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 /n press, % W. D. Ticknor, 
 
 AMERICAN JUVENILE BIOGRAPHY, 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 “ Is this true,” is a question often ashed by 
 a child, after reading a story. Perhaps it is 
 well, sometimes, to be able to answer this 
 question in the affirmative. If it is possible 
 to relate the history of remarkable persons in 
 such a manner as to interest the young, such 
 stories may create a better taste in reading than 
 that which is formed by the constant perusal 
 of fiction, which is now employed not only in 
 works intended for relaxation and amusement, 
 but as a vehicle to circulate the deepest 
 principles of philosophy and religion. This 
 volume is intended as the first of a series of 
 the lives of distinguished persons, adapted to 
 the understanding of the young. 
 
 Boston, Sept., 1839. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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See p 144. 
 
JONAS’S STORIES; 
 
 RELATED TO 
 
 ROLLO AND LUCY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE ROLLO BOOKS. 
 
 p- > \ 
 
 \ CALC*#,D > !•> 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WILLIAM D. TICKNOR. 
 
 1839 . 
 

 Entered according' to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 
 By T. II. Carter, 
 
 In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 
 
 STEREOTYPED AT THE 
 BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 
 
PREFATORY NOTICE. 
 
 These Stories of Jonas, having been 
 related to Rollo and Lucy together, are 
 intended both for boys and girls. It is 
 hoped that, in all of them, the parent or 
 teacher, who may run his eye over the 
 book, will find a useful tendency. The 
 aim of the writer has been to cultivate 
 habits of clear discrimination, sound 
 reasoning, and correct judgment on the 
 common subjects of interest to childhood, 
 and to develop the gentle and amiable 
 feelings of the heart. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page. 
 
 THE JOURNEY. 9 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 15 
 
 THE aUESTION.*. 44 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 55 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 70 
 
 GOING TO COURT.. 83 
 
 THE TRIAL. 92 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA.—JACK’S WAY. 117 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA.—JOHN’S WAY. 142 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT. 162 
 
 FENCES. 168 
 
 i ' . ' ' ' , * / 
 
 1 
 
JONAS’S STORIES. 
 
 
 1 V 
 
 THE JOURNEY. 
 
 One summer, when Rollo was about eight 
 years old, his father and mother concluded 
 to take a long journey through the interior 
 of the country. A good deal of the road 
 over which they were to travel lay in a 
 wild, solitary region of forests and moun¬ 
 tains, through which it would be necessary 
 to travel very slowly. Rollo had learned 
 the art, which children are generally very 
 slow to learn, of not being troublesome 
 when riding; and so his mother inquired if 
 there was not some way of taking him with 
 them. After some consultation and planning, 
 they finally determined to enlarge their 
 original design, and take the whole family, 
 except little Nathan. 
 
 Rollo’s father accordingly procured what, 
 
12 
 
 THE JOURNEY. 
 
 in that part of the country, was called a 
 carryall. It was a light, four-wheeled ve¬ 
 hicle, with two seats. It had a large glass 
 in the upper part of the door on each side, 
 and leather curtains all around except in 
 front, so that it could be shut in very se¬ 
 curely, in case of bad weather. Jonas was 
 to drive the wagon behind, with two or 
 three trunks, and the other baggage. Rol¬ 
 lo’s father adopted this plan for three 
 reasons. He wanted Jonas’s help about 
 the business for which he undertook the 
 journey; he thought also that they should 
 travel more conveniently by having the 
 baggage go in a separate conveyance, and 
 then it would often be of advantage to have 
 
 Jonas’s services on the way, in looking after 
 the horses, the baggage, &c., and in waiting^gQ 
 upon them all at the inns. r . .. 
 
 Rollo and his sister Mary were to ride in w 
 the carryall with their father and mother ; 
 and as Rollo was small, and did not take up 
 more than half a seat, they concluded to 
 invite his cousin Lucy to go too. She was 
 very glad to accept the invitation. 
 
 The arrangements were all made accord¬ 
 ingly, and one pleasant morning in June, 
 
THE JOURNEY. 
 
 13 
 
 the carryall and the wagon came to the door; 
 the baggage was put in, and snugly stowed 
 by Jonas in the wagon, all but a few light 
 articles, which he put under the seats in the 
 carryall. Presently all the party took their 
 seats, Jonas locking the door last, and 
 putting the key in his pocket, that he might 
 leave it at one of the neighbors’ until they 
 should return. Rollo and Lucy were in 
 high glee ; and in fact Rollo was rather noisy 
 in his joy, until his mother spoke to him, 
 and then he was more quiet. 
 
 They went on very prosperously; and 
 sometimes Rollo and Lucy used to go and 
 ride in Jonas’s wagon. They liked this 
 better than riding in the carryall, because 
 they could see out better ; for the wagon was 
 not covered at all. In such cases, Jonas let 
 fhem sit upon the seat, which had a buffalo 
 skin spread over it in place of a cushion; 
 and he himself would sit upon the end of a 
 leather trunk, which was placed under the 
 seat, in such a manner that one end projected 
 just far enough in front of it to make a 
 good cricket for Jonas to sit upon and drive. 
 So the children had good accommodations 
 in the wagon, and they liked it very much, 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 THE JOURNEY. 
 
 and Rollo’s father liked to have them ride 
 there sometimes, for it divided the load 
 better, as he said, between the horses. 
 
 Now it happened that Jonas was a capital 
 hand to tell stories; and he had a little 
 time before agreed to tell some stories to 
 Rollo, at some drawing lessons which they 
 were going to take together; but on trying 
 it, they found they needed all their attention 
 for their drawing j and now it was concluded 
 that Jonas should tell stories on this journey 
 instead. So, whenever it was convenient 
 for Rollo and Lucy to ride in his wagon, he 
 beguiled the way in this manner, as they 
 slowly toiled up the hills and through the 
 forests, or pursued their solitary way among 
 the rough defiles of the mountains. Jonas’s 
 first story was The Fisherman’s Boy. 
 
 t v»4' 
 
 4 4 * rV*- < * '* 
 
 A' « 
 
 
15 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 “ Once there was a fisherman. He lived 
 in a little hut which was huilt against thE 
 rocks in a small bay near the sea-shore. 
 There was a small, sandy beach right before 
 his house, a very smooth and pretty beach, 
 where the fisherman used to draw up his 
 little boat when he came in from fishing. 5 ’ 
 
 “ Did he have more than one boat ? 55 said 
 Lucy. 
 
 “ Yes,” replied Jonas, “ he had two, one 
 pretty large boat with a mast, and one 
 smaller one. The large one he always an¬ 
 chored off in the bay, a little way from 
 shore, and then came to the beach in his 
 little boat, which he then drew up out of 
 the way of the tide.” 
 
 “ How high did the tide rise ? ” asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ O, so as almost to cover the beach. 
 When it was high tide, as it was twice 
 every day, there was only a narrow strip 
 of sand between the water and the grass. 
 
 ► * mm \ 
 
 
16 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 When the tide was down, the beach was 
 very broad, and the lower edge of it was 
 very wet, and rather stony ; and then little 
 Jock couldn’t sail his boats very well.” 
 
 “ Little Jock ? ” said Rollo and Lucy both 
 at once ; “ who was little Jock ? ” 
 
 “ O, little Jock was the fisherman’s boy. 
 He was about seven years old, and he was 
 a capital little fellow too. One pleasant 
 morning, he asked his father to let him go 
 out a-fishing with him. 
 
 “ 1 Go out a-fishing ? 5 said his father ; 
 1 what good could you do ? ’ 
 
 “ 1 O, father,’ said Jock, 1 I can catch 
 fishes. I can pull ’em up.’ And here he 
 began to make signs as if he was pulling a 
 fishing-line out of water, hand over hand. 
 1 If you will just get ’em hooked on for me, 
 I’ll pull ’em up.’ 
 
 “ His father laughed a little at this, and 
 finally he said he might go. So Jock ran 
 capering down to the little boat, which was 
 almost afloat, with its bows just resting a 
 little upon the beach.” 
 
 “ But I thought you said he always pulled 
 his little boat out of the water? ” said Lucy. 
 
 “So he did; that is, he always pulled it 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 17 
 
 up so high that they could get into it at 
 high tide. It was high tide now, and so the 
 boat was almost afloat. But the painter was 
 fastened to a stake farther still upon the 
 shore ; so it was secure.” 
 
 “ What is the painter ? ” said Lucy. 
 
 “ A rope fastened to a ring in the bows of 
 the boat. They always call it the painter .” 
 
 “ What a funny name ! ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Jock,” continued Jonas, “ got into the 
 little boat, and took up the boat-hook. Do 
 you know what a boat-hook is? ” said he. 
 
 “ No,” said Lucy. 
 
 “ It is a long pole, with a spike and a hook 
 in one end of it, to push against the bottom, 
 or to fend off from the rocks, when they 
 come too near the shore ; or to hook up any 
 thing which has fallen overboard, or which 
 is found floating in the water. A boat-hook 
 is a very handy thing on board a boat.” 
 
 “ Yes,” said Rollo ; “well, what did Jock 
 do with his boat-hook ? ” 
 
 “ O, he began pushing against the bottom, 
 and that made the stern of the boat, that is, 
 the after part, move in the water from side to 
 side. Jock had often done this before, when 
 the tide was up so as to float the boat. He 
 
 2 * 
 
18 
 
 THE FISHERMAN S BOY. 
 
 called it sailing ; but he could net sail so, 
 long, for the tide would soon ebb away, and 
 leave him hard aground.” 
 
 u What time in the day was it high 
 tide ? 55 said Lucy. 
 
 “ O, different times, on different days. It 
 was high tide an hour later every day. Well, 
 as I was saying, Jock was pushing his boat 
 about, waiting for his father ; and presently 
 he called out, 
 
 u e Come, father, come ; I’m sailing. If 
 you don’t come quick, I shall be gone . 5 
 
 u His father laughed, and came along with 
 some lines in one hand, and a sort of a bag 
 in the other . 55 
 
 “ What was in the bag ? 55 said Rollo. 
 
 u Some bread and cheese, and a little keg 
 of water to drink. They always have to 
 carry water on the sea, for the sea-water is 
 salt, and not good to drink. 
 
 “ So the fisherman came down, and put 
 his lines and his bag into the boat, and then 
 cast off the painter from the stake, and after 
 giving the boat a slight shove off from the 
 land, he stepped in himself, and Jock began 
 to shove off with his boat-hook. 
 
 6 Now, father , 5 says Jock, 1 you sit still, 
 
19 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 and I will navigate you out to the Blue¬ 
 bird.’ ” 
 
 “ The Bluebird ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas, “that was the name 
 of the fisherman’s large boat, which was 
 floating out in the little bay, a few fathoms 
 from the shore. The little boat was only 
 fit to paddle about in near the shore ; but 
 the Bluebird had a mast and sail, and was 
 pretty large and strong, and could bear up 
 against pretty heavy waves. 
 
 “ So Jock tried to shove the little boat out 
 to the Bluebird; but it only went round and 
 round, this way and that, until his father 
 took up an oar, and putting it out behind, 
 began to scull.” 
 
 “ Scull ? ” said Rollo ; “ what is that ? ” 
 
 “ O, it is working the oar back and forth 
 in a curious way, so as to send the boat 
 ahead. When they got pretty near the 
 Bluebird, the fisherman told Jock to take in 
 his boat-hook ; and then he brought the boat 
 up handsomely alongside the Bluebird, to 
 leeward.” 
 
 Jonas pronounced the word leeward as if it 
 had been spelled loo-ard , which is the proper 
 way to pronounce it. 
 
20 
 
 THE FISHERMAN S BOY. 
 
 “You have so many sea phrases in your 
 story, Jonas, that I can’t understand it very 
 well,” said Lucy. 
 
 u Can’t you ? ” said Jonas. “ But I don’t 
 see how I can tell this story very well with¬ 
 out the sea phrases; though I can explain 
 them as I go along ; and it will be useful for 
 you to understand them.” 
 
 “ Very well,” said Lucy, “ go on; but 
 what do you mean by leeward ? ” 
 
 “ Why, when a vessel or a boat is out 
 upon the water, there is one side that the 
 wind blows upon, and the waves, if there 
 are any, dash up on that side ; but round on 
 the opposite side it is sheltered, and there 
 the water is smoother. The side towards 
 the wind is called to windward , and the other 
 to leeivard. Now, here in this wagon,” 
 continued Jonas, pointing out on one side, 
 u the wind is blowing in upon us here, and 
 this is to windward; and here, on the 
 other side, it is to leeward. It makes no 
 difference on which side you get into a 
 wagon; but it is generally much easier to 
 get into a vessel from the leeward. 
 
 “ The Bluebird was moored to a buoy 
 which the fisherman had fixed there in the 
 
21 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 water. This buoy was a small, round beam 
 of wood, with a rope fastened to one end. 
 The other end of this rope was tied strong 
 round a stone, — a large stone which was 
 sunk to the bottom ; and so the buoy could 
 not get away; but there it floated, lifting its 
 head high out of water.” 
 
 “ Why, how could it do that ? ” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, you see, the rope was made a 
 little too short to reach to the top of the 
 water, and that drew the lower end of the 
 buoy under, and raised the other end. The 
 fisherman painted the upper end of the buoy 
 white, so that he could see it more easily in 
 the dark ; and he cut the shape of a dog’s 
 head on the end, and called it his watch¬ 
 dog Lookout, to watch the tides.” 
 
 “ To watch the tides? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas, “he would watch the 
 tides, and tell when it was high or when it 
 was low.” 
 
 “ How could he ? ” asked Lucy. 
 
 “ Why, you see the rope was short, and 
 drew one end of the buoy under water ; and 
 so, when the tide rose high, it made the 
 rope a good deal too short, and that drew the 
 
22 
 
 THE FISHERMaN*S BOY. 
 
 lower end a good deal under the water, and 
 made the other end lift up higher. Then, 
 when the tide went down, old Lookout would 
 gradually lie down again too. So that they 
 could always tell, by looking at the old watch 
 dog, how high the tide was. Besides that, 
 he would tell them whether it was ebb or 
 flood.” 
 
 “ Ebb or flood ? ” inquired Lucy. 
 
 “ Yes; that is, whether the tide was coming 
 in or going out. When the tide is flowing 
 in, it is called flood tide, all the time from 
 when it first begins to come in, until the 
 bay is full: then it is high tide. Very soon 
 it begins to ebb, that is, to run out again; and 
 it is called ebb tide until it is all out, and 
 then it is low tide again.” 
 
 u But how could the buoy tell,” said 
 Rollo, “ whether the tide was coming in or 
 going out ? ” 
 
 “ Why, it was confined, you see, only at 
 one end, and so the tide, when it was coming 
 in, or going out, carried otf the upper end of 
 the buoy, so as to make old Lookout’s head 
 point the way the tide was going. When 
 the tide was coming in, old Lookout turned 
 his head towards the head of the bay; and 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 25 
 
 then, when it ebbed, he would lean over 
 towards the sea, and look off as if he wanted 
 to go out too. 
 
 “ There was a small iron ring fastened to 
 Lookout, just under one of his ears. The 
 Bluebird was fastened to this ring, by means 
 of a rope. The fisherman helped Jock up 
 into the large boat, and then cast off from 
 the ring. Jock sat down upon one of the 
 thwarts, near the mast.” 
 
 “ Thwarts ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes ; — seats, placed across the boat 
 from side to side. Jock sat down upon one 
 of these seats, and the fisherman began to 
 make sail.” 
 
 “ Make sails? ” said Rollo ; “ were not his 
 sails made yet ? ” 
 
 “ I did not say make his sails” said Jonas, 
 “ but make sail ; that is, hoist his sails. They 
 always call it making sail. The fisherman 
 then went to the stern of the boat, and took 
 the helm, and as soon as the sails filled, and 
 she got a little way on her, he put her head 
 round, and stood out to sea. 
 
 “ It was a fine summer’s day, and there 
 were a pleasant breeze and a smooth sea. 
 The Bluebird glided along beautifully over 
 
 3 
 
28 the fisherman's boy*. 
 
 the water, heeling a little to port, for the 
 wind was on the starboard beam.” 
 
 “ O dear me ! ” said Lucy, with a long 
 sigh ; “ I can’t understand one word you say.” 
 
 “ Can’t you ? ” said Jonas. “ What, 
 haven’t you understood the story so far ? ” 
 
 “ Why, yes,” said she, “ so far; but it 
 grows harder and harder to understand.” 
 
 “Well, perhaps I had better leave off this 
 story, and try to tell another.” 
 
 u O no,” said Rollo, “ I went to hear the 
 rest of this very much. You can explain it 
 to us as you go along.” 
 
 “ You will understand it better pretty 
 soon,” said Jonas, “for I was going to tell 
 you how the fisherman explained about the 
 boat to Jock. After they had sailed along a 
 little way, ‘ Jock,’ said he, ‘ while we are 
 making our offing, I think I will give you 
 a talk about boat-service. It will be worth 
 a day’s schooling, if you listen well.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Well,’ said Jock, c I should like to hear.’ 
 “ Then the fisherman, after trimming his 
 sails a little more exactly, and taking a good 
 lookout ahead, began thus:— 
 
 “ ‘ The for’ard part of the boat is called 
 the bows, and the hind part here, where I am 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 27 
 
 sitting, is called the stern. That you knew 
 already.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Yes, father.’ 
 
 “ ‘ The sides of the boat are named, as 
 well as the ends,’ continued the fisherman. 
 ‘ This side on the right is called the star¬ 
 board side, and this one on the left is called 
 the larboard side. Remember that, will you, 
 boy ? ’ 
 
 “Yes, father, I’ll try. Starboard is right, 
 and larboard is left.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Ay, ay, Jock, that is it exactly. The 
 larboard side*of the boat, near the bows, is 
 called the larboard bow ; near the stern, it is 
 called the larboard quarter; and so on the 
 other side, it is called the# starboard boic, and 
 starboard quarter. So, if you look out of a 
 boat, or a vessel, nearly for’ard, but a little 
 to the left, and should see any thing there, 
 you would say it was on the larboard bow.' 
 
 “ Here Jock looked out in the direction 
 which his father had named, and said, 1 1 do 
 see something on the larboard bow, father.’ 
 
 “ ‘ What is it ? ’ said his father. 
 
 “ 1 A gull.’ 
 
 “ The fisherman looked, and saw it.” 
 
 “ Just at that moment, the gull was fright- 
 
28 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 ened at seeing the boat coming on, and he 
 flapped his wings, and rose slowly from the 
 water. Jock watched him. He wheeled 
 around in the air over their heads, and then 
 finally went down again towards the water, 
 and lighted in the bay away behind them, 
 and yet not exactly behind them, but con¬ 
 siderably to the left. 
 
 44 4 There, where is he now ? ’ said the 
 fisherman. 
 
 44 4 He is on the larboard quarter ,’ said Jock. 
 
 4 4 4 Right,’ said the fisherman. 4 You’re 
 a pretty good scholar. If lie had lighted on 
 one side of us here, to the left, about off op¬ 
 posite to us, we should call that on the lar¬ 
 board beam; because it is where the beams 
 of a vessel point, which go across from side 
 to side.’ 
 
 4 4 4 And off on the other side is on the , 
 starboard beam, I suppose,’ said Jock. 
 
 4 4 4 Yes,’ said the fisherman ; 4 and if any 
 thing is right before us, it is ahead , and if 
 it is right behind us, it is astern. Now, Jock, 
 you stand up, and take a look all around, 
 and tell me what you see, in all these di¬ 
 rections.’ 
 
 4 4 4 Where shall I begin ? ’ said Jock. 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 29 
 
 “ 1 Begin right ahead,’ said his father. 
 
 “ So Jock stood up on the thwart, and 
 began to look for’ard, and described what 
 he saw, thus : 
 
 “ ‘ There is nothing right ahead but water.’ 
 Then he turned a little to the left, and said, 
 £ On the larboard bow, I see some rocks and a 
 point of land. On the larboard beam is the 
 shore. Then next comes the larboard quar¬ 
 ter, where I see our house and the beach. 
 
 “ £ Directly behind us ’— 
 
 “ ‘ No, not behind us ; astern , you mean,’ 
 said the fisherman. 
 
 “ ‘ Yes, astern, I see the buoy, and our 
 little boat fastened to it, and the land beyond. 
 On the starboard quarter, there is water and 
 land beyond; on the starboard beam, the 
 same ; on the starboard bow, there are rocks ; 
 and that brings me round to right ahead 
 again, where I began, and where there is 
 nothing but water. — Yes, there is,’ he con¬ 
 tinued, after a moment’s pause ; ‘ I see a 
 
 sail-boat out in the offing, right ahead.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Let me see,’ said the fisherman ; and he 
 leaned his head to one side, to see clear of 
 the mast and sail. 
 
 “ It was a large ship, instead of a sail-boat; 
 
 3 * 
 
30 
 
 THE FISHERMAN'S ROY. 
 
 but it was so far off, that it looked very 
 small, and so Jock thought it was a boat. 
 The fisherman knew that it was a ship sail¬ 
 ing along the coast, and he knew also that 
 she was going in such a direction, that the 
 wind was ahead to her, though to the Blue¬ 
 bird it was on the starboard beam. 7 ’ 
 
 “Now I remember you told us so some 
 time before, 77 said Lucy, “ and I did not 
 understand it then; but now I know from 
 what the fisherman said. 77 
 
 “Yes, it means that the wind blew right 
 across the boat, from the starboard side, and 
 I told you that made her heel to port. 77 
 
 “ Heel to port! 77 said Lucy, laughing, 
 “ what is that ? 77 
 
 “ Heel l that is lean over ; and to port is 
 to larboard.” 
 
