o go and get a
smaller one. He could not work without a smaller one.

"Very well," said she, "I would rather that you should not work then. The
interruption to me to get up now, and go to look for a smaller basket,
will be greater than all the good you will do in picking up chips."

Rollo then told her that his father wanted him to work, and he related to
her all the conversation they had had. She then thought that she had
better do all in her power to give Rollo a fair experiment; so she left
her work, went down, got him a basket which he said was just big enough,
and left him at the door, going out to his work in the yard.

A Bad Beginning.

Rollo sat down on the chips, and began picking them up, all around him,
and throwing them into his basket. He soon filled it up, and then lugged
it in, emptied it into the chip-bin, and then returned, and began to fill
it again.

He had not got his basket more than half full the second time, before he
came upon some very large chips, which were so square and flat, that he
thought they would be good to build houses with. He thought he would just
try them a little, and began to stand them up in such a manner as to make
the four walls of a house. He found, however, an unexpected difficulty;
for although the chips were large and square, yet the edges were so sharp
that they would not stand up very well.

Some time was spent in trying experiments with them in various ways; but
he could not succeed very well; so he began again industriously to put
them into his basket.

When he got the basket nearly full, the second time, he thought he was
tired, and that it would be a good plan to take a little time for rest;
and he would go and see Jonas a little while.

Now his various interruptions and delays, his conversation with his
mother, the delay in getting the basket, and his house-building, had
occupied considerable time; so that, when he went back to Jonas, it was
full half an hour from the time when he left him; and he found that Jonas
had finished mending the wheelbarrow, and had put it in its place, and was
just going away himself into the field.

"Well, Rollo," said he, "how do you get along with your work?"

"O, very well," said Rollo; "I have been picking up chips all the time
since I went away from you."

Rollo did not mean to tell a falsehood. But he was not aware how much of
his time he had idled away.

"And how many have you got in?" said Jonas.

"Guess,"