Nathan," said he, at length, after a pause, "give me my beetle."

"No," said Nathan, "_I_ want to split."

"O, dear me!" said Rollo, with a sigh.

At first, he thought that he would take the beetle away from Nathan by
force; but he reflected in a moment that this would be wrong, and so
finally he concluded to go and state the case to his mother.

So he rose, and began to walk away, saying,

"Well, Nathan, I mean to go and tell mother, that you won't let me have
my beetle."

Then Nathan, whose conscience secretly reproved him for what he was
doing, pulled the beetle round from behind him, and threw it down upon
the floor, where Rollo had been sitting. This was wrong. It was a very
ill-natured way of giving it up. If he was satisfied that he was wrong,
he ought to have handed it to Rollo pleasantly. Instead of that, he
threw it down, with a sullen look, and sat still.

Then Rollo, thinking that it was now no longer necessary to go and
trouble his mother with the difficulty, began to return. As he came
back, he said, in a kind and soothing tone,

"Now, you are a good boy, Nathan. That is right--to give me back my
beetle. Now I will let you split again, some time."

But Rollo was mistaken in supposing that Nathan was a good boy. Boys are
not good until their _hearts_ are right. When a child has something
which he ought not to have, it is not enough for him to throw it down
upon the floor, sullenly, because he is afraid to have his father or
mother told that he has got it. He ought to give it up pleasantly, and
feel that it is right that he should do so. If Nathan had said to
himself, "I ought not to keep this beetle, for it is not mine--it is
Rollo's; he made it, and he has been kind enough to lend it to me, and
now I ought to be willing to give it back to him pleasantly again;" and
then had given it to him with a pleasant countenance,--that would have
been really being a good boy. But to throw it down in a pet, because he
was afraid to have Rollo complain to his mother, was very far from being
like a good boy.

However, it was very kind in Rollo to speak soothingly and pleasantly to
Nathan; though, if he had reflected how much goodness depends upon the
state of the heart, he would not have supposed that Nathan was yet a
good boy. In fact, when he saw that Rollo was coming back again, and was
not going to his mother, after standing still, looking quite sullen for
a moment, he suddenly stooped down, seized Rollo's