 “Why don’t they say to larboard then? 77 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “ No, why don’t they say to the left , and 
 done with it? 77 said Lucy, “and then we 
 should understand. If you would tell us 
 plainly that the wind blew on the right side, 
 and made the boat lean over to the left side, 
 then we should understandj but instead of 
 that you tell us the wind was on the star- 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 31 
 
 board beam, and that made her heel to 
 port! ” 
 
 Here Rollo and Lucy burst into a loud fit 
 of laughter at the absurdity of sea language. 
 Jonas smiled, and waited patiently until they 
 had become still; and then he said, 
 
 ct All I know about it is, that is the way 
 the sailors do talk.” 
 
 ‘‘How do you know?” said Lucy. 
 
 “ O, I have been to sea,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ When was it ? ” asked Lucy. 
 
 “Never mind that now,” said Rollo; “I 
 want to hear the rest of this story.” 
 
 “ Well,” said Jonas, “they went on pros¬ 
 perously until they came to the fishing- 
 ground and began to fish. They anchored 
 the boat, and fished for some time, and the 
 fisherman let Jock pull up some of the fishes. 
 They were a good many miles from the land ; 
 but Jock was not afraid, for the water was 
 very smooth and still. In fact the wind all 
 died away ; and in consequence of it the ship 
 could not get along, but she lay still upon 
 the water, about two miles from them, out to 
 sea, the great sails hanging idly against the 
 masts. Jock asked his father how they were 
 going to get home without any wind; and his 
 
32 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 father told him that he had no doubt there 
 would he a breeze before night. 
 
 “ The afternoon passed away, however, 
 with scarcely a breath of air. The ship 
 grew gradually smaller and smaller during 
 the middle of the day, because she gradually 
 worked olf from the land; but in the after¬ 
 noon the tide set in towards shore, and she 
 slowly drifted back again, until at length 
 she approached within half a mile of the 
 boat. When the sun was about two hours 
 high, the fisherman drew in his lines, and 
 hoisted his sail again to go home, —the 
 bottom of his boat being filled with fishes. 
 
 iC As the boat came round, Jock had the 
 ship in full view on the starboard beam. 
 The ship had three masts, and a great many 
 ropes and sails; and as the wind, what little 
 there was, was blowing in now towards the 
 shore, she was to windward of the boat. Jock 
 had time to look at her leisurely, for the boat 
 moved very slowly ; and presently he heard 
 a loud voice, calling out from the ship, 
 
 u 1 Boat ahoi ! ’ 5; 
 
 “ The fisherman rose in the stern of the 
 boat, and answered to the call. He found 
 that they wanted him to go on board the 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 33 
 
 ship, and sell them some fish. The fisher¬ 
 man was very glad to sell some of his fish, 
 because he wanted the money; but the ship 
 was some distance off, and as she lay dead 
 to windward, he could not think of sailing 
 there ; so he took in his sail, and put out a 
 couple of oars, one on each side, and began 
 to pull for the ship. 
 
 “ Jock and his father had now exchanged 
 seats; for the fisherman himself took his 
 place upon one of the thwarts, to row, and 
 so Jock went to the helm. He sat down 
 and took hold of the tiller.” 
 
 “ What is the tiller ? ” asked Rollo. 
 
 “ It is the handle of the rudder, that you 
 steer by. So Jock took hold of the handle 
 of the rudder, and asked his father if he 
 might steer.” 
 
 “‘Yes,’ said the fisherman. ‘ Look out 
 well, and keep her head exactly towards the 
 ship. ’ 
 
 “So Jock took the helm, and began to 
 steer ; he found if he put the helm one way, 
 the head of the boat immediately went the 
 other ; and so he soon learned to put the 
 helm the contrary way to that which he 
 wished to turn the boat to. By and by he 
 said, 
 
34 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 u 1 Father, we are coming up pretty near 
 the ship; how shall I stop ? or we shall 
 run against her.’ 
 
 “ The fisherman looked over his shoulder, 
 — for you know, in rowing, a man sits back¬ 
 wards,— and then said, 
 
 u ‘ I’ll tell you when you get near enough, 
 and then you must put the helm hard a-port, 
 and that will carry the head of the boat 
 round, and bring us up alongside.’ 
 
 “ So they went on, the fisherman looking 
 over his shoulder occasionally, and at last, 
 just as they were coming up to the ship, he 
 called out to Jock, 
 
 u 1 Helm a-port; —hard a-port.’ 
 
 “ So Jock crowded the tiller hard a-port, 
 and his father, at the same moment, drew in 
 his oars, and rose from his seat, and stepped 
 to the bows. The boat came rapidly round, 
 and swept finely up alongside of the ship. 
 
 “ { Well done, my little pilot,’ said the 
 men in the ship. ‘ You brought the boat up 
 alongside like an old sailor.’ 
 
 “ ‘ My father told me how,’ said Jock. 
 
 11 i That’s right, my boy,’ said one of the 
 $nen ; ‘ always obey your father ; especially 
 when he’s captain to boot.’ 
 
35 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 “ ‘ He is not captain,’ said Jock. 
 
 “ ‘Isn’t he ? ’ said the sailor. 1 Who 
 commands that craft you sail in* then ? 
 Do you ?’ 
 
 u The sailors laughed heartily at this, and 
 Jock looked somewhat confused. The fish¬ 
 erman himself smiled. Pie was busy all 
 this time fastening the painter to some part 
 of the ship, and then he began to trade with 
 the sailors for his fish. They bought a good 
 many of them, and the fisherman put the 
 money in his pocket: still he had an abun¬ 
 dant store left besides. He was very glad 
 of this sale, for he did not very often get so 
 good an opportunity to sell his fish so well. 
 Finally, when the sailors had bought all 
 they wanted, the fisherman said he must put 
 off, or he should be very late home, there 
 was so little wind. 
 
 “ ‘ There is more wind coming,’ said one 
 of the sailors, in a red cap, who stood lean¬ 
 ing over the bulwark towards the boat. 
 1 We are going to have a squall off from the 
 land.’ 
 
 “ You know what a squall is,” said Jonas, 
 “I suppose.” 
 
 u Not exactly,” said Hollo. 
 
36 the fisherman’s boy. 
 
 “It is a gust of wind, that comes up sud¬ 
 denly, and blows very hard.” 
 
 “ What made the sailor think there was 
 going to be a squall ? ” asked Kollo. 
 
 “ O, he saw some clouds over the land in 
 the west, and thought a thunder gust was 
 coming up. The fisherman looked that 
 way, and thought so too. But there was 
 now quite a pretty little breeze springing up, 
 which blew towards the land, and so they 
 made all sail for the shore.” 
 
 “ If the wind was blowing towards the 
 shore,” said Rollo, “ it would blow the 
 clouds all away from them.” 
 
 “ One would think so,” said Jonas ; “ but 
 squalls and thunder-clouds very often come 
 up against the wind. 
 
 “ They moved along very slowly, and by 
 the time they had gone on a mile, there was 
 a broad, black cloud, rising in the west. The 
 sun went behind it, and it began to look as 
 if night was pretty near. Still they went 
 on, for the breeze was fair, as it blew directly 
 in towards shore, though the cloud kept 
 rising higher, and coming out more and 
 more over the water. Jock eyed the cloud 
 for some time, and at last he saw a faint 
 
37 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 flash of lightning behind it. Then he heard 
 a sound of distant thunder j and a minute 
 after he said, 
 
 “ ‘ Father, isn’t there going to be a 
 storm ? ’ 
 
 “ 1 A squall; but that won’t do any 
 harm. It may make us a little later 
 home.’ 
 
 “ The cloud came swelling on, and it 
 lightened and thundered more and more. 
 Presently the wind all died away, and left 
 the sail of the boat hanging idly at the mast. 
 They were now not very far from the mouth 
 of the bay, and the fisherman thought he 
 could pull in with his oars. So he furled 
 his sail, and got out his oars again, looking 
 occasionally over his shoulder to see how he 
 got along. 
 
 u Presently he stopped rowing, and looked 
 steadily a few minutes at the land, as if he 
 saw something singular.” 
 
 “ What did he see ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ He saw the trees waving, and dust fly¬ 
 ing, which made him think there was going 
 to be a heavy squall. So he said he must 
 put the boat’s head the other way ; and he 
 just had time to get her round, and his oars 
 4 
 
38 the fisherman’s boy. 
 
 in, when the squall struck them with great 
 fury. 
 
 “ The boat begun to scud before it pretty 
 rapidly, when Jock said, ‘ Why, father, you 
 are going right away from home.’ 
 
 “ 1 Yes,’ said his father ; ‘ but this will not 
 last long.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Why don’t you anchor, father,’ said 
 Jock, ‘and so stop the boat till the squall 
 blows over ? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ It is too deep to anchor here,’ said he. 
 
 “ ‘ How do you know it is too deep ? ’ 
 said Jock; and he tried at the same time to 
 look over the side. 
 
 “ 1 Take care,’ said his father, very quickly ; 
 1 there goes your cap; ’ and before Jock had 
 time to put his hand to his head, away went 
 his cap flying through the air ; and at length 
 it fell into the water, at some distance ahead 
 of them. The wind was blowing almost a 
 hurricane, roaring over the water, and howl¬ 
 ing and whistling among the ropes of the 
 boat. The boat was scudding very rapidly 
 on, and soon overtook the cap ; and the fish¬ 
 erman hooked it up with the boat-hook, and 
 took it in. 
 
 u The cap was of course completely 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 39 
 
 drenched with water ; but this was of no 
 great consequence, for it soon began to rain 
 in torrents, and as there was very little 
 shelter, they were both soon pretty well wet 
 through. But this was not the worst of it ; 
 for it became so thick with the rain falling, 
 and the mist and spray, that they began to 
 be afraid they should lose sight of the shore, 
 as they were going farther and farther away 
 from it. But fortunately the wind soon 
 lulled, so that the fisherman thought he 
 might get up his sail again, and head to¬ 
 wards the shore.” 
 
 “ Yes, but the wind was blowing off of 
 the shore,” said Rollo ; “ and so he could 
 not sail back home.” 
 
 “Yes, he could,” said Jonas. “They 
 have a curious way of fixing the sail so as 
 to go towards the land, even when the wind 
 is blowing off from it. They can’t go ex¬ 
 actly against the wind, but nearly against 
 it; — they call it sailing near the wind. 
 
 u So tire fisherman got his sail up, and 
 brought the head of the boat up to the wind, 
 and began to edge along towards the shore, 
 in a slanting direction. But it now began 
 to grow dark pretty fast, and very soon he 
 
40 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 lost sight of the land entirely. Then he did 
 not know what to do.” 
 
 “ Why, keep on straight,” said Lucy, 
 “and he would come to the land by and 
 by.” 
 
 “ He could not tell whether he was going 
 straight or not,” said Jonas; “he could not 
 see any thing but water all around him ; so 
 he had nothing to judge by but the wind, 
 and he soon began to suspect the wind was 
 shifting. The lightning and thunder grad¬ 
 ually ceased, and so did the violence of the 
 wind and rain. In fact, the thunder shower 
 seemed to turn into a steady rain storm. 
 The fisherman heat about for an hour or 
 more, but could not find any signs of land. 
 And now he began to feel pretty seriously 
 alarmed about little Jock ; for ht was very 
 wet and cold, and he feared that they must 
 stay out all night; and though he knew that 
 he could stand it, himself, very well, he was 
 afraid that Jock would perish from cold and 
 exposure. 
 
 “ In the mean time, the winds and waves 
 increased, and the water began to dash over 
 the bows of the boat, and come aboard. 
 After a while so much had come in, that the 
 
THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 41 
 
 fisherman began to bale it out, and he set 
 Jock to baling too, thinking that the exercise 
 might help to keep him warm. Jock baled 
 industriously a long time, but at length he 
 got almost exhausted ; and as the waves in¬ 
 creased, the water came in rather faster than 
 they both could bale it out. It was now 
 very dark ; and all the hope the fisherman 
 had of saving their lives was, that they might 
 be pretty near the land, and might suddenly 
 come to it.” 
 
 “ And were they pretty near?” asked 
 
 Rollo. 
 
 “No,” said Jonas, “they were more than 
 ten miles from land, and going farther and 
 farther away.” 
 
 “ O, dear me ! ” said Rollo ; “ then poor 
 little Jock was drowned.” 
 
 “ No,” said Jonas, “ for just as they were 
 about giving up in despair, Jock, who was 
 looking out for’ard, cried out suddenly, 
 
 “ 1 Why, father, what is here ? ’ 
 
 “ The fisherman looked out eagerly, and 
 saw, just before them, on the larboard bow, 
 a large, dark mass ; and a moment after, as 
 they were rapidly approaching it, he per¬ 
 ceived that it was the hull of a vessel. He 
 
 4 * 
 
42 the fisherman’s boy. 
 
 called out immediately, as loud as he could, 
 “ ‘ Ship, ahoy ! ’ 
 
 “ Immediately a man in a red cap ap¬ 
 peared at the bulwarks, and answered. 
 The fisherman soon perceived that it was 
 the same ship that he had visited some hours 
 before. He brought his boat alongside, and 
 secured it, and he and Jock went aboard. 
 
 “ The ship was at anchor. They found 
 that the wind had shifted soon after the squall, 
 and blew so heavily that they thought it 
 most prudent to come to anchor. They 
 were very glad to receive the fisherman, and 
 especially little Jock, safe on board. The 
 sailors were very kind to the little pilot, as 
 they called him. They rigged him up in 
 their own trousers and jackets. They were 
 a great deal too big, it is true ; but then they 
 were warm and dry, and Jock was very glad 
 to get them on, in exchange for his own wet 
 and cold clothes. He cut a very comical 
 figure down in the forecastle, with a great 
 shaggy pea-jacket over him, the long sleeves 
 hanging down his sides. After the sailors 
 had done laughing at him, they put him into 
 a berth, and it was not long before he was 
 sound asleep. 
 
43 
 
 THE FISHERMAN’S BOY. 
 
 “ The next morning, very early, he put 
 on his own clothes, which his father had 
 taken care to dry, and then went up on 
 deck. On looking over the side of the ship, 
 he found that his father had just finished 
 baling out his boat and getting ready to set 
 sail. The sky was clear, and the wind fair. 
 The sailors wanted to buy some more of his 
 fish, but the fisherman would not take any 
 pay for them. When he had given them as 
 much as they wanted, he thanked them for 
 taking such good care of him and Jock ; and 
 then, both getting into their boat, they put 
 off from the ship, and made sail for the 
 shore. They had a rapid run, and got into 
 the bay just after sunrise. The tide was 
 going in, and that helped them on the faster ; 
 and just as the fisherman’s wife had got her 
 breakfast ready, and came to the door to see 
 if she could see any thing of them, she found 
 them, to her great joy, just fastening the 
 boat to old Lookout.” 
 
 Here Jonas paused, and, drawing up the 
 reins, began to drive the horse a little faster. 
 
 “ Is that all ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas, “that is all.” 
 
THE QUESTION. 
 
 Jonas finished his story just as they 
 reached the foot of a long, winding hill. 
 The road was smooth, and not very steep; 
 but there was a forest on both sides, and as 
 it was now towards evening, the road was 
 very shady and still. Now and then the 
 children caught a glimpse of the carryall, 
 which was far in advance of them, going 
 slowly up the hill. Jonas said that as he 
 had a pretty heavy load, he believed he 
 would walk up; and so he put the reins into 
 Rollo’s hands, and then stepping down care¬ 
 fully upon the thill, he leaped off to the side 
 of the road. 
 
 u It was a pretty good story, after all,” 
 said Lucy to Rollo, when they were alone. 
 
 “ So it was,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ If there hadn’t been so many sea 
 phrases,” continued Lucy. 
 
 “ But then it is very useful for us to un- 
 
THE QUESTION. 
 
 45 
 
 derstand the sea phrases, because you know, 
 Lucy, we may go to sea some day our¬ 
 selves.’’ 
 
 u I never shall, if I can help it,” said 
 Lucy. 
 
 “ I mean to,” said Rollo ; “I should like 
 to go to sea very much.” 
 
 “ Perhaps you will,” said Lucy ; “ and it 
 may be very well for a boy to learn about 
 sea phrases ; but I don’t think it will be of 
 any use to a girl.” 
 
 In fact, Rollo and Lucy got quite into a 
 discussion about the desirableness or unde¬ 
 sirableness of going to sea, and understand¬ 
 ing sea customs and phrases ; and before they 
 got to the top of the hill, they determined 
 to refer the questions to Rollo’s father. As 
 it happened, they had an opportunity to do 
 this pretty soon; for when they arrived 
 near the summit of the hill, they saw that 
 the carryall was waiting for them. Rollo’s 
 father had turned a little out of the road, so 
 as to allow the wagon to come up alongside, 
 as the fisherman would have said. When 
 they came up, he called to Jonas, and pointed 
 forward, and asked him if he saw a spire of 
 a church away off there several miles. 
 
46 
 
 THE QUESTION. 
 
 Jonas looked a minute in the direction 
 indicated, without answering, when Rollo 
 suddenly exclaimed, 
 
 “ I see it, Jonas, right on the larboard 
 bow.” 
 
 Jonas smiled, and then said that he saw it. 
 
 “ Close by that church,” said Rollo’s 
 father, “ is the tavern where we want U 
 stop to-night. Rollo and Lucy may nov 
 get in with us, and you may drive on be¬ 
 fore us, and tell them we are coming, so 
 that they may be getting ready for us.” 
 
 This change was accordingly made, and 
 very soon Jonas was trotting briskly on, 
 down the long slope before them ; the rest 
 following at a more moderate pace, in the 
 carryall. They had come out of the forest 
 at the top of the hill, and now were travel¬ 
 ling through a pleasant country of fields, 
 and orchards, omd farm-houses. 
 
 “ Jonas has*been telling you about ships 
 and the sea, I suppose,” said Rollo’s father. 
 
 “ Yes, father ; and Lucy and I had a ques¬ 
 tion whether it is useful for girls to know 
 any thing about such things.” 
 
 “You know girls don’t go to sea,” said 
 Lucy. 
 
THE QUESTION. 
 
 47 
 
 “Yes, they do, sometimes,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Well, if they do,” said Lucy, “ they have 
 nothing to do with managing the ship.” 
 
 “ I am afraid you don’t, either of you, 
 want to know what my opinion is,” said 
 Rollo’s father. 
 
 “ Why, yes, we do,” said they both. 
 
 “ It seems to me, on the other hand, that, 
 instead of wishing to get my opinion, you 
 are each endeavoring to make me adopt your 
 own.” 
 
 The children were silent. They per¬ 
 ceived that it was as Rollo’s father had rep¬ 
 resented : what each really wanted was the 
 victory, not the truth. 
 
 “Now,” continued Rollo’s father, “I am 
 rather in a delicate situation ; for I should 
 like very well to talk with you about this 
 subject ; but if I should say I thought such 
 knowledge was useful for a girl, that would 
 be giving you a triumph, Rollo, and it would 
 hurt Lucy’s feelings ; and on the other hand, 
 if I say it is not useful, it will give her a 
 triumph, and hurt yours.” 
 
 The children were silent. In fact they 
 did not know what to say. 
 
 “It is not polite or kind for friends to get 
 
48 
 
 THE QUESTION. 
 
 into such a condition, in respect to each other, 
 where one or the other must be made to 
 suffer . 55 
 
 Here he paused, and the children were 
 silent and thoughtful. 
 
 u Well, uncle , 55 said Lucy, “ I give up. 
 Rollo is right, I know j for all knowledge is 
 useful . 55 
 
 “ There, that is a good girl , 55 said her 
 uncle ; “ that relieves me of all my diffi¬ 
 culty. I think Rollo is right myself; for 
 though ladies never have actually to man¬ 
 age a ship, and seldom take long voyages, 
 yet they sail in boats and ships, and still 
 more frequently they are on the sea coast, 
 or in seaport towns, where they see or hear 
 of them. Then there is another advantage 
 more important still . 55 
 
 “ What is that ? 55 said Lucy. 
 
 u In your general reading, you will be 
 very often meeting with the more common 
 sea phrases, and allusions to the more im¬ 
 portant and striking evolutions of a ship; 
 and sometimes the whole interest of a de¬ 
 scription will depend upon your understand¬ 
 ing them. For instance, you are reading a 
 book of voyages, and perhaps it gives an 
 
THE QUESTION. 
 
 49 
 
 account of a peculiar difficulty the ship got 
 into upon a savage coast. Now, unless you 
 know something about the movements of a 
 ship, you cannot understand the difficulty at 
 all.” 
 
 Here Rollo’s mother said she should like 
 to understand about a ship very much; and 
 she wished his father would get a little 
 model of one, some time, all rigged complete, 
 and explain all the parts to them. 
 
 u O, I wish you would, father ,’ 5 said Rollo. 
 “ Can you ? 55 
 
 u Perhaps I can , 55 said his father. 16 Sail¬ 
 ors make such models sometimes on long 
 voyages, and then sell them, when they 
 get ashore. Perhaps Jonas could rig one for 
 us . 55 
 
 Rollo determined to ask him, and then, 
 after riding on a little farther, he asked his 
 father to tell them something more about 
 ships. 
 
 “ Very well , 55 said his father, u I will. 
 u Jonas told you that the side that the 
 wind blows from is called the windward side, 
 and the other the leeward” 
 
 “ Yes, sir , 55 said Rollo. 
 u The windward side is also called the 
 5 
 
50 
 
 THE QUESTION. 
 
 weather side, because that is most exposed 
 to the weather. The bow on the weather 
 side is called the weather bow. And so 
 they say the iveather beam., and the weather 
 quarter. So the parts on the other side are 
 called the lee bow, the lee beam, and the 
 lee quarter.” 
 
