by Jacob Abbott
GOING UP.
They then set forward, the children in advance of the rest. Jonas walkedwith Rollo and Lucy, and he had round his waist a broad leather belt,which he always wore on such occasions, and which had, on one side, hishatchet and knife, and on the other a sort of bag or pocket, containingseveral things, such as matches, a little dipper, &c.
Rollo's father and mother, and his uncle George, walked along behindthem. The way was, for some distance, a sort of cart-path, too steep andrough for a chaise, but hard and dry, and pretty comfortable walking.Rollo and Lucy asked Jonas if he would not tell them a story, as theywent along, to beguile the way.
Jonas began a story, about a boy that lived a long time on a mountainalone, but he had not proceeded far, before they heard a voice behind,calling them. They looked buck, and saw that Rollo's father wasbeckoning them to stop.
They waited till he came up, and he told them he wanted to give themtheir orders for the day; and they were rules, he said, which ought tobe observed on all berrying expeditions, by children.
"_First_" said he, "always keep in sight of _me_. For this purpose,watch me all the time, when we are stepping, and keep before, ratherthan behind, when we are walking.
"_Second_. Take no unnecessary steps, but keep in the right path, andwalk slowly and steadily there, so as to save your strength. Otherwiseyou will get tired out very soon.
"_Third_. Do not touch any flower or berry that you see, exceptblueberries, without first showing them to one of us."
The children listened to these rules, and promised to obey them, andthen walked on. They tried to walk slowly and steadily, listening toJonas's story. They turned off, after a time, into a narrower andsteeper path, and ascended, stepping from stone to stone The trees andbushes hung over their heads, making the walk shady and cool.
After slowly ascending in this way, for some time, they came out of thewoods into an opening of rocky ground, and patches of blue berry-bushes.They saw, also, at some distance before them, three or four boys,sitting upon a rock, with pails and baskets in their hands, talking andlaughing loud. They did not take much notice of them, but walked onquietly. They were going on directly towards them, but Rollo's fathercalled them, and pointed for them to turn off to the right, round arocky precipice which was in that direction.
The children were turning accordingly, when they heard a shout from theboys before them,--"Hallo,--come this way, and we will show you wherethe blueberries are."
"Father," said Rollo, as he stopped and turned round to his father, "theboys say they will show us the blueberries, out that way: shall we goand see?"
"No," said his father in a low voice, so that the boys did not hear."No: go the way I told you."
They went along, and presently got round the precipice out of sight ofI he boys again. They walked slowly until their parents overtook them.
"Father," said Rollo, "why could you not let us go out with those boys?They said they were thickest out there."
"Because," said he, "I presume they are not good boys, and I do not wantyou to have any thing to do with them."
"But, father, they must be good boys, or they would not want to show usthe blueberries. If they were bad, selfish boys, they would want to keepall the good places to themselves."
If Rollo had only asked his father, in a modest manner, how it could bethat the boys were bad, when they wanted to show him the best place forblueberries, it would have been very proper; but his manner of speakingshowed a silly confidence in his own opinion, which was very wrong. Hisfather, however, did not attempt to reason with him, but only said,
"I think they are bad boys, for I overheard them using bad language; andI wish you to have nothing to do with them."
He then found a good place for them to begin to gather their berries.It was a beautiful spot of open ground, between the thick woods on oneside, and a broken, rocky precipice on the other.
Uncle George took Jonas forward alone, until they were out of sight, andpresently returned without him. Rollo asked where Jonas was gone, andhis uncle told him that that was a secret at present. They heard, soonafter, the strokes of his hatchet in the woods, on before them, butcould not imagine what he could be doing.
Thus things went on very pleasantly, and they gathered a large quantityof berries. There was, indeed, in the course of the day, a seriousdifficulty between Rollo and the bad boys; and there is an account of itgiven in the next story of "TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN." With Ibisexception, every thing went on well until about, noon, when Rolloobserved that Jonas had been missing a long time.
