heir apples in faster, and, as they were
at work then, and not at play, they resolved to continue the plan.

Farmer Cropwell then asked who was to take command the next time.

"Rollo," said the boys.

"Well, Rollo," said he, "I want you to have a large number of apples
knocked down this time, and then select from them the largest and nicest
you can. I want one load for a particular purpose."

A Present.

The boys worked on industriously, and, before dinner-time, they had
gathered all the apples. The load of best apples, which the farmer had
requested them to bring for a particular purpose, were put into a small
square box, until it was full, and then a cover was nailed on; the rest
were laid upon the great bench. When, at length, the work was all done,
and they were ready to go home, the farmer put this box into the wagon, so
that it stood up in the middle, leaving a considerable space before and
behind it. He put the loose apples into this space, some before and some
behind, until the wagon was full.

"Now, James and Rollo, I want you to draw these apples for me, when you go
home," said the farmer.

"Who are they for?" said Rollo.

"I will mark them," said he.

So he took down a little curious-looking tin dipper, with a top sloping in
all around, and with a hole in the middle of it. A long, slender
brush-handle was standing up in this hole.

When he took out the brush, the boys saw that it was blacking. With this
blacking-brush he wrote on the top of the box,--LUCY.

"Is that box for my cousin Lucy?" said Rollo.

"Yes," said he; "you can draw it to her, can you not?"

"Yes, sir," said Rollo, "we will. And who are the other apples for? You
cannot mark _them_."

"No," said the farmer; "but you will remember. Those before the box are
for you, and those behind it for James. So drive along. George will come
to your house, this afternoon, with the strawberry plants, and then he can
bring the wagon home."

The Strawberry-Bed.

George Cropwell came, soon after, to Rollo's house, and helped him make a
fine strawberry-bed, which, he said, he thought would bear considerably
the next year. They dug up the ground, raked it over carefully, and then
put in the plants in rows.

After it was all done, Rollo got permission of his father to go back with
George to take the wagon home; and George proposed to take Rollo's
wheelbarrow too. He had never seen such a pretty little wheelbarrow, and
was very