 “ Now, suppose you were sailing in a ship 
 at sea, and were to come in sight of rocks, 
 which would be the most dangerous place 
 for them, on the lee bow, or the weather 
 bow, do you think ? ” 
 
 “ I’m sure I don’t know,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ The lee bow would be the most dan¬ 
 gerous place, because, as the ship was moving 
 on, the wind would blow right towards 
 them; but if the rocks were any where on 
 the weather side, there would be scarcely 
 any danger, because the wind would blow 
 from them , towards the ship, and so she could 
 easily go away from them.” 
 
 “ Yes, sir,” said Lucy, “I understand.” 
 
 “You often hear of a lee shore, in books 
 of voyages: it means a shore to leeward of 
 the ship, and of course the wind tends to 
 blow the ship towards it; and if the wind 
 is heavy, a ship, in such a case, is in great 
 
THE QUESTION. 
 
 51 
 
 danger. It is a terrible thing to get upon a 
 lee shore in a heavy gale of wind.” 
 
 (i Can’t they anchor ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Sometimes they can ; but then there is 
 great danger that the wind and sea will be 
 so powerful as to drag the anchor along the 
 bottom, or part, that is, break, the cable ; and 
 then the ship goes inevitably on to the rocks, 
 and is dashed to pieces by the tremendous 
 waves. I have seen pictures of ships upon 
 a lee shore.” 
 
 “ So have I,” said Lucy ; “ but I did not 
 understand what it meant, only I saw there 
 was a ship, and some waves and rocks.” 
 
 “ And I suppose you did not take much 
 interest in it. But now, if you were to see 
 one, you would examine it with great care. 
 You would be interested to notice that the 
 wind was actually blowing towards the 
 shore, and that the ship was in great danger 
 of going upon it. You would look to see if 
 they had an anchor out, and if so, whether 
 the cable was strained tight, so as to be in 
 danger of breaking by the force of the winds 
 and Avaves.” 
 
 “ I should like to see one again, very 
 much,” said Lucy. 
 
52 
 
 THE QUESTION. 
 
 “ That is one great advantage of knowl¬ 
 edge ; it enables you to, take a great deal 
 more interest and pleasure in any thing you 
 see. There is no object so dull and unin¬ 
 teresting that, if you knew all about it, you 
 would not take a pleasure in seeing it.” 
 
 “ O, father ! ” said Rollo. 
 
 “It is true,” said his father. “ If you 
 don’t think so, you may name any object 
 you think entirely uninteresting, and let me 
 tell you something about it, and then see if 
 you don’t take an interest in looking at it.” 
 
 “Well,” said Rollo, looking around,— 
 “ a fence.” 
 
 “ Very well, a fence. I will tell you 
 about fences, and see if it does not awaken 
 an interest in seeing fences, and examining 
 them.” 
 
 “ O, father,” said Rollo, “ I don’t believe 
 it will.” 
 
 “We will try to-morrow ; but we shall not 
 have time to-night; for we are now pretty 
 near the tavern.” 
 
 In the mean time, Jonas had gone on, as 
 he had been directed, and had reached the 
 little church. Just beyond it, he saw a 
 
THE QUESTION. 
 
 53 
 
 small house, neatly painted, and with green 
 blinds, and having a small tavern-sign hang¬ 
 ing from a great elm in front of it. Across 
 the road was a large stable, with a shed 
 attached to it. He drove his wagon into 
 the shed, and a man came out of the stable 
 and took his horse. 
 
 Jonas told him that a gentleman and 
 lady and two children were coming on, and 
 wanted to stop there for the night, and 
 asked him if they could have chambers. 
 The tavern-keeper said he should be very 
 glad to accommodate them. 
 
 “ What is his name ? ” said he. 
 
 “ Mr. Holiday,” said Jonas. 
 
 A great many children, who have read 
 these books, have wanted very much to 
 know the name of Rollo’s father; but I do 
 not know when or how they would have 
 found out, if the tavern-keeper had not 
 happened to ask Jonas. 
 
 The tavern-keeper said he should be very 
 glad to entertain Mr. Holiday, and accord¬ 
 ingly went in and gave directions for having 
 some rooms opened and aired, and also asked 
 his wife in the kitchen to begin to get tea. 
 
 4 * 
 
54 
 
 THE QUESTION. 
 
 That evening, after tea, the children 
 amused themselves in drawing the shape of 
 a ship upon a small piece of paper, and 
 writing opposite the several parts the va¬ 
 rious names, according to the information 
 which Jonas had sriven them. 
 
55 
 
 % 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 “ Sober John,” said Jonas, when they got 
 all ready for a story the next day, “lived at 
 his father’s house, which was about half a 
 mile from the village. He had several 
 brothers and sisters, some older, and some 
 younger than himself. His father’s house 
 was large and pleasant, with trees on each 
 side of it, and a garden behind. Beyond the 
 garden was a field, and in one part of the 
 field was a long hill, descending to a small 
 pond at the bottom. They used to sail 
 boats upon this pond in summer, and skate 
 upon it in winter. 
 
 John was not much of a hand at play. 
 He preferred staying in the house, reading, 
 or drawing, or working about something or 
 other at his desk. He had a little room, 
 which he had fixed for himself up stairs, 
 where his father used to let him have a lit¬ 
 tle fire Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 
 when there was no school, because he pre- 
 
56 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 ferred staying there to going out to play 
 with his brothers and cousins. Did X tell 
 you about his cousins ? ” 
 
 “ No,” said Rollo, “ not a word.” 
 
 “ He had some cousins, who lived in the 
 next house,' at a short distance through the 
 trees. And his cousins and his brothers used 
 to play together a great deal; but it was very 
 seldom that they could get John to play 
 with them, and so they called him Sober 
 John. But they liked him very much, 
 notwithstanding.” 
 
 “ Why? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Because he was always very kind to 
 them; and then he often contrived plays for 
 the other boys, and helped them plan a great 
 many things they never would have thought 
 of without him. He was excellent in plan¬ 
 ning and calculating. He learnt it out of 
 his books. 
 
 u The boys often came to him, when they 
 got tired of all their plays, for some new 
 amusement, and he generally contrived 
 something for them.” 
 
 u What kind of plays did he contrive ? ” 
 asked Lucy. 
 
 “ O, I don’t know,” said Jonas, “ all kinds. 
 
SOBER JOHN. 
 
 57 
 
 For instance, one night all his cousins were 
 at his father’s house, to spend the evening 
 together in play. He staid with them a 
 short time after tea, and then went off to his 
 room. By and by they had played every 
 thing they could think of, and so they sent 
 two of his cousins up to his room, to ask 
 him what they should do next. He told 
 them to go and get all the lamps in the 
 house, and light them, and give each boy 
 and girl one, and then let them walk about 
 the room, and each one try to blow the others’ 
 lamps out, and to see who could keep his 
 lamp burning the longest ; —only every one 
 must go and sit down as soon as his own 
 lamp was blown out. They went and got 
 the lamps, and tried it, and found it excellent 
 fun. They afterwards asked John what 
 made him think of that play, and he said he 
 found an account of it in a book of travels 
 in Italy. In fact, he had all sorts of ways 
 of helping them in their plays. He made 
 their kite frames, and told them how to rig 
 their ships, and covered their balls, and 
 drew little pictures for them, and did a 
 thousand things ; and so they liked him very 
 well, although they did call him Sober John. 
 
58 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 “ When he did any thing for them, how¬ 
 ever, he was very strict in his conditions.” 
 
 “ Conditions ?” said Rollo. “ What con¬ 
 ditions ? ” 
 
 “ Why, he never allowed them to play in 
 his room, or talk loud there. When they 
 came in to see him, he always made them 
 be still, and stand quietly, and talk one at a 
 time. Then he was very particular about 
 their obeying his directions exactly,, when¬ 
 ever he gave them any thing to do .’ 5 
 
 “Why, did he make them work?” said 
 Rollo, with a tone of some surprise. 
 
 u No,” said Jonas; “ I mean when he 
 undertook to plan any amusement for them, 
 he was very particular in having each do 
 just what he said, in executing it. If they 
 made any objections or complaints, or if any 
 one did not like to do his part, he would 
 stop at once, and leave them to find their 
 own amusement. 
 
 “ But I must come to my story. One 
 winter evening, the boys came in from their 
 play about dark, and as it was a little before 
 tea-time, they sat down in a corner by the 
 fire. John was sitting on the other side 
 telling a story to his little sister, about two 
 
SOBER JOHN. 
 
 59 
 
 years old, who was sitting in his lap. After 
 he had finished his story, the hoys wanted 
 him to tell them what to do the afternoon of 
 the next day; because it was Wednesday, 
 and there was to be no school. John told 
 them they had better slide down hill, for it 
 was now capital sliding, he said, on the hill 
 •side beyond the garden. The boys said 
 they had not sleds enough. Their cousins 
 were coming over to see them, and there 
 were only two good sleds among them all. 
 John then said he would think, and he took 
 his pencil out of his pocket, and got a small 
 piece of paper, and began to make calcula¬ 
 tions and drawings ; but he would not let the 
 boys see what he was doing. At last, when 
 the supper was coming in, he told them he 
 had contrived a plan, but it would cost some 
 money, perhaps two dollars, though it would 
 last a long time. ‘Now,’ said he, ‘there are 
 you four, and your four cousins make eight 
 that is a quarter of a dollar apiece. Now, 
 if you have a mind to put in a quarter of a 
 dollar apiece, and obey my instructions, I 
 will see what I can do.’ 
 
 “ The boys were very eager to know what 
 the plan could be ; but John said he couldn’t 
 
60 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 tell them, but that they might go over the 
 next morning, and see if their cousins were 
 willing to furnish a quarter of a dollar apiece. 
 
 “ They agreed to do so ; and just before 
 school they came over each with a quarter 
 of a dollar in his hand. The way they got 
 their money was this: The boys used to 
 work sometimes, and their fathers paid 
 them, and thus they had all laid up quite a 
 sum of money; and they used to take from 
 this whenever they wanted any money to 
 carry into execution any of John’s plans. 
 Their fathers allowed them to spend it in 
 any way that John recommended, for they 
 had confidence in him; but in other cases 
 they were not allowed to expend any of it, 
 without their father’s or mother’s leave. 
 
 “ When they went to school that morning, 
 they found that John had gone on before 
 them ; and, watching him, they observed that 
 he went into a carpenter’s shop, with a paper 
 in his hand. So they supposed that he was 
 going to get the carpenter to make some¬ 
 thing, and that the paper was a drawing of 
 it; for John had learned to draw, and al¬ 
 ways made a drawing of any curious thing 
 he wanted to have made. 
 
SOBER JOHN. 
 
 61 
 
 “At noon, after dinner, John went out in 
 the shed, and took down a rope which he 
 had prepared, about ten feet long, and with 
 short cross-pieces of wood curiously spliced 
 into it, at equal distances, about two feet 
 apart, for handles to take hold of. He let 
 the two smallest boys take hold of the one 
 at the end, and the others came along in 
 pairs, at the other handles. When he had 
 done, he said, 1 There ! there is a fine team 
 of horses! Now trot off to the carpenter’s, 
 and hook on to the jolly-boat he has got 
 made for you.’ 
 
 “ The boys started off in high glee. 
 When they got to the carpenter’s, they found 
 there a very long sled, with thin plank run¬ 
 ners, and a curious contrivance at the end 
 behind.” 
 
 “ What was it ? ” said Rollo, eagerly. 
 
 “A kind of a rudder,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ A rudder ! ” said Rollo ; “ what, to steer 
 by?” 
 
 “Yes,” said Jonas. “It was a single 
 runner reaching out behind, in the middle. 
 It was fastened to a round bar which came 
 up through the end of a sled, and had a kind 
 of a handle at the top, so that it could move 
 
62 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 one way or the other, and so steer the sled 
 like a rudder. 
 
 “ The boys hooked on to their jolly-boat, 
 as John had called it, and trotted home with 
 it. It went smoothly and beautifully over 
 the ice and snow. 
 
 “ When they came home, John came 
 down to look at the jolly-boat. He ex¬ 
 amined the rudder some time thoughtfully, 
 and then said, ‘ Yes, I think that will steer. 
 Now, boys, who’ll be pilot ?’ 
 
 “ ‘ I,’ c I, 5 ‘I,’ said Arthur, and James, and 
 Samuel ; and 4 1,’ and 1 1,’ said Frank and 
 Thomas. In fact, they all said ‘ I, 5 except 
 little George, who found that there were 
 so many candidates for the office, that he 
 stood quietly by, keeping hold of one end 
 of the rope, as if he thought it was useless 
 to put in his claim. 
 
 “‘You must take turns being pilot,’ said 
 John, 1 and we will begin with the young¬ 
 est. George, you shall be pilot first.’ 
 
 “ 1 1! ’ said George ; and he began to clap 
 his hands in high glee. 
 
 “ ‘ Now I suppose,’ said John, ‘ I had better 
 go out and show you how to steer.’ So 
 he very deliberately took his seat upon 
 
SOBER JOHN. 
 
 63 
 
 the sled, and told the boys to haul him 
 along. 
 
 “ The boys grasped the string again, and 
 began to pull and prance like so many 
 young ponies. They trotted through the 
 garden gate, which was always open in the 
 winter, and down through the great pear- 
 tree alley, until at length, out through the 
 back gate, they came to the top of the hill. 
 
 “ The coast, as the boys called their sli¬ 
 ding place, was well worn and smooth, and 
 there had been, just before, a rain and a frost 
 after it, which had made the road almost as 
 hard and smooth as ice, and the pond was 
 covered with ice from one end to the other. 
 John stopped the jolly-boat at the top of the 
 hill, and drew back the rope. He placed him¬ 
 self at the stern, and took hold of the tiller. 
 
 “‘Now, 5 said John, ‘who takes passage 
 with me to the Mediterranean ? 5 
 
 “ Some of the boys were at first afraid to 
 get on ; but at length they all concluded to 
 venture, and they arranged themselves one 
 before the other, little George behind, so 
 that he might learn how to steer. When 
 all was ready, they tried to start it off, the 
 boys all working their heels in the snow, to 
 
64 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 get it a-going, like so many legs of a centi¬ 
 pede. Presently the jolly-boat began to 
 move of itself, though at first slowly. It, 
 however, soon began to gather headway, and 
 at length went bounding along over every 
 swell and hollow, like a ship in a gale of 
 wind. John kept her exactly in the track, 
 until at length they reached the bottom of 
 the hill, and then it came down upon the 
 pond like an arrow. But now, as the ice 
 was perfectly smooth, the rudder could not 
 get any hold, and so the jolly-boat gradually 
 broached to- 55 
 
 “ O dear ! 55 said Lucy; u there are all your 
 old sea-phrases again.’ 5 
 
 “ O, I forgot, 55 said Jonas, smiling. “ I 
 did not mean to give you any more sea- 
 phrases, but, somehow or other, telling 
 about the fisherman has brought them all 
 into my head. But, Lucy, I will try, in my 
 next story, not to have a single sea-phrase 
 from beginning to end. 55 
 
 “ 0, no matter about it, 55 said Lucy. 
 
 “ Well, the jolly-boat slewed round, and 
 went sideways, the boys all hanging back, 
 and expecting every minute that it would 
 go over. 
 
SOBER JOHN. 
 
 65 
 
 “ £ Steer ! steer, John ! ’ cried out Arthur ; 
 1 why don’t you steer ? 5 
 
 ££ Just at that moment the jolly-boat had 
 wheeled almost entirely around, and had 
 arrived at the opposite side of the pond. 
 The end of one of the runners struck the 
 snow of the shore gently, and it stopped, 
 and the boys all jumped olf, laughing hear¬ 
 tily, and all eager to go up and try it again. 
 They accordingly hooked on the rope again, 
 and pulled away, and were soon ready for 
 another slide. John then said he would 
 leave them to manage for themselves. 
 £ You won’t steer very well,’ said he, £ at first, 
 and, in fact, you may get some capsizings ,* 
 but you must be all the merrier for it.’ 
 
 ££ And now I must have some sea-phrases 
 to tell the rest,” said Jonas. 
 
 ££ Yery well,” said Lucy. 
 
 ££ The next time they tried it, George took 
 the helm, and they went on very correctly 
 half way down ; but then they began to run 
 off the track to the left. 
 
 ££ £ Take care ! take care ! ’ said James. 
 
 ££ £ Hi — yi, hi — yi! ’ said Thomas, half 
 screaming, half laughing. 
 
 ££ £ Steer, George, steer ! ’ said Frank. 
 
 6 * 
 
66 
 
 SOBER JOHN. 
 
 111 Helm a-port ! George, hard a-port! ’ 
 cried Arthur. 
 
 “ But George, in his confusion, instead 
 of putting the helm a-port, only crowded 
 it harder and harder a-starboard, and this 
 carried the jolly-boat short about to the 
 left. It balanced itself a moment upon the 
 edge of a knoll, and then went over, tum¬ 
 bling the boys head over heels down the 
 snow-bank. 75 
 
 “ Did it hurt them ? 77 said Rollo. 
 
 “ Not much ; they soon had the jolly-boat 
 to the top of the hill again, and before night 
 they got to have such skill in steering that 
 they could keep her exactly in the track 
 until they got to the bottom of the hill, and 
 strike the ice upon the pond so exactly true, 
 that they would shoot across from shore to 
 shore, as straight as an arrow. 55 
 
 Here Jonas stopped, as if the story was 
 ended. Rollo then asked him what made 
 Sober John think of such a plan as that. 
 “ Why, 55 said he, “ he had been reading 
 about an ice-boat that day, which sails about 
 on the ice, with three runners, the hinder 
 one movable like a rudder. 55 
 
SOBER JOHN. 
 
 69 
 
 u Why would not the jolly-boat steer, then, 
 on the ice ? ” 
 
 “Because,” said Jonas, “her rudder was 
 of wood. In an ice-boat the rudder is of 
 iron, and so takes hold of the ice better, like 
 a skate-iron.” 
 
 “ Yes,” said Rollo ; “ I understand it 
 now.” 
 
70 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 One day, as Jonas and the children were 
 riding along, they observed upon one side 
 of the road, among some trees at a little 
 distance, a small farm-house, with several 
 sheds and small barns near it, and among 
 the rest a large barn which rose above all 
 the other buildings. 
 
 “ What a great barn ! ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas ; “ that barn makes me 
 think of the Prevarication story.” 
 
 u O, tell it to us,” said Lucy ; “come, we 
 are all ready for another story.” 
 
 “ Yery well,” said Jonas, “I will. 
 
 “ There was once a farmer who had two 
 boys, and it gave him a great deal of trouble 
 to make them come home in season, when 
 he sent them away of errands. Like many 
 other boys, they had a sad habit of loitering 
 and playing by the way. Sometimes he 
 would send them off a short distance, for 
 
THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 71 
 
 something which he wanted very much, and 
 they would get to playing by the way, and 
 keep their father waiting for it two hours. 
 So, when their mother sent them to the 
 store, in the afternoon, they would be gone 
 till night, and sometimes not get home until 
 it was so late and dark, that she began to be 
 afraid that some accident had happened to 
 them. Then, when they came home, and 
 she asked them what made them so late, 
 they would say that they went ‘ as soon as 
 they could.’ That was what they almost 
 always said, that they went as soon as they 
 could.” 
 
 u And so they told a lie, as well as dis¬ 
 obeyed,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, not exactly ; for they loitered in 
 such a way that they hardly knew them¬ 
 selves how much time they wasted. They 
 would go along very briskly a few steps, and 
 then stop to talk about something which 
 they picked up in the street, or to sit down 
 by the side of the road, or to talk with boys ; 
 and then the time slipped away a great deal 
 faster than they supposed. Sometimes they 
 really stopped to play, and then they gener¬ 
 ally acknowledged it, if their father ques- 
 
72 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 tioned them closely; for they would not tell 
 an absolute lie. 
 
 “ At last, their father had to punish them, 
 and he did so once or twice, and determined 
 to do it more and more severely until this 
 bad habit was broken up. While things 
 were in this state, their father told them, one 
 day, he wanted them to go over to a neigh¬ 
 bor’s house at some distance, and lead a 
 heifer there. A heifer, you know, is a young 
 cow. The farmer had fastened a halter 
 around the heifer’s neck, and then put the 
 end of the halter into the boys’ hands, for 
 them to lead her by. He charged them not 
 to stop to play, but to come directly home, 
 and to bring the halter with them. So, one 
 of the boys took hold of the halter and led 
 the heifer along, and the other walked by 
 his side. 
 
 “ They did not stop to play by the way 
 as they went, but led the heifer on directly. 
 When they got to the house, they turned 
 the heifer out, and took the halter to return 
 home. But, unfortunately, there were some 
 boys there, and they asked them to go out 
 into the barn yard with them. The boys 
 thought they would go a few minutes, and 
 
Tils PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 73 
 
 so they laid down the halter, and went. 
 They played in the bam yard some time, 
 amusing themselves particularly with a ram 
 which was there. The time passed away 
 very fast, and though they had a secret feel¬ 
 ing all the time that they were doing wrong, 
 they kept staying a little longer, and a little 
 longer. After some time, they caught the 
 ram, and then they thought it would be 
 capital fun to put the halter on him, and 
 lead him about as they had done the heifer. 
 So, one of the boys went and got the halter, 
 and then came the task of putting it on. 
 Some of them held the ram, grasping his 
 Avoolly sides with their hands; others slipped 
 the halter over his head, and contrived to 
 buckle it up, though it was a great deal too 
 big for him. The poor ram did not know 
 what to make of this usage, and he pulled 
 and struggled, and did his best to get free. 
 First, he drew back; then, he sprang for¬ 
 ward, the boys shouting around^ him, and 
 holding on to his sides, and to the halter. 
 Presently he shot ahead, the boys after him; 
 but he succeeded in getting clear, and with 
 a bound jerked away the halter from the 
 boy’s hand who held it, escaped from the 
 
 7 
 
74 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 barn yard, and the next moment he was 
 galloping off away into the field, the halter 
 dangling by his side, and the boys after him 
 in full cry. 
 
 u They soon gave up the pursuit, and then 
 the two boys who had been sent with the 
 heifer began to be seriously alarmed. They 
 had already staid a long time, and now they 
 had lost the halter, and they did not dare to 
 go home and face their father, without ob¬ 
 taining it again. They had got themselves 
 into serious trouble, and they felt really 
 anxious and unhappy about it. It is bad 
 enough to get into trouble in doing right ; 
 but it is ten times worse when it comes by 
 doing wrong. 
 
