrong. But he had not the courage to leave them abruptly, as he ought to have done, and go back to his father.
Rollo took a great deal of pains with the berries he picked; he chose the largest and ripest, and was very careful not to get in any sticks and leaves. His basket was small, and he intended, as soon as he got it full, to carry it carefully to his mother, and pour his berries into her large tin pail. He was succeeding finely in this, but then he had insensibly strayed away so far from his father, that now he was entirely out of his sight.
At length, as Jim was sitting on a log to rest himself, as he said, he saw a little bird alight on the branch of a black stump near.
"Hash," said he; "there is a Bob-a-link. See how I will fix him."
So saying, he picked up a stone, and was going to throw it.
Rollo begged him not to kill that pretty little bird but he paid no attention to what Rollo said. He threw the stone with all his force; but fortunately it did not hit the bird. It struck the limb that the bird was perched upon, and shivered it to fragments, and the bird flew away, terrified.
"Now, what did you do that for?" said Rollo; "you might have hit him."
"Hit him!" said he; "I meant to hit him, to be sure."
"But what good does it do to kill little birds? I found one this morning, and I would not kill him for any thing."
"Where did you find him?" said Jim.
Rollo then told the boys all about his finding a little bird, in its nest floating in the brook, and about their naming him Mosette; as is described in the story called "BLUEBERRYING;" and Jim said, if he had found him, he would have put him on a fence, for a mark to fire stones at. "I would have made him peep, I tell you," said he.
Rollo said he would not have him killed on any account. He was going to carry him home, and feed him, and tame him.
"But where is he now?" said Jim.