d not
seem fully disposed to admit Rollo's authority to set him right by
violence. He resisted; and, in the struggle, the table was pushed away,
and the water in the saucer spilled over. The water ran along under the
sheet of paper. Nathan, seeing the mischief that had been done, was a
little frightened, and released his hold. Rollo then took up the paper,
which had sand upon the upper side, and water dripping off from the
under side, saying,

"There, Nathan, now see what you have done!"

"I didn't do it," said Nathan.

"You did," said Rollo.

"I didn't," said Nathan.

Hereupon, Jonas came up to the table to see what was the matter. Each of
the boys told his story.

"Now we are in pretty trouble," said Jonas; "we thought we were going to
have a fine lecture; instead of that, there are two boys to be punished,
and wet paper to be dried."

"Punished?" said Rollo.

"Yes," said Jonas, "Nathan for touching the sand-box, and you for
touching _him_."

"Why, he was pouring out all the sand," said Rollo, "and I was only
trying to stop him."

"Yes, but you know," said Jonas, "that you had no right to stop him by
violence. That always makes the difficulty worse."

Here Rollo began to look pretty sober. He knew that he had done what he
had very often been forbidden to do.

"Now," said Jonas, "we can wait and tell your mother about it, when she
comes out, or we can just settle it all among ourselves."

"How?" said Rollo, with an anxious look.

"Why, I can dry the paper and the sand," said Jonas, "if you and Nathan
will only punish the boys."

"How shall we do it?" asked Rollo, looking up with a faint and doubtful
smile.

"I think a pretty good punishment," said Jonas, "would be for you and
Nathan to go and sit in two corners of the room, with your faces to the
wall, until I get the paper and sand dry--if you think that would be
punishment enough."

"Well," said Rollo,--his eye brightening at the idea of winding up so
unpleasant a business so easily,--"well, Nathan, let's go."

Nathan was ready, and so he climbed down from his high chair, and as
Rollo went to one corner of the room, he went to the other, and they
took their places, as Jonas had directed; only Nathan could not resist
the temptation of looking round, now and then, to see how Jonas got on
with the drying of the paper. They, however, bore their self-inflicted
punishment very patiently; and when Jonas had got the paper dried, and
the table wiped