 “ They now set themselves to catching 
 the ram again ; but it was hard work.’’ 
 
 “ How did they do it ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ I don’t know,” said Jonas. 
 
 u Don’t know ? ” 
 
 c£ No ; I only know they tried to catch him 
 some time, and finally they succeeded, and 
 got the halter. Perhaps they drove him 
 gradually up into a corner of the field, and 
 there surrounded him ; or they may have 
 all gone out beyond him, and drove him 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 77 
 
 back into the barn yard, and so penned him 
 up, and caught him there. At any rate, they 
 caught him somehow or other, and got the 
 halter ; and then the two boys, feeling guilty 
 and miserable, set out on their return home. 
 
 u They began to consider what they must 
 tell their father, and after some plotting and 
 planning, they concluded that they could 
 make out a tolerably good excuse, without 
 absolutely telling a lie. The story which 
 they concluded to tell was this, that they led 
 the heifer to the place as they were directed, 
 and that there some boys got the halter, and 
 put it upon a ram, and then that the ram got 
 away, and it took them a long time to catch 
 him again. 
 
 “ This story, now, was all true ; that is, 
 every thing stated in it was according to fact; 
 and yet the whole was meant to deceive, 
 and that is what they call prevarication . 1 ^ 
 u But how could it deceive, if it was all 
 true ? ” asked Lucy. 
 
 u Why, you see,” said Jonas, in reply, 
 u that they said some boys got the halter, 
 and that was true; but then they them¬ 
 selves proposed it, and helped put it on. 
 And then they said it took them a good 
 
 y # 
 
78 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 while to catch the ram, and that was true 
 too ; but then they meant their father to un¬ 
 derstand, that that was the reason why they 
 did not come home sooner ; but the truth was, 
 they had stopped to play a long time before 
 the ram got away with their halter. The 
 story was intended to make their father 
 believe that they were not much to blame ; 
 whereas they had been very much to blame 
 indeed.” 
 
 “Yes, I see,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ It is very easy for boys to give a false 
 idea by telling what is, in itself, true ; and 
 this is prevarication.” 
 
 “ Is prevarication as bad as to tell a lie, up 
 and down ? ” asked Rollo. 
 
 “ I think it is very bad,” replied Jonas. 
 
 “ But is it as bad as lying ? ” persisted 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ Some folks think it is,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ But I want to know what you think,” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “I don’t know,” said Jonas ; “you had 
 better ask your father.” 
 
 “ I think it is just as bad,” said Lucy. 
 
 “ I will ask my father,” said Rollo. 
 “ But go on, Jonas.” 
 
THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 79 
 
 “ In the mean time the boys’ father, after 
 waiting and waiting, and finding that night 
 was coming on, and they did not return, 
 went out into the barn to do the work there, 
 necessary to be done before night, and which 
 the boys ought to have been at home to do. 
 While he was there, and doing their work, they 
 arrived, feeling very anxious and unhappy. 
 They went first into the house ; there they 
 found their mother, and told her their story. 
 She was not satisfied with it, but said they 
 must go to their father in the barn. They 
 went accordingly into the barn, and there 
 repeated the excuse they had agreed upon.” 
 
 “ And what did their father say ? ” asked 
 Rollo, eagerly. 
 
 u He did not say any thing. The boys 
 observed that he looked displeased when 
 they first came in ; but after they had told 
 their story, he seemed satisfied, and said no 
 more about it. He knew his boys would 
 not tell a lie, and he thought they were 
 honest in heart as well as in tongue, and did 
 not think of such a thing as their artfully 
 putting together a story, true in all its parts, 
 and yet false in the whole. So he believed 
 them, and by and by, when they went into 
 
so 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 the house, their mother said, ‘ Well, it seems 
 the boys have staid again, when sent on an 
 errand;’ and he answered, ‘Yes; but this 
 time they appear to have a good excuse.’ 
 So the hoys saw that their plan succeeded.” 
 
 “And so they did not get punished?” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes, they did get punished.” 
 
 “ How ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ By the wretched feelings they endured 
 for a long time in thinking that they had 
 not only disobeyed their father, but had 
 abused the confidence he placed in their 
 honesty, and ungratefully and wickedly 
 deceived him. Suppose you had done so, 
 don’t you think you would suffer more from 
 thinking of it, than from any punishment 
 your father would have been likely to have 
 inflicted ? ” 
 
 “ Why,— yes,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ These boys did. They could not help 
 thinking of it, and they felt very wretched 
 about it for a long time. They determined 
 that they would never be guilty of prevari¬ 
 cation again, for it seemed to them just as 
 bad as lying.” 
 
 “I mean to ask my father if it was,” said 
 
THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 81 
 
 Rollo, “now; so whip up, Jonas, and let us 
 overtake him.” 
 
 The carryall was at this time a quarter 
 of a mile ahead of the wagon, and Jonas, at 
 Rollo’s request, drove on to overtake it. The 
 back curtain of the carryall was up, and 
 Rollo’s mother, who happened to hear the 
 wagon wheels behind them, looked back, 
 and saw Rollo waving his hat for them to 
 stop. His father accordingly drew up by 
 the side of the road, and Rollo asked him to 
 let him and Lucy get into the carryall, for 
 he wished to ask him a question. 
 
 After they were seated, Rollo related the 
 story to his father, as Jonas had told it to 
 him; and then, in conclusion, he asked his 
 father if he thought prevarication was just 
 as bad as lying. “ Lucy thinks it is,” said he. 
 
 “What does Jonas say ? ” said his father. 
 
 “He won’t tell us what he thinks: he 
 says we must ask you.” 
 
 “Lucy,” said Rollo’s father, “do you 
 mean that you think it is fully as bad as 
 direct lying, or only nearly so? ” 
 
 “ Why, I think it is fully as bad ; it seems 
 to me it is just the same thing.” 
 
 “ It is much the same thing, in its nature, 
 
82 
 
 THE PREVARICATION STORY. 
 
 I admit; but yet suppose those boys had 
 come home, and had said directly that the 
 other boys took away the halter from them 
 forcibly, notwithstanding all they could do 
 to prevent it, immediately after they had got 
 to the house, — thus had told a deliberate 
 and positive lie, would not that have been a 
 little worse ? ” 
 
 “ Why, yes, sir,” said Lucy ; “it would 
 have been, certainly.” 
 
 “ I think it would have been a little worse, 
 myself. But prevarication is a very great 
 sin, and must make any one miserable who 
 is guilty of it; and yet, wicked as it is, 
 wilful and deliberate lying is one step be- 
 yond it, in the career of depravity.” 
 
83 
 
 GOING TO COURT. 
 
 A short time after that story was finished, 
 the whole party arrived at a small village, and 
 stopped at a pleasant-]looking tavern, where 
 they were going to have dinner. Rollo 
 went out into the stable with Jonas to see 
 them take care of the horses. The stable was 
 on the other side of the street, and as Rollo 
 walked across he looked lip and down, and 
 saw that it was a very pretty village, though 
 it was very small. There was but one street; 
 but that had pleasant houses on each side. 
 There was one store at a little distance, with 
 Post-Office, in large letters over one of 
 the windows. Opposite the store was a 
 singular-looking building, in appearance be¬ 
 tween a meeting-house and a school-house. 
 It had a small cupola on the top, with a bell 
 in it. Rollo asked Jonas what it was: and 
 Jonas said he thought it might be an academy. 
 
 When they got into the barn, the ostler 
 took the horses out of their harness, and led 
 
84 
 
 GOING TO COURT. 
 
 them to a great tub, nearly full of water, 
 which stood there. He then took down a 
 great sponge, almost as big as Rollo’s head, 
 and began, washing down one of the horse’s 
 legs and breast. 
 
 “ Is his breast tender ? ” said Jonas. 
 
 “No,” said the man, feeling of the flesh on 
 each side, where the collar pressed upon it; 
 “ no, it seems perfectly well. Yon must have 
 taken good care of these horses, if you have 
 travelled far.” 
 
 “ I’ve watched them pretty closely,” said 
 Jonas. “ This is a pleasant village of yours 
 here.” 
 
 “ Why, it is not much of a place,” said the 
 ostler, taking up another great %sponge full 
 of water out of the tub ; — “ but it is a shire 
 town, and that brings us a little business in 
 court time.” 
 
 “ O, then that building with the cupola is 
 the court-house ? ” 
 
 “ Yes,” said the ostler; “ did not you see 
 the jail beyond it ? ” 
 
 “No,” said Jonas, “I did not observe it. 
 Is court sitting now ? ” 
 
 “No, it rose last week,” said the ostler. 
 
 In a short time the horses were both 
 
GOING TO COURT. 
 
 85 
 
 washed and put into their places, and well 
 supplied with hay and oats. Jonas asked 
 Kollo if he should like to walk over and see 
 the court-house while they were getting 
 dinner ready. Rollo said ‘ yes/ of course, 
 and after obtaining his father’s leave, they 
 went along. 
 
 “ What is a shire town, Jonas?” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ It is a county town ; that is, the one that 
 has the court-house of the county in it,” 
 said Jonas. 
 
 “ I should not think this town was big 
 enough to have a court-house,” replied 
 Kollo. “ I have seen a good many bigger 
 towns than this, that had no court-house.” 
 
 “ The court-house does not belong to the 
 town,” said Jonas; “it belongs to the 
 county.” 
 
 “ County! ” said Kollo ; “ what is a 
 
 county ? ” 
 
 u It is a good many towns united together, 
 and they have one court for all.” 
 
 “ Which town do they have the court 
 in ? ” said Kollo. 
 
 “ In some one near the middle, where 
 they can all come conveniently ; so that it 
 8 
 
86 GOING TO COURT. 
 
 very often happens that there are other towns 
 in the county larger than the one which has 
 the court-house in it.” 
 
 “What do they do in a court-house?” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “ O, they try criminals, and they settle 
 disputes about land and money, and debts, 
 and all other disputes j and they keep a reg¬ 
 ular account of various things, such as all 
 the land that is sold, and all the wills, and 
 attend to making roads through the county, 
 and all such things. They have a jail near 
 to keep the prisoners safe in.” 
 
 Just then they came pretty near to the 
 court-house, and they saw a small stone 
 building behind it, with grated windows. 
 At one of the windows Rollo thought he 
 saw something moving, behind the grating. 
 It was rather dark in there, and they could 
 not see very well at first ; but, on looking 
 more attentively, they saw it ivas the face 
 of a man. He looked haggard and fierce, 
 with bushy hair and rough beard ; after 
 looking out a minute or two, he disappeared. 
 
 “Perhaps he is a murderer,” said Rollo, 
 looking alarmed. 
 
 “ No,” said Jonas, “ I don’t think there 
 
GOING TO COURT. 
 
 87 
 
 have been any murders committed here for 
 a long time ; — but he may be a thief, wait¬ 
 ing for his trial; or perhaps he is tried and 
 condemned, and is shut up there for pun¬ 
 ishment.” 
 
 The boys walked on, and entered the 
 court-house, the front door being open. 
 They found themselves, when they had 
 entered, in a large entry, with several doors 
 on each side, leading to the several rooms, 
 and a large staircase in front. Over one 
 of the doors was a sign in large letters, 
 Register of Deeds ; over another, Pro¬ 
 bate Office ; and there was a third, 
 with County Commissioners over it. Rollo 
 asked Jonas what these all meant; but Jonas 
 said he did not understand very well. 
 
 “ I never was in a court-house but once 
 before,” said Jonas, “and I do not under¬ 
 stand county business very well; but let us 
 go up stairs.” 
 
 “ Will they let us ? ” said Rollo, timidly, 
 and hanging back. 
 
 “Yes,” said Jonas, “I guess so: at any 
 rate we will try.” 
 
 Rollo, seeing that Jonas was going up, 
 boldly concluded to follow. The flight of 
 
88 
 
 GOING TO COURT. 
 
 stairs turned at right angles once or twice, 
 and then conducted them to a landing where 
 there was a large double door. 
 
 “ This is the court-room, I suppose,” said 
 Jonas, taking hold of the latch of the door. 
 
 But he could not open it; it was locked. 
 
 The boys peeped through the key-hole, 
 and saw a sort of low, long pulpit at the 
 opposite end. In front of the pulpit was a 
 desk, with a seat behind it. 
 
 a O, what a long pulpit! ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Pulpit! ” said Jonas ; “ that is not the 
 pulpit. That is the bench , where the judges 
 sit.” 
 
 “ Is it?” said Rollo; “ and what is that 
 desk before it ? ” 
 
 u That is where the clerks sit, and write 
 down every thing that is done in court.” 
 
 “ Do they?” said Rollo ; “ what, every 
 thing ? ” 
 
 “ Pretty much, I believe,” said Jonas. 
 
 Rollo could see some seats in the middle 
 of the floor of the court-house, through the 
 key-hole ; but he could not see at all, at the 
 sides, the key-hole was so small. Presently, 
 Jonas proposed that they should go up 
 another flight of stairs still, for there was 
 
GOING TO COURT. 
 
 89 
 
 one leading to the story above. They did 
 so, and here they found a door which Jonas 
 opened, and he and Rollo walked in, and 
 found themselves in a little gallery of the 
 court-room, from which they could look 
 down upon the whole door. They could 
 see the bench, and the desks, and the seats 
 for the lawyers in front. These lawyers’ 
 seats occupied almost the whole of the 
 middle of the court-room, and all of them 
 had little desks before them. Behind these 
 lawyers’ seats was a curious-looking sort of a 
 pew, with iron pickets all around the top of 
 it. Jonas said that was called the bar, where 
 they put the criminals when they were tried, 
 and that a man with a long pole stood at the 
 door of the pew, whenever prisoners were 
 there, to keep them from getting away. 
 
 Rollo found four more pews , as he called 
 them, in looking around the room. Two 
 were on each side, opposite to the lawyers’ 
 desks, back against the wall. There was 
 an aisle between them and the lawyers’ seats. 
 They fronted in, towards the middle of the 
 room, so that those who sat in them would 
 face the lawyers, and almost face the judge. 
 
 8 * 
 
90 
 
 GOING TO COURT. 
 
 Rollo asked what these were for, and Jonas 
 told him for the jury. 
 
 “What do the jury do?” said Rollo. 
 
 “ O, they hear the evidence, and decide 
 whether the man is guilty or not.” 
 
 “ But I thought the judge decided,” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ No, the judge decides about the law, 
 and he sees that the poor criminal has a fair 
 trial; but the jury decide whether he is guilty 
 or innocent. There are twelve men in a 
 jury. One jury sits in the seats on one side, 
 and the other on the other.” 
 
 “ What do they want two juries for ? ” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, while one has gone out to consider 
 one case, and decide it, the judge and the 
 lawyers can be going on with another.” 
 
 “ But the new jury might take the same 
 seats.” 
 
 “No,” said Jonas, “it is more convenient 
 to have other seats, and then they can be 
 getting together before the others go out.” 
 
 Here the boys paused, and looked around 
 for some time ; and at length Rollo espied a 
 little platform near the jury seats, one on 
 each side, with a sort of railing in front of 
 
GOING TO COURT. 
 
 91 
 
 it, as if for a person to lean upon. Jonas told 
 him that was the stand where the witnesses 
 stood while they were telling their stories. 
 
 “ How curious it is! ” said Rollo. “ I 
 should like to hear a court.” 
 
 “ Hear a trial, you mean,” said Jonas. “ I 
 did, once.” 
 
 “ Did you ? ” said Rollo. “ Tell me about it.” 
 
 “ Not now,” said Jonas; “it is time for 
 us to go home ; but perhaps I will this after¬ 
 noon, in the wagon.” 
 
 “ Well,” said Rollo, “ that will be capital ; 
 and I will tell Lucy all about the court-room 
 beforehand, and then she will understand the 
 story better.” 
 
 When they got back to the tavern, Rollo, 
 finding that dinner was not quite ready, 
 took Lucy to the window, and showed her 
 the court-house; and then he explained to 
 her all about the arrangement of the interior 
 of the court-room. Lie made a drawing 
 upon a piece of paper, and marked down 
 the judges’ bench, the clerk’s desk, the law¬ 
 yers’ seats, the jury seats, and the stand — 
 all in their proper places. Lucy was very 
 glad that Jonas was going to tell them a 
 story of a trial that afternoon. 
 
92 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 u One day, as I was travelling through the 
 country with a horse and wagon of your 
 father’s, Rollo, — it was this very wagon, but 
 another horse, — I found the horse went 
 lame a little, about the middle of the fore¬ 
 noon. I drove on carefully, until I came to 
 a blacksmith’s shop, by the side of the road. 
 The blacksmith examined the horse’s foot, 
 and said it was nothing but some gravel that 
 had got under his shoe. So he took off the 
 shoe, and put it on again, and I drove on. 
 The horse went very well for an hour or 
 two, but then began to go lame again, and 
 his lameness increased very fast, until I 
 arrived at a pretty large village, where I 
 expected to stop to dinner. 
 
 “ I drove directly to a blacksmith’s shop in 
 the village. It was quite a large shop, and 
 the master blacksmith seemed to be a very 
 good workman. He looked at my horse’s 
 foot, and said the shoe was not put on 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 93 
 
 properly, but that he could easily fix it. 
 He told me, however, that the foot was quite 
 tender'in one place, and that I had better 
 not drive him any farther that day, but let 
 him rest until the next morning. 
 
 “ I was in haste to get home ; but still I 
 knew it was wrong to run the risk of doing 
 injury to the horse, and so I concluded to 
 wait there until the next day. I accord¬ 
 ingly drove to the tavern, put up the wagon, 
 and then led the horse back to the black¬ 
 smith’s, and left him there. When I returned 
 to the tavern, I asked them what time they 
 should have dinner. They told me, ‘ Imme¬ 
 diately after the court rises.’ ‘ What court ? ’ 
 said I. ‘ I don’t know,’ said the girl who 
 was telling me ; £ it is the court that sits 
 in this place, every now and then.’ I asked 
 her where the court-house was, and she 
 pointed out to me a building with a cupola 
 upon it, in a little square among some trees 
 across a little common, opposite to the 
 tavern door. 
 
 “I sat down on a small bench under the 
 piazza before the front door, watching the 
 court-house. I saw people standing about 
 the doors, and sometimes one going in or 
 
94 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 coming out; but before long a great crowd 
 came pouring out together, and so I knew 
 the court had risen. The people went 
 away in different directions, though a con¬ 
 siderable number of them came across the 
 common, towards the tavern. At the same 
 time I heard a bustle in the house behind 
 me, and looking in at the entry, I saw them 
 carrying in the dinner, and going busily to 
 and fro. 
 
 “ A minute or two after these people 
 reached the house, a bell rang in the entry, 
 and we all went in to dinner. The dinner- 
 table was very long. I never saw such a 
 long dinner-table. It reached through two 
 rooms, with great double doors between 
 them, which were opened so as to throw the 
 two rooms into one. I went in with the rest, 
 and took my seat. As I did not know any 
 body there, I did not talk much, but listened 
 to hear what the rest said. I could not 
 understand very well what they were talk¬ 
 ing about all the time; but just before the 
 dinner was ended, one man opposite to me 
 asked another man, whom he called Mr. 
 Sparr, whether there was not a criminal case 
 coming on that afternoon. Mr. Sparr said 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 95 
 
 there was a man to be tried for stealing, he 
 believed. They talked a little more about 
 it, and I wanted very much to go and hear 
 the trial; but I did not know whether they 
 would let me in. 
 
 “ After dinner, I saw the man who said 
 there was going to be a trial, standing at the 
 door, and I asked him if any body might go 
 and hear the trial. ‘ O, yes,’ said he, ‘ you can 
 go if you wish to.’ I then asked him what 
 it was that the man stole. He laughed, and 
 said that he did not know that he stole any 
 thing, but he believed he was accused of 
 stealing some spoons.” 
 
 u What did he laugh for ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, I suppose, because I spoke as if 
 the man was certainly guilty, when he had 
 not been tried. I asked him how soon the 
 court would begin, and he said in about half 
 an hour. 
 
 u I then went over to see how the black¬ 
 smith was getting along with my horse. I 
 found him ready, and led him back to the 
 stable. Just as I had seen him comfortably 
 fixed there, with his oats and his hay before 
 him, I heard a bell tolling in a very curious 
 
 55 
 
 manner. 
 
96 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 “ How ? 77 interrupted Rollo. 
 
 “ O, it went ding-ding-ding-ding-ding- 
 ding, almost as fast as it could go. I ran 
 out to see what was the matter, and found 
 all the people going to court. I followed on. 
 We went across the common, and thence into 
 the court-house. I went in with the rest, 
 and stood near the door. After the judges, 
 and the clerks, and the lawyers were all 
 seated, and the room was pretty still, the 
 judge ordered the prisoner to be brought in. 
 
 “ Then the sheriff went out for him. The 
 sheriff had a stout, painted pole in his hands, 
 and he had a little box or pew, where he sat 
 near the prisoner, when he had brought him 
 in, and put him at the bar . 77 
 
 “ Is that the sheriffs business ? 77 said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes , 77 replied Jonas. “ He has the care 
 of the prisoners, and brings them in, and 
 takes them out; and he keeps order in the 
 court, and does other things which the judge 
 wants to have done. The sheriff went out, 
 and presently came in at a side door with 
 the prisoner. He put him to the bar, and 
 then took his own> place. 
 
 “ The prisoner was a poor-looking man ; 
 his name was Eben Daniell, and I thought 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 97 
 
 he looked guilty before they began to try 
 him. However, they began soon ; for pres¬ 
 ently a man, who sat pretty near the judge, 
 rose and read the indictment.” 
 
 “ The indictment! ” said Lucy ; “ what is 
 that ? ” 
 
 “ That is the accusation. It was cjuite a 
 long paper, accusing the man of breaking 
 into a house, and stealing six silver spoons.” 
 
 “ Did he? — break into a house!” said 
 Rollo, in a tone of surprise. 
 
 “ That was what he was accused of doing, 
 in the indictment.” 
 
 “ How did you know they called it an 
 indictment ? ” asked Lucy. 
 
 O, I didn’t know then. I asked a man 
 in the evening, at the tavern, and he told me 
 all about it, and so a good many tilings which 
 I shall explain to you, as I go along, I did 
 not understand exactly, when I was in the 
 court, but learned about them afterwards.” 
 
 “ Very well,” said Rollo, “ go on.” 
 
 u After the indictment was read, a lawyer, 
 who was sitting at one of the desks before 
 the judge, got up, and began to tell what the 
 criminal had done. He said he stole the 
 spoons, and carried them into another town 
 9 
 
98 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 to sell, and that he was going to prove it all 
 by witnesses.” 
 
 “ Who was he ? ” asked Lucy ; “ and what 
 had he to do with it ? ” 
 
 u He was the state’s attorney. You see 
 the government of the state choose a lawyer 
 to accuse criminals, and have them tried in 
 the courts, and then they find the witnesses, 
 and have them brought into court, and ask 
 them questions, so as to show the jury what 
 the man has done j and this man is called 
 the state’s attorney. So, you see, he first got 
 up and told the jury what his witnesses were 
 going to prove. 
 
 “After he had done, the judge told him 
 to bring his witnesses on, and he said his 
 first witness was Richard Stone. So a cer¬ 
 tain officer of the court called Richard Stone, 
 and a man came forward and took his place 
 on the witness’s stand. Before he began, 
 the judge asked who was counsel for the 
 prisoner, and as the prisoner had none, the 
 judge appointed one for him.” 
 
 “ What was that for ? ” asked Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, common men don’t understand 
 courts, and would not know how to defend 
 themselves if they were accused there 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 99 
 
 unjustly. So they generally get a law¬ 
 yer, who knows all about it, to manage 
 their cause for them. The lawyer they em¬ 
 ploy is called their counsel. And when 
 they are poor, and cannot employ a lawyer, 
 or are so ignorant that they don’t know 
 any thing about it, the judge appoints some 
 one there to be their counsel. So the judge 
 appointed a counsel for the prisoner this time.” 
 
 “ What was his name ? ” 
 
 “ Mr. Sparr,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ What, the same man that you saw at 
 the tavern ? ” 
 
 u Yes,” said Jonas, u the very same man. 
 I forgot to tell you that I saw him sitting 
 among the lawyers. When he came in, he 
 found me standing near the door, and he 
 showed me where I might sit. It was a 
 little behind the prisoner, a very good place, 
 where I could see and hear very well. But 
 it seems to me, now, that the judge appointed 
 him before, when the trial first began. And 
 then Mr. Sparr came to the prisoner, and 
 talked with him a little while in a low voice, 
 and then sent somebody out. I did not 
 know what for till afterwards. 
 
 Now, you see, it was the duty of the 
 
100 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 state’s attorney to bring forward every thing 
 that went to prove the prisoner guilty, and it 
 was Mr. Sparr’s duty to show all the evi¬ 
 dence there was that he was innocent, and 
 then the jury were to judge between them. 
 
 “ Well, as I was saying, Mr. Richard Stone 
 was the first man that was called. The 
 state’s attorney asked him to tell the jury 
 about his house being broken open. So he 
 told his story, and it was this : — He said 
 that Eben Daniell, the prisoner, lived in his 
 neighborhood, and had been at his house 
 one day the last winter to saw wood. 
 
 6 The next day,’ said he, c I was going out 
 of town with my whole family, to take a 
 sleigh-ride, and so I shut up the house, fast¬ 
 ening all the windows, and locking all the 
 doors. When we came home in the even¬ 
 ing of the next day, and had built a fire, my 
 wife went into the parlor-closet, and called 
 out to me to say that the window was brok¬ 
 en. I went in, and saw that a pane of glass 
 was broken, and very near the place where 
 the window was fastened. I saw also that 
 the fastening was taken out, and so I sus¬ 
 pected that somebody had been breaking in. 
 I told her to look around, and see if she 
 
I 
 
 THE TRIAL. 101 
 
 missed any thing. She immediately looked 
 for her spoons, and cried out that they were 
 all gone, — every one of them. I imme¬ 
 diately suspected Daniell, and, in fact, the 
 next morning Captain James told me’ — 
 
 “ Here Mr. Sparr suddenly called upon Mr. 
 Stone, the witness, to stop. He said he must 
 not tell what he heard other people say.” 
 
 “ Why not ? ” said Lucy. 
 
 “ Because they don’t allow a witness to 
 tell what he heard other people say, in 
 court.” 
 
 “ I don’t see why,” said Lucy. 
 
 “ Why, there are so many false stories 
 told, that they could not tell what to be¬ 
 lieve ; so they make each man come into 
 court, and tell what he himself saw, and 
 then he can be cross-examined.” 
 
 “ What does that mean ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 u Why, have questions asked him by the 
 other side, to find out whether he is honest 
 and fair. When the lawyer that brings a 
 witness forward has done asking him ques¬ 
 tions, they always let the lawyer on the 
 other side ask him questions too, to see 
 whether he will not contradict himself, or 
 else to get more information.” 
 
 9 * 
 
102 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 “ Did they cross-examine Mr. Richard 
 Stone ? ” 
 
 / 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas. “ After he had done 
 telling his story, the judge said that Mr. 
 Sparr might ask him any questions he 
 wished to ask; and he asked him how his 
 window was fastened, and he said, by a nail 
 put into a hole over the top of it. Then he 
 asked him if he was positively sure that he 
 put the nail into that window the morning 
 before he went away, and he said he was ; 
 he was particular to fasten that closet win¬ 
 dow, for all his wife’s silver spoons were in 
 that closet. 
 
 “ Then Mr. Richard Stone stepped down 
 from the stand, and walked away.” 
 
 “ I wish they had let him tell what Cap¬ 
 tain James said,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ You will hear presently,” said Jonas, 
 “ for Captain James was the next witness 
 called. You see it is a great deal better to 
 have him come himself upon the stand, and 
 tell his own story there, for then they get it 
 more direct, and they also can question him 
 very closely about it, if it is necessary. So 
 Captain James took his place upon the stand, 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 103 
 
 and the state’s attorney asked him to tell 
 the jury all he knew about the case. 
 
 “ 1 Well,’ said he, 1 the night that Mr. 
 Stone went away, I was going home about 
 ten o’clock by his house, and I saw a man 
 stand right in front of it, just before I came 
 along. I stopped a minute to see what he 
 was doing, and then I walked on towards 
 him. As soon as he saw me, he began to 
 walk away. I followed him, taking very 
 long and quick steps, and yet walking soft¬ 
 ly, so as not to appear to be walking fast; 
 and so I gained upon him. But presently, 
 when he saw I was coming up to him, he 
 began to walk faster, and so he got away. 
 But I knew him well enough.’ 
 
 “‘ Who was it?’ asked the state’s at¬ 
 torney. 
 
 “ ‘ It was Eben Daniell, there.’ 
 
 “Here the judge asked Mr. Sparr if he 
 had any questions to ask. 
 
 “ ‘ How could you possibly know who it 
 was, at ten o’clock at night? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ O, I can tell Eben as far as I can see 
 him,’ said Captain James. £ Besides, it was 
 a bright moonlight night, and I got pretty 
 near to him at one time.’ 
 
104 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 “ ‘ Are yon perfectly sure it was he ? ’ 
 
 “ £ Yes, perfectly sure,’ said he. 
 
 “ ‘ Is that all you know about it ? ’ said 
 Mr. Sparr. 
 
 “ ‘ Yes; I knew nothing more till I heard 
 the next day — ’ 
 
 “ ‘ No matter what you heard the next 
 day ; we only want you to tell us what you 
 saw yourself.’ 
 
 “ The state’s attorney then said that the 
 next witness’s name was John Case. So 
 Mr. John Case was called. 
 
 “ ‘ Where do you live, Mr. Case ? ’ said the 
 state’s attorney. 
 
 “‘In the town of Yarmouth,’ said Mr. 
 Case. 
 
 £ How far is Yarmouth from the town 
 that Mr. Stone lives in?’ 
 
 “ ‘ About twenty miles.’ 
 
 “ ‘ And what is your business, Mr. 
 Case ? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ I am a watchmaker and silversmith.’ 
 
 “ ‘Have you ever seen the prisoner at the 
 bar ? ’ 
 
 “‘Yes, sir; he called at my store last 
 winter to sell me some spoons.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Will you have the goodness to tell 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 105 
 
 the jury about that call, and what took place 
 between you ? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ He brought some spoons, which he said 
 he wanted to sell me. There were half a 
 dozen of them. They were bruised, and 
 broken, and battered, and they looked as if 
 the marks had been scraped off. 1 asked 
 him how they came in that condition, and 
 he said that they were some that had got 
 spoiled in his house ; that he had two dozen 
 in all, and that this half-dozen had got 
 broken and spoiled by his children, and now 
 he wanted to sell them. 
 
 “ 1 1 thought that story was not very prob¬ 
 able, and in fact, 1 concluded that such a man 
 as he, would not be very likely to have 
 any silver spoons at all, unless he came by 
 them dishonestly. So I told him I would 
 take one of them into my back shop, and 
 see how good silver it was; and there I sent 
 off one of my workmen for an officer. The 
 officer came and arrested the man, and then 
 when we questioned him, he contradicted 
 himself so much, that we took him before 
 a magistrate, and had him committed to 
 prison. 5 
 
 “ ‘ And what became of the spoons ? ’ 
 
106 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 We sent them back to Mr. Stone.’ 
 
 “ Then came the cross-examination. Mr. 
 Sparr wanted to know what it was that 
 made him suspect this man did not come 
 honestly by his spoons, — the looks of the 
 spoons, or the looks of the man, or his story, 
 or what. He said it was all three taken 
 together. Mr. Sparr next asked whether it 
 did not often happen that people brought 
 him old spoons to sell. He said it did. 
 
 ‘ And don’t they sometimes look as bad as 
 these which this man brought ? ’ continued 
 Mr. Sparr. ‘ Why, yes, sir,’ said Mr. Case, 
 
 4 they sometimes do.’ 
 
 “ The state’s attorney now said he had 
 got through with all his witnesses against 
 the prisoner, but that by and by he should 
 have some remarks to make about their tes¬ 
 timony, and about the case generally. 
 
 u The judge then asked Mr. Sparr if he 
 had any evidence to bring forward in favor 
 of the prisoner. He said they had sent for 
 a witness, and expected her every moment ; 
 and, as he was speaking, he looked round 
 towards the door, and, seeing a bonnet there 
 coming in, he said, 1 She is coming now, I 
 presume.’ 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 107 
 
 “ The woman came in, and was called to 
 the stand.” 
 
 “ Do women go to court ? ” asked Lucy. 
 
 “ Yes, sometimes,” said Jonas, “ when 
 they want them to be witnesses. This 
 woman’s name was Mrs. Hannah Lane. 
 When she came upon the stand, the first 
 question that Mr. Sparr asked her was, 
 where she lived, and what her business was. 
 She said she lived in that town, and that she 
 kept boarders ; and she went on to say, in 
 answer to the other questions, that Eben 
 Daniell boarded at her house, and that he 
 was at home all the night of the robbery. 
 4 He came home to supper,’ she said, ‘at the 
 regular time, and staid there, sawing wood 
 for her all the evening.’ 
 
 ‘“How late did he stay?’ asked Mr. 
 Sparr. 
 
 “ ‘ Till he went to bed.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Did you see him next morning ? 
 
 ‘ Yes ; he came out of his room just be¬ 
 fore breakfast, as he commonly did.’ 
 
 “ Then the judge asked the state’s attor¬ 
 ney if he wanted to ask any questions, and 
 he said he did. So he turned round towards 
 the woman, and said. 
 
108 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 “ 1 Mrs. Lane, what time was it that Mr. 
 Daniell went to bed that night ? ’ 
 u 1 About nine o’clock,’ said she. 
 
 “ 1 How was his room situated ? ’ 
 
 <(( He slept in a long chamber over a 
 shed, with some other men. There were 
 two beds there.’ 
 
 “ ‘ And where were the stairs that led up 
 into that chamber ? ’ 
 
 u L They were out in the shed.’ 
 u 1 Then how could you know when he 
 went to bed ? ’ 
 
 “ £ Why, he went out, and told my hus¬ 
 band and me that he was going to bed. So 
 I suppose he did.’ 
 
 u ‘ Ah, that is it, then ! ’ said the state’s 
 attorney; ‘ very well.’ So Mrs. Lane went 
 away, and Mr. Sparr said he had no more 
 witnesses to bring forward.” 
 
 “ And was that the end of the trial?” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 (£ No, then came the arguments.” 
 
 “ The arguments ! what are they ? ” 
 
 “ Why, each lawyer makes a speech to the 
 jury, about the case,—the state’s attorney 
 trying to make them believe that the pris¬ 
 oner is guilty, and his counsel for the pris- 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 109 
 
 oner tries to prove that he is innocent. The 
 state’s attorney made his speech first.” 
 
 “ And what did he say? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “I can’t remember it all,” said Jonas; 
 u but it was like this : — 
 
 , u ‘ Gentlemen of the jury, 
 
 “ ‘ You have heard the evidence against 
 the prisoner. The evidence against him is 
 not direct,—it is circumstantial; i. e. it is 
 the evidence of circumstances, and that is 
 all the evidence we can generally get 
 against criminals, for they take good care 
 to commit their crimes when there are no 
 persons to see them; so that all we have to 
 judge from, is the circumstances of the case. 
 In this instance they are strong enough to 
 prove very certainly that this man committed 
 the robbery. 
 
 u< In the first place, gentlemen, Mr. Stone 
 testifies that he locked up his house, and 
 fastened all his windows carefully, intending 
 to be gone away from home one night. He 
 says also that the prisoner at the bar knew 
 that he was going. When he came home, 
 he found his window broken open, and his 
 spoons were missing. You cannot doubt 
 that all this is true, for Mr. Stone is well 
 10 
 
110 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 known to be an honest and trust-worthy 
 man, and he coidd not be mistaken about 
 these facts. 
 
 “ 6 Then, gentlemen, Captain James is per¬ 
 fectly sure that he saw the prisoner prowling 
 about Mr. Stone’s house, the very night 
 when the robbery must have been com¬ 
 mitted. It was very late, and the hour, the 
 place, and the man’s guilty looks and move¬ 
 ments all seem to show that he was there 
 for no good purpose. 
 
 “ e Finally, gentlemen, Mr. Case, a very 
 respectable watchmaker from a neighboring 
 town, tells you that this very man came and 
 offered these very spoons to him for sale, all 
 broken and battered, and with the mark 
 scraped off. It seems he did not dare to 
 offer them for sale so near, and so he carried 
 them twenty miles away, thinking that that 
 would be so far that there would be no 
 danger of his detection. 
 
 “ ‘ But Mr. Case was not to be deceived 
 so easily. He saw through his story at once, 
 and had him immediately arrested. And 
 now, the only evidence which his counsel 
 can offer in his favor is Mrs. Lane’s ; and all 
 she knows is, that he went out, as if he was 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 Ill 
 
 going to bed, about nine o’clock. He may 
 have gone up into his room, or he may not. 
 Or, if he had gone up, he might easily have 
 come down again, without her knowing any 
 thing about it. I think, gentlemen, you 
 must be clearly convinced that the prisoner is 
 guilty, notwithstanding all that his counsel 
 may say in his defence.’ 
 
 u Here the attorney sat down, and Mr. 
 Sparr arose to make his speech in favor of 
 the prisoner.” 
 
 “ I should not think he could have a word 
 to say,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ O, yes,” said Jonas, “they always have 
 something to say, I believe ; and Mr. Sparr 
 made quite a speech. It was something 
 like this : — 
 
 “ 1 1 must confess, gentlemen of the jury, 
 that appearances are somewhat against the 
 prisoner. But we cannot always judge from 
 first appearances. And yet all that they 
 have brought forward are only appearances, 
 which may, after all, be false. They have 
 failed altogether in proving positively that 
 my client stole the spoons.’ ” 
 
 “ What did he call him his client for?” 
 interrupted Rollo. 
 
112 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 44 O, the lawyers always call the men they 
 are speaking for in court, their clients.” 
 
 44 Do they?” said Rollo. 44 Well, go on.” 
 
 444 They have, not proved it,’ said Mr. 
 Span*. 4 Captain James may have been mis¬ 
 taken in the man. that he saw before Mr. 
 Stone’s house; and besides, if my client 
 was actually there, it does not prove, by any 
 means, that he broke into the house and 
 stole the spoons. He had as good a right to 
 be in the street at that hour, as Captain 
 James himself. 
 
 44 4 Then, as to the spoons which he tried 
 to sell Mr. Case, it is not certain at all that 
 they were the same spoons that Mr. Stone 
 lost. He admits that there were no marks 
 upon them, and he also admits that it was 
 very common for people to bring him old 
 spoons to sell. There were a thousand ways 
 by which my client might have come by old 
 spoons honestly. Even the thief who stole 
 these, might have sold them to him, and he 
 not know they were stolen.’ ” 
 
 44 Yes; but he said he got them from his 
 own house, and he had not any house,” 
 interrupted Rollo. 
 
 44 Yes; but I am only telling yon what 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 113 
 
 Mr. Span’s speech was,” resumed Jonas. 
 “But,-by the way, he said something about 
 that. ‘ It is true,’ he went on, ‘ that my 
 client unfortunately did not make correct 
 statements at Mr. Case’s, and I am sorry for 
 it. It would have been better for him to 
 have told the truth. But if we admit that 
 he prevaricated there — ” 
 
 “ He did not prevaricate interrupted 
 Rollo, again ; “ he told a downright lie.” 
 
 “ 1 Admitting that he prevaricated,’ ” con¬ 
 tinued Jonas, without regarding what Rollo 
 said, “‘ that does not prove that he stole the 
 spoons. He may have been confused or 
 frightened at being charged with theft, and 
 so been betrayed into falsehood : and al¬ 
 though falsehood is very wrong, you must 
 remember, gentlemen, that he is not on his 
 trial now for telling a lie, but for stealing 
 some spoons, and you must not declare him 
 guilty unless it is clearly proved that he did 
 actually commit that very act.’ ” 
 
 “And what did the jury decide?” asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ O, you will hear presently. The charge 
 comes before that.” 
 
 “ The charge? ” repeated Rollo. 
 
 10 * ' 
 
114 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 “ Yes ; after the two lawyers get through 
 all they have to say, the judge makes a 
 speech to the jury, explaining the case more 
 fully, and if there is any dispute about the 
 law, he decides it.” 
 
 u Well, what did the judge say now?” 
 
 “ He began,” said Jonas, a by saying — 
 
 “ ‘ Gentlemen of the jury, 5 —- 
 
 “ Then all the gentlemen of the jury stood 
 up, and looked at him, listening to hear what 
 he had to say. 
 
 “‘Gentlemen of the jury/ said he, c you 
 have heard the evidence in this case, and 
 the arguments of the counsel, both against 
 the prisoner, and in his favor. Before you 
 decide this question, it becomes my duty to 
 say a few words to you about the principles 
 which are to govern you in making your 
 decision. 
 
 u 1 The evidence against the prisoner is 
 only circumstantial, it is true, but it may be 
 enough to condemn him, notwithstanding, if 
 it is such as fully to satisfy your minds that 
 he committed this theft. If, on full consid¬ 
 eration of the subject, you think there is a 
 reasonable doubt whether he stole this prop¬ 
 erty, you must decide he is not guilty; for 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 115 
 
 a man is not to be condemned simply be¬ 
 cause it is probable that he may have com¬ 
 mitted a crime. Unless, therefore, you are 
 well satisfied that he was the man who stole 
 this property, you must acquit him. If you 
 are, you must convict him, even though the 
 evidence be merely circumstantial.’ 
 
 “ When the judge had finished his charge, 
 the sheriff came with his long pole, and led 
 the jury out. He walked along, and they 
 came after him one by one, and went out by 
 a side door, and all disappeared. They went 
 into a small room to deliberate by therm 
 selves. When they were gone, the people 
 moved about a good deal ; some went out, 
 and some of the lawyers seemed to be talk¬ 
 ing to the judge ; but I could not hear very 
 well what they said. 
 
 “ Besides, it was now getting near night, 
 and I thought it was time for me to go home. 
 I waited a few minutes longer, and then I 
 concluded that I would go out too. So I 
 got up, and was walking along, and had just 
 reached the door, when I saw the sheriff 
 coming in again with his pole, and the jury 
 after him. So I stepped back to my place 
 to listen. 
 
116 
 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 “ The jury took their places again, and all 
 the court became very still. Then the judge 
 rose and looked towards them, and said, 
 
 Gentlemen of the jury, are you agreed 
 upon your verdict ? 5 
 
 u 1 Agreed,’ said one man at the head of 
 the jury. 
 
 “ 1 Guilty, or not guilty? ’ said the judge. 
 
 ut Guilty,’ said the juryman. 
 
 “ Then the clerk wrote the verdict down 
 in his book, and the sheriff led off the pris¬ 
 oner to jail; the jurymen then went away, 
 and pretty soon after I went away too.” 
 
 “ And what was his punishment? ” asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ I don’t know,” said Jonas. “ That was 
 for the judge to decide, and I believe he 
 commonly takes some time to consider of it. 
 At any rate, that was all I heard about it, 
 for I went home to supper, and the next 
 morning I found my horse was well, and so 
 I rode home.” 
 
117 
 
 TWO WAYS TOGO TO SEA; 
 
 JACK’S WAY. 
 
 il Jonas, I wish you would tell us some 
 more sea stories. I like the story of Jock 
 better than any you have told us. Besides, 
 I want to learn about the sea. I should like 
 to go to sea myself.” 
 
 Who do you think said this, Lucy or 
 Rollo ? It was Rollo ; and Jonas answered 
 that he should like to go to sea himself very 
 well, if he could go in the right way. 
 
 “ Why, is there more than one way?” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas, with a smile; “ there 
 is John’s way and Jack’s way.” 
 
 “ Why, what do you mean ? ” asked Rollo, 
 eagerly. 
 
 “ Why, John went to sea one way, and 
 Jack went another ; and I should like to go 
 very well if I could go in John’s way.” 
 
 u Who were John and Jack ? ” 
 
 “ Two boys.” 
 
 Well, tell us about them, Jonas.” 
 
118 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA I 
 
 “ Why, it is rather a long story,” said 
 Jonas ; “ and, besides, it is getting to be near 
 night,” he said, looking up at the sun, which 
 was going down towards the summits of the 
 mountains. 
 
 It was a wild, mountainous road that they 
 were now travelling. Rugged rocks and 
 black forests were on each side, and a large 
 stream tumbled along over the rocks by the 
 side of the road. Just as Jonas had spoken 
 those words, he saw that Mr. Holiday was 
 stopping at a little distance before them, to 
 talk with a man who was standing before 
 an old log-house by the side of the road. 
 He got through his talk just as Jonas came 
 up in the wagon ; and the man went into 
 the house. Jonas reined in his horse, as 
 soon as his wagon was opposite the carryall, 
 and the following dialogue took place : — 
 
 “ I find, Jonas,” said Rollo’s father, “ that 
 it is five miles farther to the next public 
 house ; and I expect it will be dark before 
 we get there, we have to travel so slowly.” 
 
 “ The children had better get in with 
 us,” said Mrs. Holiday. 
 
 But Rollo told her that Jonas was just 
 going to tell them a beautiful story ; and he 
 
119 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 asked his mother to let them ride with him. 
 at least until it was dark. She consented, 
 and the carryall moved on. 
 
 “ Come, Jonas,” said Hollo, “ now begin.” 
 
 “ Did you ever hear of Cape Cod ? ” said 
 Jonas. 
 
 “Yes,” said Lucy; “I have seen it on 
 the map.” 
 
 “Cape Cod on the map is very different 
 from Cape Cod in reality.” 
 
 “ Plow ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, Cape Cod in reality is a great tract 
 of country, with fields, and villages, and 
 towns, and forests all over the land, and 
 bays, and harbors, and sandy beaches along 
 the shore ; but Cape Cod on the map is only 
 a mark upon a piece of paper, shaped like a 
 man’s arm.” 
 
 “ And painted red,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ No, yellow,” said Lucy. 
 
 “ It is red on my map,” said Rollo, de¬ 
 cidedly. 
 
 “ Never mind that,” said Jonas. “ At the 
 head of one of the little bays on Cape Cod, in 
 a small village, there lived two boys, named 
 John and Jack. They lived in small houses, 
 
120 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA I 
 
 pretty near one another, and both went to 
 the same school. John was diligent and 
 faithful, but Jack was rather idle. Jack did 
 not like school very well. In fact, idle boys 
 never do. 
 
 “ There were some fishing-boats belong¬ 
 ing to that village, and these boys, as well 
 as all the others, used often to go out upon 
 the water. Some sea-captains lived in the 
 place. They commanded vessels which 
 sailed from New York to Boston, and some¬ 
 times, when they were going to Boston, and 
 the wind was ahead, so that they could not 
 get round the cape very well, they used to 
 put in here, anchor their vessels, and wait 
 until the wind came fair again. 
 
 u The boys of the village used sometimes 
 to go on board these vessels in the little 
 harbor, and sometimes they would sit on 
 the high land which overlooked the water, 
 and see them sail in and out. 
 
 “ The school-house was built upon rather 
 high ground, a little out of the village, and 
 the boys could see the water from a field 
 close by it, where they used to play ball. 
 One day at recess, Jack called out to the 
 other boys who were playing, 
 
121 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 “ ‘ Hallo, boys! there is a brig coming in . 5 
 
 “ The boys stopped their play, and looked: 
 there was a brig coming in, under full sail, 
 around a point of land which formed the 
 entrance to the harbor. 
 
 “ ‘ It is the Almira,’ said Jack, standing 
 up upon a stone, so as to see better. He 
 was rather a little fellow, short for his age ; 
 and he wore wide trousers, and no jacket, 
 and a broad straw hat, so that he looked like 
 a little sailor. 
 
 “ ‘ It is the Almira,’ said he, ‘ Capt. 
 Barnes’s brig. I mean to go aboard of her 
 this afternoon.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Will they let you go aboard ? ’ said 
 John. 
 
 “ ‘ Yes,’ Jack replied. ‘ Ben Halyard sails 
 in her, and he’ll let me go aboard. He 
 always does.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Let me go with you,’ said John. 
 
 “‘Well,’ said Jack. 
 
 “ John thought his father would let him 
 go, for there was no school that afternoon; 
 and so, after he went into school, he studied 
 very diligently, until school was dismissed. 
 You see he had found out that, some how 
 or other, he always had a better time in his 
 11 
 
122 
 
 TWO WAVS TO GO TO SEA 1 
 
 play, when he had just been particularly 
 diligent in his studies ; and so, whenever he 
 was going off on any expedition in the af¬ 
 ternoon, he always prepared himself to have 
 a good time by studying very hard in the 
 forenoon. 
 
 “ About an hour after dinner, they went 
 down to the wharf, and borrowed a little boat. 
 Each took an oar, and they rowed off to the 
 brig. As they passed along, John saw the 
 word ‘ Almira’ painted upon her stern. 
 
 “ The boys went aboard, and had a fine 
 time looking over the brig and talking with 
 the sailors. Ben Halyard was splicing a 
 rope, and they sat down and saw him do it. 
 They both thought it was very curious. 
 Then they went up to the mast head, where 
 they had a fine look-out from the ‘top. 5 
 They could see away out to sea, where 
 vessels were sailing to and fro. 
 
 “ ‘ What a pleasant place this is ! ’ said 
 Jack. 
 
 “ ‘ Very pleasant now,’ said John ; ‘ but I 
 think it would not be very pleasant working 
 here, an hour, taking in sail, in a north¬ 
 east snow storm.’ 
 
 “ 1 1 should like to go to sea,’ said Jack. 
 
jack’s way. 
 
 123 
 
 11 1 So should I, if I could go in the right 
 way,’ said John. 
 
 “ ‘ No lessons to learn, and no errands to 
 do, — nothing but sailing about all the 
 time,’ continued Jack. 
 
 “ ‘ I should like to see foreign countries,’ 
 said John. 
 
 “ ‘ Yes,’ said Jack. 1 London, and Liver¬ 
 pool, and Calcutta. There are elephants in 
 Calcutta.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Are there ? ’ said John. ‘1 should like 
 to see an elephant.’ 
 
 “ £ So should I; — and a whale ! Perhaps 
 we should see a whale. I wish I could go 
 to sea.’ 
 
 “ ‘I mean to go, some time or other,’ said 
 John. 
 
 “ 1 So do I,’ said Jack: 1 and I wish I 
 could go now. Boys go very often as 
 young as I am.’ 
 
 “Jack went home that night determined 
 to ask his father to let him go to sea. His 
 father laughed, and did not make much 
 reply; but his mother said, very seriously, 
 that she could not hear a word of it, and he 
 must not ask again. 
 
 “ The next day, Jack wanted John to ask 
 
124 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA ! 
 
 his father. 1 Perhaps he will let you go,’ 
 said he, £ and then my father will be more 
 likely to let me.’ 
 
 ££ £ No,’ said John, £ I don’t want to go.’ 
 
 “ £ But you said you meant to go to sea.’ 
 
 ££ £ So I do, but not in this way.’ 
 
 “ 1 How are you going ? ’ 
 
 ££ £ O, I mean to go, one of these days, in 
 my own way; you’ll see ; ’ and away he 
 went into school with his slate under his 
 arm. 
 
 ££ A few days after this, Jack brought up 
 the subject again, with his father, but with 
 no better success. He wanted to go in the 
 Almira, but he could not get his father’s 
 consent; and at length she sailed without 
 him. In the mean time, he neglected his 
 studies more and more, and of course he 
 disliked school more and more, and he kept 
 constantly teasing his father and mother to 
 let him go to sea. They were, however, 
 firm and decided against it. 
 
 ££ He also tried again and again to get 
 John to feel some interest in going. He 
 told him how pleasant it would be to go up 
 the Mediterranean, and see all those places 
 that they had studied about so often in their 
 
125 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 Geographies. John admitted that it would 
 be very pleasant, and he meant to go some 
 day, but not then. 
 
 “ 1 Well,’ said Jack, 1 I am determined to 
 go alone, if you won’t go with me ; and it 
 will be pretty soon too.’ 
 
 “ From this time, Jack said nothing about 
 going, either to John or to his father and 
 mother; and they all thought he had given 
 up the plan. But he was very far from 
 having given it up. He had determined to 
 run away. He knew very well that he 
 could not get any captain to take him at that 
 port without his father’s consent ; but he 
 thought that, if he could get to New Bed¬ 
 ford, which was a very large seaport about 
 fifty miles off, along the coast, he could 
 easily manage to get to sea. 
 
 “ But how to get to New Bedford was the 
 difficulty. It was full fifty miles to New 
 Bedford, and he knew that he could not 
 walk there in less than three days. To be 
 on the road three days would cost him as 
 much as a dollar ; and then he knew that he 
 must have as much as a dollar there, to pay 
 for his food and lodging, in case there was 
 no ship going to sail immediately. So he 
 11 * 
 
126 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA .* 
 
 determined to set to work and get the two 
 dollars as soon as he could, in some way or 
 other. 
 
 “ Though you may suppose that Jack was 
 a very had boy, by his thus forming a plan 
 to run away from his father and mother, yet 
 he was not so very bad a boy after all ; and 
 he would not steal, or do any thing to get 
 his money dishonestly. In fact, it was 
 partly his father and mother’s fault that he 
 determined to run away.” 
 
 “ His father and mother’s ! ” said Rollo, 
 with great surprise. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas, “because they did not 
 bring him up right. They did not make 
 him study his lessons, and obey their com¬ 
 mands, faithfully enough. In fact, they let 
 him have his own way pretty much, and so 
 he did not care but little for them. 
 
 “ The way he contrived to get his money 
 was by selling old iron.” 
 
 “ Old iron ! ” said Rollo. 
 
 “Yes ; the blacksmiths there used to buy 
 the old iron which the boys picked up about 
 the streets and wharves ; and so Jack went 
 to work collecting all the old iron he could 
 find or beg, and the blacksmiths would buy 
 
jack's way. 
 
 127 
 
 it, giving him a little money for every 
 piece he brought.” 
 
 “ How much ? ” said Hollo. 
 
 “ O, sometimes only a cent, and some¬ 
 times two or three cents. Once he got a 
 ten-cent piece for a bar which came out of 
 an old chimney. The men gave it to him, 
 because he helped them about their work. 
 He got the boys at school, too, to bring him 
 all the old iron they could find about their 
 houses, and he paid them by making whis¬ 
 tles and little boats. At length he got two 
 dollars. 
 
 u Then he considered every thing ready, 
 and determined to set off, without any far¬ 
 ther delay. So, one moonlight night, after 
 his father and mother had gone to bed, and 
 he thought they had had time to go to sleep, 
 he got up softly, and took his best clothes 
 out of his drawer, and put them on. He put 
 his money, which was all in small change, 
 into his pocket. He crept out of his cham¬ 
 ber window down upon the roof over the 
 kitchen, and walked along that, till he came 
 to the end of it; then he climbed down to a 
 shed, and from the lower edge of the shed to 
 a high fence, and thence safe to the ground. 
 
128 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 “ Behind a log of wood, in the yard, he 
 found a small parcel, which he had put 
 there the day before, containing a large 
 piece of bread and some cheese. He took 
 this and stole away. 
 
 “ The streets of the town were silent and 
 solitary; and the moonlight made them look 
 almost gloomy. Still he pressed on, anxious 
 to get away from the town as far as he could 
 before they should miss him in the morning. 
 He passed by the school-house, rejoicing to 
 think that he should have no more studying 
 to do there. 
 
 “ In the morning, they observed that he 
 did not come to breakfast ; and they thought 
 he had got up early, and gone off a-fishing, 
 or on some such expedition, and they did 
 not think much of it. By and by, however, 
 his mother went up to make his bed, and 
 she found his common clothes were there in 
 the room; and looking into the drawer, she 
 found his best suit was gone. Still she 
 thought he must have only gone away on 
 some pleasure party, with the boys, and that 
 he would be home by noon. But he did 
 not come ; and then, beginning to be uneasy 
 about him, they sent around to the neigh- 
 

 
JACK’S WAY; 131 
 
 bors’ boys to inquire; but no one could tell 
 any thing of him. 
 
 “ His father then began to think he had 
 run away; and he took a horse and wagon 
 to go after him. He thought it most likely 
 that he had gone across the cape; and so he 
 took that road. He travelled in that direc¬ 
 tion nearly all the afternoon, inquiring of 
 every one he saw, but nobody had seen any 
 such boy; and so he came home, and con¬ 
 cluded he must have gone the other road, 
 towards New Bedford, and the next morning 
 he set out in that direction. 
 
 “ In the mean time, Jack had travelled all 
 the first night, and pretty much all the next 
 day; and the second night he slept in a tav¬ 
 ern, supposing that now the danger was 
 over. But after all, he was not yet quite 
 twenty miles from home. He was so tired 
 with his walk, that he did not get up till 
 quite late the next morning ; and his father 
 rode up to the door of the tavern just as he 
 Avas going out to begin his second day’s 
 journey. Of course he took him into his 
 wagon, and carried him home again.” 
 
 “ Did he whip him ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 11 No,” replied Jonas. “ He had been so 
 
132 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 frightened about losing him, and was so 
 glad to get him safe back again, that he did 
 not want to whip him. And then, besides, 
 he thought that if he should punish him 
 severely, it would only make him more in¬ 
 clined to run away again. 
 
 “ In fact, his father began to think that 
 perhaps he had better let him go to sea, 
 after all. Jack’s mother was still very un¬ 
 willing ; but he told her that perhaps it would 
 be safest to let him go, since he was so set 
 upon it. ( We had better,’ said he, ‘look 
 him out a vessel, with a good captain, and 
 get him a good birth, than to have him run 
 away to sea, and so get mined.’ 
 
 “ At length, his mother reluctantly gave 
 her consent; and so they got Jack a birth on 
 board the very Almira that he had longed to 
 go in. Ben Halyard came with a wheel¬ 
 barrow to wheel his trunk to the wharf, 
 and his friend John went down with him to 
 see him safe aboard. On the way he said, 
 
 “ 1 There, John, I told you I meant to go 
 to sea; and here I am going before you, and 
 yet you are a year older than I am ! ’ For 
 at this time Jack was twelve, and John was 
 
133 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 thirteen. 1 I don’t believe you will ever see 
 foreign countries as long as you live.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Yes, I shall,’ said John ; ‘ that is, I mean 
 to.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Well, when? ’ said Jack. 
 
 “ 1 1 am going to set out to-morrow.’ 
 
 “ ‘ To-morrow ! ’ said Jack, stopping in 
 the middle of the road in astonishment. 
 
 uc Yes,’ said John, walking along quietly. 
 
 “ ‘ Where are you going ? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ I am going into the country. Father 
 has hound me out apprentice at a great 
 blacksmith’s.’ 
 
 u ‘ A blacksmith’s ! ’ exclaimed Jack, burst¬ 
 ing into a fit of laughter ; 1 that is a good one. 
 And so you are going to sea by way of a 
 blacksmith’s shop, back in the country. 
 That is a pretty road to go in to see foreign 
 lands.’ 
 
 “ c It is the best road,’ said John. 
 
 u They arrived at the wharf, and John 
 and Jack stepped on board of a boat, with 
 Jack’s father and Ben Halyard, who pulled 
 them off to the brig. The captain ordered 
 the sailors to man the capstan and heave in 
 the cable.” 
 
 12 
 
134 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 u What does that mean ? ” said Lucy. 
 
 “ O, the capstan is a kind of machine, 
 with long handles reaching off on every 
 side ; and the sailors take hold of these han¬ 
 dles, and heave round, and round, and 
 round, and so heave up the anchor.” 
 
 “ How does that heave up the anchor ? ” 
 
 11 Why, the cable, that is fastened to the 
 anchor, passes round the capstan; and so, 
 when they heave it round, it winds the 
 cable up, and draws it in. 
 
 “ So Jack got hold of the capstan, and 
 hove away with the other sailors. He was 
 quite pleased with this. He told John that 
 he had heard people say it was hard work to 
 heave up the anchor, but it was no such 
 thing ; it was very easy work, he said. 
 
 “ The sails were soon spread ; and as soon 
 as the brig began to make some way through 
 the water, Jack’s father and John bade the 
 little sailor good by, and got down the. 
 brig’s side, into their boat; and John sculled 
 the boat ashore. 
 
 u The brig sailed majestically out of the 
 bay, and Jack thought all his troubles were 
 over, and that life with him was now just 
 about to begin. And for a few days things 
 
jack’s way. 135 
 
 went on very pleasantly. He knew enough 
 about a ship to feel somewhat at home, and 
 he was not seasick; though his feelings 
 revolted a little at the dirty and miserable 
 hole he had to sleep in, in the forecastle, 
 and the intolerable smell of the place. In a 
 few days, too, the novelty of the thing wore 
 off. The weather was fair, and the wind 
 favorable, and they went on very smoothly 
 through the water ; and Jack began to get 
 tired of the sameness. He had to run about 
 at every body’s-bidding ; and if he did well, 
 he had neither thanks nor pay, and often got 
 cuffed and scolded if he did not do well. 
 After he had been out a week, and reflected 
 that he had got two or three weeks more to 
 pass in the same dull way before he should 
 see land, he was almost sorry he had come. 
 He wished a thousand times that John had 
 come with him, and then he should have 
 had company. 
 
 “ The brig went south, to Charleston, South 
 Carolina, to take in a cargo of cotton. For 
 about an hour, while they were sailing into 
 the harbor, and coming up to the town, Jack 
 enjoyed himself well; and he began to think 
 that he was going to be repaid for all his 
 
136 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA ! 
 
 hard work and dull times on the passage. 
 But he found, after all, when he got in, to 
 the wharf, that he could not go ashore 
 much ; for the crew were all to be hard at 
 work on board the ship, all the time of their 
 stay. The captain gave him leave to go 
 ashore once or twice; but all the part of the 
 city where sailors went was mean, dirty, 
 and poor. The captain took in his cargo, 
 and set sail again as soon as possible ; so that 
 Jack had soon another tedious voyage before 
 him. 
 
 “ The days and weeks passed away very 
 heavily. Jack thought he had rather be at 
 school, for there was a recess there, and then 
 they had a good play ; and they did go home 
 at last every day, when school was done, 
 and get a good warm supper, and a comfort¬ 
 able bed at night; but at sea it was dull 
 work, all day long, among ropes, junk, tar, 
 and bilge-water, — nothing to eat but old 
 salt beef and dry ship-bread,—and a hole 
 to sleep in at night, that a dog would have 
 run away from. Jack fairly wished he was 
 at home. 
 
 “ However, he was naturally a boy of good 
 spirits, and he was not easily depressed. ‘ I 
 
137 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 shall see foreign countries at any rate,’ said 
 he, ‘and that will pay me for my pains.’ 
 ‘I shall see Liverpool,’ thought he, ‘and the 
 Tower of London, and Gibraltar, and the 
 Cataract of Niagara.’ ” 
 
 Here Lucy laughed outright, and said that 
 the Cataract of Niagara was not in England. 
 
 “No,” said Jonas; “but Jack, you know, 
 was not a very good scholar, and he did not 
 know very well where the wonderful places 
 were. He thought they were all beyond 
 seas. 
 
 “ When they got pretty near Liverpool, 
 he asked Ben Halyard if he would go to 
 London with him, when they landed. 
 
 “ ‘ London, man ! ’ said Ben ; ‘ we are not 
 going to London.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Why, we can go from Liverpool; for 
 London is in England, I know.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Yes, it is in England, but it is hun¬ 
 dreds of miles from Liverpool.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Is it ? ’ said Jack ; ‘ then I can’t see 
 London this voyage ? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ No,’ said Ben; ‘ it would cost fifty dol¬ 
 lars, for aught I know.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Well, what sort of a place is Liver¬ 
 pool.’ 
 
 12 * 
 
138 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA I 
 
 “ 4 O, it’s a great place, 5 said Ben; ‘ but 
 we shan’t see much of it. 5 
 
 “ ‘ Why not ? ’ said Jack. 
 
 111 O, we have a couple o’ hundred hales 
 of cotton to get up out of our hold. 5 
 
 “ ‘ Well, after we have got the cotton 
 out ? 5 
 
 “ 1 Then we have got a couple o 5 hundred 
 boxes, and bales, and casks, to get into our 
 hold again. 5 
 
 “ 1 Well, and then ? 5 said Jack. 
 
 u L Why, and then we have got to make 
 all sail for New York. 5 
 
 “ £ Is that it ? 5 said Jack. 
 
 (U Yes, that is it, exactly ; that is a sailor’s 
 life, year in and year out. 5 
 
 “ 4 For’ard there ! ’ shouted out the cap¬ 
 tain, just at this instant, from the quarter¬ 
 deck. 
 
 u 1 Ay, ay, sir ! 5 cried Ben, in reply ; and 
 he started up to listen to, and execute, the 
 captain’s commands. 
 
 “ The Almira remained some time in 
 Liverpool, and then set sail again for New 
 York. Jack went ashore a few times at 
 Liverpool; but he saw very little, except that 
 mean part of the place which sailors gener- 
 
139 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 ally frequented. He had no time to make 
 excursions to any distance, and if he had. 
 he could have seen but little, for he was but 
 a poor sailor, and could not have got into 
 the splendid buildings and great establish¬ 
 ments of England. So he went back to 
 America, having had very little more to do 
 with England than having worked hard 
 several days to load and unload a ship at a 
 Liverpool dock.” 
 
 Just here the boys were entering a dark 
 pass in the mountains. The sun had gone 
 down, and twilight had nearly disappeared, 
 and Rollo’s father and mother^ began to think 
 it was time for the children to come back 
 into the carryall. So they stopped and 
 waited for the wagon to come up. 
 
 “ O, father! ” said Rollo, when they got 
 pretty near, “ do let us ride here a little 
 longer, — till Jonas has finished this story.” 
 
 “ How much longer is the story ? ” said 
 Mr. Holiday. 
 
 “ Not much longer, sir,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ Very well, then. When you get through, 
 drive up to us, and let us know.” 
 
 u So the carryall started on, and Jonas 
 resumed his story. 
 
140 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 “ One day, on the return voyage, when 
 Ben Halyard and Jack were at work in the 
 top, in a heavy rain storm, Jack’s fingers 
 numb with wet and cold, and the chill wind 
 driving the rain into his face, he asked Ben 
 if this was a fair specimen of a sailor’s life, — 
 dull times at sea, and hard work in port. 
 
 “‘Yes, pretty fair,’ said Ben; ‘it is a 
 dog’s life.’ 
 
 “‘Well,’ said Jack, ‘one thing I know; 
 when I am captain, I’ll have things different. 
 I shall have my liberty then, and can do as 
 I’ve a mind to.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Captain ! ’ said Ben, ‘ you’ll never be 
 captain.’ 
 
 “ ‘Yes, I shall,’ said Jack. 
 
 “ ‘ You ! ’ said Ben ; ‘you don’t under¬ 
 stand navigation.’ 
 
 “ ‘ No, but I can learn.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Not unless you studied arithmetic 
 pretty well in school.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Arithmetic ! ’ said Jack, ‘ I hate arith¬ 
 metic.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Then you’ll hate navigation, I can tell 
 you. You never will be captain. It takes 
 a good scholar to make a captain. You’ll 
 
141 
 
 jack’s way. 
 
 have to live in the forecastle, my boy, and 
 heave away at the capstan for your wages.’ 
 
 “ This was discouraging enough. Jack 
 wished he had studied his arithmetic better 
 at school; but it was too late to help it 
 now. He went down to the deck, wet 
 and cold, but there were two hours more of 
 his watch before he could go below ; and all 
 that time he had to walk back and forth on 
 the deck, in the rain, to keep any warmth 
 in him at all. 
 
 “ ‘ Well,’ said he to himself, ‘my pros¬ 
 pect is rather gloomy. I don’t know what 
 John meant by his way of going to sea, but 
 it must be bad indeed, if it is any worse 
 than mine.’ ” 
 
 Here Jonas touched the horse with the 
 whip, and said, “Now we will drive on, and 
 speak to your father.” 
 
 “ Why, is that ail? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “Yes, that is all about Jack. I will tell 
 you how John went to sea, through the 
 blacksmith’s shop, to morrow.” 
 
142 
 
 TWO WAYS TOGO TO SEA: 
 
 JOHN’S WAY. 
 
 Jonas did not begin to tell the children 
 about John’s way of going to sea until the 
 next morning. Rollo and Lucy asked leave 
 to get into the wagon early in the morning, 
 and Mr. Holiday consented ; and as they 
 set out very early on their journey, Jonas 
 resumed his narrative, just as the sun was 
 gilding the summits of the mountains 
 around. 
 
 “ John had his clothes put up in a little 
 wooden trunk, painted blue; and then he 
 waited at home for the stage to come. 
 Presently it drove up to the door, and John 
 got in. They put his blue trunk in be¬ 
 hind.” 
 
 “ On behind, you mean,” said Rollo. 
 
 “No, in behind; and John, after he got 
 in, sat down and began to talk with the 
 driver.” 
 
John’s way. 143 
 
 u Why, Jonas,” said Rollo, u he could not 
 talk with the driver if he was in the 
 
 stage.” 
 
 “ Why, yes,” said Jonas, u for this stage 
 was not a great coach, with four horses and 
 a great rack for trunks behind — it was only 
 a one-horse wagon, with two seats, and a 
 top over it, and curtains at the side. That 
 is the kind of stage they have where there 
 is not much travelling. So John sat down 
 upon the front seat with the driver, and they 
 put his blue trunk in under the back seat. 
 
 “ He rode along very pleasantly in this 
 way a long time. They stopped to change 
 horses sometimes, and at last he got to a 
 pretty large town, where the wagon stage 
 stopped, and John got into a larger one, with 
 four horses. He rode along in this way 
 until he came at last to the town where he 
 was to stay.” 
 
 u What was the name of the town? ” 
 asked Lucy. 
 
 “ I don’t know,” said Jonas ; “ I only 
 
 know it was a large town, with a good 
 many factories in it. There was a large 
 stream of water running through it, which 
 carried the factories. When the stage 
 
144 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA !' 
 
 stopped at the tavern, John inquired where 
 Mr. Naylor’s blacksmith’s shop was, as his 
 father had directed him to do. He was told 
 he must walk down through the village, and 
 then turn to the right, down the bank of the 
 stream, and he would see it. 
 
 “ So John walked along through the vil¬ 
 lage, admiring the great factory buildings, 
 with their long rows of windows, and little 
 cupolas upon the top. At length, he reached 
 the place where he was to turn off. The 
 stream, which here widened into a pond, was 
 upon one side, and a wood upon the other. 
 Just before him, on the margin of the stream, 
 was a large stone building, which looked 
 something like a blacksmith’s shop, though 
 it was the largest and handsomest one that 
 John had ever seen. John found, on in¬ 
 quiry, that Mr. Naylor was in his house, 
 across the road. He looked over there, and 
 saw a pleasant, one-storied house among the 
 trees, and he went over to it. Mr. Naylor was 
 glad to see him, asked him about his jour¬ 
 ney, read the letter which John had brought 
 from his father, gave John some supper, and 
 showed him his bed. It was in the corner 
 of a little unfinished room over the kitchen, 
 
147 
 
 John’s way. 
 
 the rafters and the roof being right over 
 John’s head. John liked his bed very 
 much, and he slept soundly till morning. 
 
 “ The next day he went into the shop, 
 and was very much interested at seeing the 
 forges, and great anvils, and trip-hammers, 
 going by water.” 
 
 “ What are trip-hammers?” asked Rollo. 
 
 “ O, they are great hammers which go 
 by water,” said Jonas, “ heavier than a man 
 can lift ; and they strike, heavy and quick, on 
 the great bars of hot iron, which a man holds 
 under them. They make a terrible noise.” 
 
 “ I should like to see a trip-hammer,” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ John thought they were very curious,” 
 said Jonas. u They sent him away to the 
 village of an errand, early in the morning, 
 and when he returned they had got in the 
 fire, upon one of the forges, an enormous 
 piece of iron, which John knew that a man 
 could not lift, and he wondered how they 
 were going to get it to the anvil under the 
 trip-hammer. Mr. Naylor told him to wait 
 there a minute or two, and so he had a fine 
 chance to see. He observed that there was 
 an iron chain round the middle of the iron, 
 
148 
 
 TWO WAYS TO CO TO SEA I 
 
 and the chain reached lip overhead. He 
 looked up, and saw that it was fastened to 
 a curious-looking machine, so that it could 
 be hoisted up a little, and then swung over 
 to the anvil. Presently, the men hove away 
 upon the machine. The iron came slowly 
 out of the fire, glowing and sparkling, so 
 that you could hardly look at it. They 
 swung it carefully over to the anvil, and 
 then pulled a small pole hanging by the side 
 of it, which set the trip-hammer a-going. It 
 made a tremendous noise, and the sparks 
 flew in every direction, while two men 
 moved the iron back and forth, so as to 
 make the trip-hammer strike it in the right 
 places. John thought he should have a 
 great deal to learn, before he could become 
 a first-rate blacksmith. 
 
 “ For some time, John had to run of 
 
 % 
 
 errands around town, and wait upon the 
 workmen in the shop. Presently, they put 
 him at a great vice, and a man taught him 
 to file.” 
 
 “ O, I can file,” said Rollo. a I have.” 
 
 u Yes, you can file a little, I know ; but it 
 is very difficult to learn to file square and 
 true. John paid very close attention to all 
 
149 
 
 John’s way. 
 
 that they said, and followed the directions 
 exactly. He worked slowly, but steadily ; 
 and when Mr. Naylor came along at night, 
 and saw how much he had done, he said, 
 
 “ ‘ Well done, John ! I don’t see but that 
 you will make a blacksmith.’ 
 
 “ John spent his evenings in reading and 
 studying, and one day Mr. Naylor told him 
 that he had some books in his library, and 
 John might read them. John was very 
 glad. The books were about mechanics 
 and engineering, and some about mathe¬ 
 matics. There was one book on geom¬ 
 etry, which he wanted to study very much; 
 but he found he could not understand it very 
 well, alone. He wanted to study these things, 
 for he knew that if he could get knowl¬ 
 edge from books, and practical skill in the 
 shop, he might, one of these days, make a 
 first-rate machinist, like Mr. Naylor, and 
 undertake great works, instead of being a 
 mere journeyman blacksmith, working all his 
 life for a dollar and a half a day. 
 
 “ John was a beautiful writer. He used 
 to take great pains with his writing at school, 
 and the master thought he was one of the best 
 writers of his age he ever had. So, after a 
 13 * 
 
150 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 while, Mr. Naylor got him to copy some 
 letters, and finding that he did it very neatly 
 and well, he used often to take him off from 
 his hard work in the shop, to make out bills 
 or keep accounts in his little counting-room. 
 
 “ Thus some years passed away, and John 
 was becoming one of the most important 
 men in Mr. Naylor’s shop.” 
 
 “And, I suppose, by this time he had for¬ 
 gotten all about his plan of going to sea,” 
 said Rollo. 
 
 “Not at all,” said Jonas. “ His desire to 
 see foreign countries grew stronger and 
 stronger. He used to read a good deal 
 about England, and the great iron-works 
 there; and one reason he had for acquiring 
 so much knowledge was to be at the head 
 of his business. c If I can only get my trade 
 well learned, and get well established in 
 business, I can earn money enough to go 
 where I please.’ 
 
 “ This was a very good calculation, and 
 it turned out even better than John had ex¬ 
 pected, as you will see in the end. He soon 
 learned geometry, and that helped him along 
 a great deal in his studies.” 
 
 “ How did he learn it? ” asked Lucv. 
 
John’s way. 
 
 151 
 
 u Why, one day he was up in the second 
 
 story of the shop-’ ’ 
 
 “ Were there two stories ? ” asked Rollo. 
 
 “ Yes ; and in the second story there were 
 lathes, and various machines for finishing 
 off nice work, all carried by water. Well, 
 John was there seated before an emery- 
 wheel, brightening some screws that were 
 going to be tempered.” 
 
 “ What does that mean? ” asked Lucy. 
 
 “ Why, you see when they want screws 
 to be hard, they temper them. First, they 
 heat them very hot, and put them in cold 
 water, and that makes them very hard and 
 brittle. Then, they heat them again a little, 
 not quite red hot, and plunge them into cold 
 water again, and that makes them not quite 
 so hard and brittle, but more tough ; and 
 they have to brighten them a little before 
 they heat them the second time, in order to 
 know how hot to make them.” 
 
 ct How do they know by that ? ” asked 
 Rollo. 
 
 u Why, if steel is bright,” said Jonas, 
 “ and you heat it, it first turns straw-color, 
 then blue, and at last deep purple, as it 
 
152 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 grows hotter and hotter; so they can tell 
 by the color how hot it is. 5 ’ 
 u That is curious,” said Hollo. 
 u So John had a box of screws in a little 
 stand before him, and was brightening them 
 upon an emery-wheel. Do you know what 
 an emery-wheel is ? ” 
 
 “No,” said Rollo and Lucy, together. 
 
 “ It is a small wheel cut out of a board, 
 which goes round very fast by water. It 
 has leather all around the edge, and emery 
 on the leather, and they touch the screws on 
 this, and the wheel, going round very fast, 
 polishes the part of the screw which touches, 
 and makes it very bright. John would take 
 up a handful of screws in one hand, and then 
 take them, one by one, in the other, and just 
 touch them to the emery-wheel, and brighten 
 a little spot upon each ; and then drop them 
 into another box. After he had got them 
 all brightened, he took them to a bench, and 
 began to temper them.” 
 
 “ How ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, he had a little pan of charcoal, 
 and over it a shallow iron basin, half full of 
 sand, which of course was hot. He would 
 
JOHN'S WAY. 
 
 153 
 
 put a few of his screws in the sand, and they 
 would gradually heat there. He watched 
 them, and as fast as they became blue on the 
 little spot that he had brightened, he would 
 take them out. and dip them in cold water. 
 
 “ While he was at the emery-wheel, 
 brightening his screws, Mr. Naylor came to 
 look at them ; and after examining the 
 wheel, said he wanted to have a wheel to 
 revolve faster, and he asked John if he could 
 plan the machinery to make one revolve 
 three hundred times in a second. 
 
 “ John said he did not think he could. 
 
 “ 1 Why. you seem to be something of a 
 scholar, John. Have you ever studied ge¬ 
 ometry ? ’ said Mr. Naylor. 
 
 “ £ No, sir,’ said John ; ‘ but I want to study 
 it very much.’ ” 
 
 “ £ I thought it was likely,’ said Mr. Nay¬ 
 lor. ‘ Well, there is to be an evening school 
 for teaching geometry in the village, — to 
 begin next week, — and if you wish, you 
 may go.’ 
 
 “John liked this plan very much. He 
 was very diligent and attentive to his 
 geometry, and learned very fast, and the 
 knowledge of it, that he acquired, helped 
 
154 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA *. 
 
 him very much in all his reading. He 
 could understand the drawings of various 
 machines, and descriptions of machines bet¬ 
 ter, and he could make a great many calcu¬ 
 lations, which he could not have made 
 before. In fact, John became at length so 
 learned, that he had very little hard work to 
 do. He was employed all the time in plan¬ 
 ning work, making drawings, and overseeing 
 other workmen ; and at last, when he grew 
 up, Mr. Naylor took him into partnership. 
 
 “ He was very profitable to Mr. Naylor, 
 for he had read so many books, that when¬ 
 ever any very difficult job came, he could 
 turn to some account of the manner in which 
 such a piece of work was done in other 
 countries, and could make drawings for the 
 workmen to work by. At length, one even¬ 
 ing, as they were walking home from the 
 shop, Mr. Naylor asked him if he should be 
 willing to go to England. 
 
 “‘Certainly,’ said Mr. John; ‘I should 
 like to go to England very much.’ ” 
 
 “Mr. John!” said Rollo; “what do you 
 call him Mr. John for ? ” 
 
 “ Why, he was a man now, and as he had 
 grown up in the shop from a boy, and was 
 
John’s way. 155 
 
 always called John when a boy, the men 
 gradually got into the habit of calling him 
 ‘Mr. John.’ And now that was the name 
 he always went by. 
 
 “ Mr. Naylor then said that he had an 
 application from a great rail-road company to 
 superintend the construction of a rail-road, 
 and it would be necessary for some one to 
 go out to England, and purchase the iron 
 rails, and chains, and iron for spikes, and 
 also the locomotives, and to examine the 
 foreign manufactories, so as to be able to 
 manufacture cars and locomotives in their 
 own machine shop, when he should get 
 home again. 
 
 “ Mr. John said he should like to go very 
 much indeed; Mr. Naylor said his expenses 
 would be paid out of the profits of the busi¬ 
 ness. Mr. John had laid up a good deal of 
 money of his own, and he fitted himself out 
 with plenty of good, comfortable clothes and 
 drawing instruments, and every thing else 
 that he thought he should need. 
 
 “ He travelled to New York in the stage, 
 and took passage in a Liverpool packet. He 
 went down to the packet in a steamboat on 
 the day of sailing, and when the steamboat 
 
156 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA: 
 
 arrived alongside the packet, a couple of 
 sailors carried his handsome black leather 
 trunks into his state-room. He handed 
 them a shilling a-piece, and they touched 
 their hats, thanked him, and went away 
 for’ard to hoist the sails. 
 
 “ There were many ladies and gentlemen 
 in the cabin, and Mr. John had a very pleas¬ 
 ant passage. lie studied French several 
 hours every day, because he thought he 
 should wish to travel in France before he 
 came back, and it would be of great advan¬ 
 tage to him to know that language. 
 
 “ There was one of the sailors on board, 
 that the captain called Jack. 5 ’ 
 
 “ Jack ! 55 said Rollo ; “ what, was Jack in 
 the same ship ?” 
 
 “No,” said Jonas; “ it was not his old 
 friend Jack, though John thought at first it 
 was. But it was another person. In fact, 
 John found that Jack was a common name 
 among sailors. He found a good many 
 Jacks in the course of his voyages. 
 
 “ Mr. John had a splendid time in his 
 tour. About the time that he got tired of 
 his ship, he reached port, and went ashore, 
 and travelled, in elegant stage-coaches from 
 
157 
 
 John's way. 
 
 city to city, visiting great manufacturing 
 establishments, and curious and wonderful 
 public works. He was well supplied with 
 money, and had the dress and manners of 
 a gentleman, so that he was well received 
 wherever he went. 
 
 “ After spending some time in London, he 
 went to Prance, and travelled through that 
 country to Marseilles. There he set sail for 
 home, in a large ship loaded with silks. 
 There were a great many sailors on board 
 this ship, and among the rest there was a 
 Jack here too. He was at work coiling 
 away ropes, when Mr. John came aboard. 
 Mr. John looked at him as he always did 
 when he saw a sailor named Jack ; but he 
 looked no more like his old playmate than 
 the dozen other Jacks that he had seen. 
 
 u Mr. John came down to the ship, with 
 his trunks and boxes in a cart behind.” 
 
 “ With the locomotives in ’em ? ” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ O, no,” said Jonas, “ they were too big 
 to go so. He had shipped all his locomo¬ 
 tives and iron rails from Liverpool. These 
 boxes contained only some valuable books, 
 and instruments of various kinds, which he 
 14 
 
158 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 had purchased at Paris. The captain called 
 out to Jack to take the gentleman’s baggage 
 on board. He then shook hands with Mr. 
 John, and invited him down into the cabin. 
 
 “ Mr. John had a beautiful sail along the 
 shores of the Mediterranean.” 
 
 “ Why, was he in the Mediterranean?” 
 asked Hollo. 
 
 “ Yes,” said Jonas ; “ Marseilles is a port 
 of the Mediterranean, and the ship sailed 
 along the coasts of France and Spain to¬ 
 wards Gibraltar. At last, the great Rock 
 hove in sight.” 
 
 “What great rock?” said Rollo. 
 
 “ The Rock of Gibraltar. It is a great 
 rock several miles long, and O, — very 
 high, like a mountain. Around the bottom 
 of it there are trees, and houses, and forts, 
 and on one side a great town. Up above the 
 town, there are long passages cut in the 
 rock, with great cannon in them to fire out 
 at the enemy. It is a famous place, — that 
 Gibraltar. 
 
 * 
 
 “ The captain sailed into the bay, and 
 anchored off abreast of the Mole.” 
 
 “ What is the Mole? ” asked Rollo. 
 
 “ O, it is a long building reaching out 
 
John’s way. 159 
 
 into the sea, with great cannon upon it, 
 and high walls. It is a curious place. 
 
 “ When they had anchored, the captain 
 informed Mr. John that he should not sail 
 till next morning, and if he wished he could 
 go ashore with him. 
 
 “ Mr. John said he should like to go very 
 much ; so the captain called Jack, and told 
 him to go and get three good oarsmen to 
 pull him and Mr. John ashore. 
 
 “‘Yes, sir, I will,’ said Jack. 
 
 “ ‘ That is one of the best sailors I have 
 got aboard,’ said the captain. 
 
 “‘He looks like a fine fellow,’ said Mr. 
 John ; and he watched him as he lowered 
 the boat and brought it alongside. Mr. John 
 and the captain stepped on board, and the 
 sailors rowed them ashore. They landed at 
 a curious landing-place, which led under a 
 great, arch in the wall. The mouths of 
 great cannon were pointing at them from all 
 the walls around. The captain then told 
 Jack to row back to the ship, and to come 
 ashore for them the next morning at eight 
 o’clock. 
 
 “‘Yes, sir,’ said Jack, touching his hat to 
 the captain; ‘1 will be here, sir.’ 
 
160 
 
 TWO WAYS TO GO TO SEA : 
 
 “ As the captain was walking away, Mr. 
 John took two half-dollars out of his pocket, 
 and handed them to Jack, and asked him to 
 divide them among the oarsmen who had 
 rowed them ashore so handsomely. 
 
 “ ‘ Thank you, sir,’ said Jack, taking them. 
 But instead of turning round at once to his 
 boat, he looked as if he wanted to say some¬ 
 thing, and Mr. John stopped a moment, 
 thinking that perhaps the sailor thought it 
 was not enough. 
 
 “ In a moment, Jack said, 1 I believe I have 
 seen you before, sir, though I suppose you do 
 not remember me.’ 
 
 “‘No,’ said Mr. John, looking him in the 
 face, ‘ I don’t remember you.’ 
 
 “‘Don’t you recollect your old playmate 
 Jack, who went to sea from Cape Cod in the 
 Almira ? ’ 
 
 “ ‘ Why, Jack, is it possible — is this you ? ’ 
 and Mr. John recognized at length, in his 
 sunburnt and weather-beaten face, the fea¬ 
 tures of his old school-fellow. He shook 
 hands with him heartily, and talked a min¬ 
 ute or two, and then Mr. John called back 
 the captain. 
 
 “ ‘Captain,’ said he, ‘I have found that 
 
John’s way. 
 
 161 
 
 Jack, here, was an old playmate of mine at 
 school; I have not seen him for many years. 
 If it is convenient for you to spare him, I 
 wish you would let him come ashore to¬ 
 night, and look about Gibraltar a little for 
 my sake.’ 
 
 “ ‘ Certainly,’ said the captain. £ You 
 may come, Jack. Go aboard and get ready, 
 and you may take any one with you, you 
 please, for company.’ 
 
 “ Jack thanked the gentlemen very much, 
 and bidding Mr. John good bye, he was pre¬ 
 paring to step into the boat. Before he 
 went, however, he said, 
 
 “‘I recollect you said when I saw you 
 last, Mr. John, that you meant to see foreign 
 countries in your own way, and I must con¬ 
 fess it is a much better way than mine.’ ” 
 
 14 * 
 
162 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 While Jonas had been telling the story 
 of the two ways of going to sea, the whole 
 party of travellers had gradually emerged 
 from the mountain district, and descended 
 into a spacious and beautiful plain, or rather 
 valley beyond. They could see, many miles 
 before them, a large river flowing through 
 the plain, with villages, and richly cultivated 
 fields, and green meadows, spotted with elm- 
 trees, on either side. The children admired 
 the beauty of the scene, and after riding 
 about twenty miles in this open country, 
 they arrived at a large town upon the banks 
 of the river, which was the end of their 
 journey. Mr. Holiday soon despatched his 
 business. Jonas helped him, about some 
 writing that he had to do, the whole of one 
 day. He was copying papers almost all the 
 time, and Rollo, and his mother, and Lucy, 
 rambled about during that time, in the 
 fields. 
 
AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 163 
 
 In the evening, while Mrs. Holiday, and 
 Rollo, and Lucy, were seated at a work-table 
 in a parlor, waiting for Mr. Holiday and 
 Jonas to finish their writing, Rollo took up 
 a pin which was lying upon the work-table, 
 and said to Lucy, 
 
 “ O, Lucy, I mean to see if this pin will 
 turn straw-color, and blue, when I heat it; ” 
 — and so saying he held the point of it in 
 the lamp. 
 
 “ That won’t turn straw-color, and blue,” 
 said Lucy. 
 
 “Why?— it is bright,” said Rollo, hold¬ 
 ing it still in the flame; — but he had just 
 got the words spoken when he dropped the 
 pin, with a sudden exclamation, and began 
 rubbing and blowing his fingers. 
 
 His mother laughed aloud; Rollo smiled, 
 and looked rather foolish. 
 
 “Did it burn you, Rollo?” said she. 
 
 “Not much,” said he, carefully touching 
 the pm upon the table to see if it had got 
 cool. It was cool; and Rollo, after examin¬ 
 ing it again, said there was not a bit of a 
 straw-color upon it any where. 
 
 “ You can’t temper a pin,” said Lucy; “a 
 pin is brass ; Jonas said steel.” 
 
164 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 Rollo’s mother looked up from her work, 
 and seemed interested in what they were 
 saying. 
 
 Rollo replied to Lucy that a pin was not 
 brass, for brass was yellow, and a pin looked 
 white ; and so they appealed to Mrs. Hol¬ 
 iday. 
 
 “ Is a pin brass ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “Isn’t it?” said Lucy. 
 
 “ I don't know,” said Mrs. Holiday, look¬ 
 ing attentively at the pin ; “ I have always 
 understood that pins were made of brass, 
 and yet it is not the color of brass ; that is 
 very plain. I will ask your father when he 
 comes.” 
 
 “ Let us try it with a needle, Rollo,” 
 said Lucy ; “ a needle is of steel, I know.” 
 
 “ Well, if mother will give us one.” 
 
 “Yes, I will,” said she; “but first tell 
 me what you want to do.” 
 
 Then Rollo and Lucy told her what 
 Jonas had said about tempering screws, and 
 about the colors which bright steel would 
 take when heated. While they were talk¬ 
 ing, she was selecting a needle from her 
 needle-book, and at length she handed it to 
 Rollo. 
 
AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 165 
 
 u Now, how shall I keep it from burning 
 my fingers ? ” said he. 
 
 “ Here, stick it into this pencil for a han¬ 
 dle ; — no, I will make a handle of a piece 
 of paper,” said his mother. 
 
 So she took a small strip of paper, and 
 folded it over closely, like a lamp-lighter. 
 Then she stuck the needle into the end, in 
 such a manner that it projected beyond the 
 paper ; and then handed the whole apparatus 
 to Rollo. 
 
 Rollo held the end of the needle in the 
 flame of the lamp. In a few moments the 
 point was red hot, and when he took it out 
 of the lamp, it cooled again suddenly; but 
 there was a sort of a dark band between the 
 part which had been hot, and the bright part 
 of the needle which was inserted into the 
 paper. 
 
 “ I don’t see any straw-color, or blue,” 
 said he. 
 
 “Let me look, ” said his mother. 
 
 Mrs. Holiday examined the dark band 
 more closely than Rollo had done. 
 
 “ Yes,” said she, “ I see it. This dark 
 place has three colors. It is straw-color 
 
166 
 
 AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 outside, towards the paper; next, blue, and 
 farther in, deep purple.” 
 
 Rollo and Lucy looked, and said they saw 
 it too ; and they wanted to know what made 
 all the colors so near together. 
 
 Mrs. Holiday said she did not know. 
 
 u There is some black, too,” said Rollo, 
 pointing to the end of the needle which had 
 been in the flame. 
 
 “I think that is only smoke,” said Mrs. 
 Holiday; and she wiped the needle with 
 a piece of paper, and all the smoke came off, 
 but the colored band remained firm. 
 
 They then tried the experiment again with 
 a large darning-needle, and they found that it 
 succeeded still better; for the several colors 
 were more distinct from each other, and 
 each occupied a broader space. 
 
 After they had examined the needles as 
 long as they wished, Rollo gave them back 
 to his mother, and she brightened them up 
 again, by rubbing them in her little emery- 
 bag. The emery in the bag was the same 
 kind with that used on emery-wheels, and 
 it polished the needles again at once, and 
 made them look as bright as before. 
 
AN EXPERIMENT. 
 
 167 
 
 After a time Mr. Holiday came in ; but, 
 before he came, Rollo and Lucy had for¬ 
 gotten all about the needles, and were al¬ 
 most asleep upon a sofa. Mr. Holiday’s 
 coming in aroused them, and they wanted 
 him to tell them now about fences as he had 
 promised them. But he said he could not 
 then, but that they must go to bed so as to 
 be ready to set out to-morrow on their return, 
 and perhaps he would tell them something 
 on that subject then. 
 
 So they went to bed, and slept soundly 
 until morning. 
 
168 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 When they set out the next day, Rollo 
 observed that they were entering upon a 
 different road from the one by which they 
 had come. The fact was, his father was 
 going to return another way, which was 
 shorter, and led through a more cultivated 
 country. When they were fairly under 
 way, Rollo asked his father to begin telling 
 them about fences. 
 
 “ Very well,” said he. “Let me see, 1 
 was going to tell you about fences, by way 
 of proving that knowledge on the most com¬ 
 mon subjects will increase the pleasure and 
 interest you take in travelling.” 
 
 “ Yes, sir,” said Lucy. 
 
 “ I think you will find that there is some 
 interesting knowledge to be acquired about 
 fences. In the first place, what are fences 
 for ? ” 
 
 “ O, to separate one field from another,” 
 said Rollo. 
 
FENCES. 
 
 169 
 
 “ Why is that necessary ? ” asked his 
 father. 
 
 “ G, so that each man may know how far 
 his land goes.” 
 
 “No,” said Mr. Holiday, “ that is not the 
 reason. People could discern their boun¬ 
 daries very easily without making any 
 fences. The chief use of fences is to keep 
 animals, such as horses, oxen, cows, sheep, 
 &c., olf from cultivated land. Now, in order 
 to do this, any sort of barricade, about five 
 feet high, will answer, and it may be made 
 of any materials which are most conveniently 
 to be obtained. Now I will mention some 
 of the most common kinds of fences, and 
 describe each. They are : — 
 
 1. The brush fence. 
 
 2. The log fence. 
 
 3. The stake fence. 
 
 4. The zigzag fence. 
 
 5. The post and rail fence. 
 
 6. The board fence. 
 
 7. The stone fence.” 
 
 “ O, how many fences! ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ The brush fence,” continued his father, 
 “is the easiest to make, and the cheapest; 
 but it can only be made in the woods, or 
 15 
 
iro 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 where there is a great plenty of trees and 
 tall bushes. They have nothing to buy to 
 make it with, and need no tools but an axe. 
 A couple of men, with axes, go out into the 
 woods, and cut down small, bushy trees, and 
 lay them along upon the ground, the top of 
 one over the butt of the other; and the 
 branches make a kind of barricade five or 
 six feet high, that the cattle cannot get over. 
 If, in any place, the branches are not thick 
 enough, or high enough, they put other 
 smaller bushes on, and if necessary they 
 keep them up by cross-stakes driven into the 
 ground.” 
 
 u How ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ Why, they drive two stakes into the 
 ground, so that the upper parts cross each 
 other like the letter X, and then the butt 
 end of the bush rests in the crotch. So you 
 see they only need axes to sharpen the 
 stakes, and to cut down the trees. They 
 generally have a yoke of oxen to haul the 
 trees to their places in the fence.” 
 
 “I never saw such a fence as that,” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ I should like to see one,” said Lucy. 
 
 “ They are very common in the woods, 
 
FENCES. 
 
 171 
 
 but not in the open country. They cannot 
 be made except where there is a great plenty 
 of trees. And then, after a short time, the 
 branches get dry and brittle ; and then the 
 fence is easily broken through, and it is very 
 combustible, and burns furiously if a fire 
 happens to get into it from fires in the 
 woods. Still, it is very commonly the way 
 that they make the first fences in the woods 
 on new farms. 
 
 “ The next kind of fence is a log fence. 
 This is made of logs one over the other, and 
 is very solid and durable.” 
 
 “ How do they keep the logs up ? ” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “ In a curious way,” said Mr. Holiday. 
 u They first put one very large log down 
 upon the ground, in the direction of the 
 fence they are going to make. Then they 
 put down another, beyond, reaching still 
 farther on, where the fence is going to be. 
 But these logs are not placed exactly end to 
 end, but the ends lap by one another a little, 
 so that a short log may be placed across 
 from one to the other. So all the ground 
 logs have a short log passing across the ends 
 where they come together and the second 
 
172 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 course of logs rests on these short logs, and 
 over these there are other short logs on 
 which the upper course of logs rests.” 
 
 “ I should think they would roll off of the 
 short logs,” said Iloilo’s mother. 
 
 “ They cut deep notches or hollows in 
 the short logs, and thus form beds for the 
 ends of the long logs to lie in securely. 
 
 “ This makes a very good, substantial 
 fence, and a pretty cheap one, where they 
 have more tall trees for logs than they know 
 what to do with.” 
 
 “I never saw one,” said Rollo. 
 
 “ O, we passed them day before yester¬ 
 day ; but you did not notice them, I suppose. 
 They are not common in the open country, 
 for there the logs are worth a great deal more 
 for lumber or for firewood. There is one 
 great advantage which this fence possesses j 
 that is, there is no part underground, and 
 therefore, it does not rot easily. 
 
 “Next comes the rail fence. When trees 
 and bushes grow scarce, the farmer has to 
 economize his materials, and so he splits up 
 his logs into rails , as they are called, and 
 then they will go a great deal further. He 
 generally gets cedar for this purpose, both 
 
FENCES. 
 
 173 
 
 because it splits easily into long clefts, and 
 also because it is very durable. 
 
 “ Then there must be some contrivance 
 for keeping the rails up, and there are several 
 plans. One way is to lay them, like a log 
 fence, with short pieces across the ends; but 
 this is not a good way.” 
 
 “ Why not ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “ The rails are not heavy enough to keep 
 themselves firm in their places, as the logs 
 are. So they have other modes. There,” 
 continued Mr. Holiday, pointing over into a 
 field, “there is one way.” 
 
 The children looked, and saw a fence 
 made of rails laid in a zigzag form, in such 
 a manner that the ends of the rails at the 
 corners were laid across one another, so as 
 to be supported without any post. 
 
 “ That is a very common way of making 
 a rail fence,” said Mr. Holiday, “and there 
 are two advantages in it. One is, it saves 
 the trouble of making posts, and the other 
 is, no part of it is under ground to rot 
 away.” 
 
 “ Why don’t they always make rail fences 
 so, then ? ” said Rollo. 
 
 “Because,” said his father, “in the first 
 15 * 
 
174 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 place it requires more rails, on account of 
 the crooked direction, than would be neces¬ 
 sary for a straight fence ; and then, besides, 
 it takes up a great deal of ground. For they 
 can only plough and cultivate up to the 
 outer angles of the fence on each side, 
 which leaves a space of several feet be¬ 
 tween, useless. 
 
 “ A better way, therefore, to make the 
 rail fence is to put posts into the ground, 
 and then cut holes through the posts, and 
 put the ends of the rails into the holes. 5 ’ 
 
 “ Why don’t they nail them to the posts ? ” 
 asked Rollo. 
 
 “ Because the rails are so large, and irreg¬ 
 ular in shape, that it would be very difficult 
 to nail them ; and the cost of the nails, too, 
 would be considerable. 
 
 “ Board fences come next. When the 
 timber of a country becomes more scarce, so 
 that it is not easy to get rails, they use 
 boards.” 
 
 “ Yes, sir,” said Rollo ; “ and they can nail 
 the boards.” 
 
 “Yes, they put posts down sometimes, 
 and nail the boards to the posts; and some¬ 
 times they drive stakes down and support 
 
FENCES. 175 
 
 the boards by withs. Did you ever notice 
 a board fence made with withs ?” 
 u No, sir,” said Rollo. 
 u They drive down two stakes where the 
 ends of one length of the fence are to come ; 
 one stake is on one side of the fence, and 
 the other upon the other. Then, after put¬ 
 ting in the lower boards, they bind in a with , 
 made of long, slender twigs, directly over the 
 upper edge of the lower board, in a very 
 curious way, so as to bind the two stakes 
 together, and also to furnish a support for 
 the second board. The third or upper board 
 is supported in the same manner. Thus 
 they save all expense for nails, and they do 
 not have to dig post holes; for stakes that 
 are sharpened and driven down with an axe 
 will answer. 
 
 “ A more substantial way is to set posts, 
 and nail the boards to the posts; and then 
 they generally nail a narrow piece up and 
 down the posts so as to cover and conceal 
 the ends of the boards.” 
 
 By the time Mr. Holiday had got so far as 
 this, in his descriptions, the children were 
 on the watch for the different kinds of fences, 
 as they passed along the road. They ob- 
 
176 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 served rail fences, and board lences of vari¬ 
 ous kinds, and were looking out very sharply 
 for every peculiarity in the mode of fixing 
 them. There were a good many stone walls, 
 and presently Rollo said that his father had 
 not told them about walls. 
 
 “No,” said he, “I was coming to that 
 next. Walls are the best kind of fences, 
 though they cost the most.” 
 
 “ O father,” said Rollo, “ 1 should not 
 think such old stones would cost any thing 
 at all.” 
 
 “ The stones themselves do not cost any 
 thing — it is the time and labor in hauling 
 them, and laying them in the wall. When 
 the stones are all ready on the land, it is an 
 excellent plan to make stone wall. It will 
 last a great many years.” 
 
 “ I should think it would last forever,” 
 said Rollo’s mother. 
 
 “ The frost heaves it a little every year, 
 until at length it gets out of shape at the 
 top, and finally tumbles down. You some¬ 
 times see an old stone wall, by the side of 
 the road, running in and out like a zigzag rail 
 fence. It is the work of the frost heaving 
 away upon the foundation, every year for 
 
FENCES. 
 
 177 
 
 perhaps fifty years. They can prevent this, 
 however, by making a foundation. To get 
 a good foundation, they dig a long trench, as 
 deep as the frost goes, and then fill it up 
 with loose stones. The frost then cannot 
 heave it, and it stands firm and solid, per¬ 
 haps for a century.” 
 
 Rollo and Lucy both acknowledged that 
 they had been very much interested in this 
 lecture on fences, and they took a great deal 
 of interest and pleasure in observing the 
 various kinds of fences, all the rest of the 
 day. Mr. Holiday told them that that would 
 be the effect of knowledge on all subjects 
 whatever. a Learn, therefore, all you can, 
 children, on all subjects. For even if you 
 never have to turn your knowledge to prac¬ 
 tical account, the possession of it will often 
 be the means of giving you pleasure.” 
 
 Jonas had no time to tell the children any 
 more stories during this journey, for the 
 whole party soon reached home. The af¬ 
 ternoon before they arrived, however, when 
 they stopped at a tavern for the last time, 
 Rollo and Lucy were standing at the door, 
 impatient for the horses to finish their oats, 
 
178 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 so that they might go on, for they were 
 eager to get home again. They saw Jonas 
 coming out of the barn. 
 
 u Are the horses ready ? ” said Rollo. 
 u Not quite yet,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ What are they eating ? ” said Rollo. 
 u A peck of oats apiece,” Jonas replied. 
 
 (( A peck! O, how many! They’ll get 
 some grass when we get home, won’t they, 
 Jonas?” - j 
 
 u Yes,” said Jonas; “we shall turn them 
 out to pasture at once.” 
 
 u Why don’t you put them into a pasture, 
 here, at the taverns, as we go along, and so 
 let them have grass instead of oats? ” 
 u O, because,” said Jonas. 
 
 “ Because what ? ” asked Lucy. 
 u Why, it would take them longer to 
 make a dinner of grass. And besides, they 
 might jump over the fence; and then what 
 should we do ? ” 
 
 If it was a good rail fence of five bars, 
 they couldn’t,” said Rollo. 
 
 11 How came you to know about rail 
 fences?” said Jonas. 
 
 “ Father told us all about fences, the other 
 day,” replied Rollo. 
 
 
FENCES. 
 
 179 
 
 “ Did he ? ” 
 
 “ Yes ; and when I get home, I am going 
 to make some little fences.” 
 
 “So I would,” said Jonas. “You might 
 turn your little sand-garden, in the corner of 
 the yard, into a farm, and have a pasture, 
 and mowing field, and corn-field, and garden, 
 and then enclose all the different fields with 
 different kinds of fences.” 
 
 “ So we can,” said Rollo, clapping his 
 hands. 
 
 “ No, we can’t,” said Lucy ; “ we can’t 
 make the little fences.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Jonas, “I think you might. 
 You might make very good ones with a 
 knife and a gimlet.” 
 
 “ What should we do for boards,” said 
 Lucy, “ to make a board fence ? ” 
 
 “ O, we could split up shingles,” said 
 Rollo. 
 
 “Yes,” said Jonas, “ and you could use 
 twine for withes. I can show you how to 
 put it on.” 
 
 “ And we can make a stone wall very 
 easily,” said Lucy, “for we can pick up the 
 stones all about the yard.” 
 
 “Yes,” said Jonas, “though it is not very 
 
180 
 
 FENCES. 
 
 easy to lay stone wall so that it will stand 
 firm. Bnt I must go and see if the horses 
 are ready. ’ 5 
 
 So Jonas went back again to the barn, 
 and the children determined that, the very 
 next day after they got home, they would 
 begin their farm, and put upon it models of 
 as many different kinds of fences as they 
 could make ; and they thought that, with 
 Jonas’s help, it would be a good many. 
 When they got into the carryall, Kollo asked 
 his father what he thought of the plan ; and 
 he said he thought it was an excellent one ; 
 he even gave them some encouragement 
 that perhaps he would help them a little 
 himself. 
 
 Rollo and Lucy continued to talk about 
 this plan, until they reached the end of the 
 journey. 
 
 THE END. 
 

 

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