said Rollo.

"Six baskets full," said Jonas.

"No," said Rollo.

"Eight."

"No; not so many."

"How many, then?" said Jonas, who began to be tired of guessing.

"Two; that is, I have got one in, and the other is almost full."

"Only two?" said Jonas. "Then you cannot have worked very steadily. Come
here and I will show you how to work."

What Rollo Might Do.

So Jonas walked along to the chips, and asked Rollo to fill up that
basket, and carry it, and then come back, and he would tell him.

So Rollo filled up the basket, carried it to the bin, and came back very
soon. Jonas told him then to fill it up again as full as it was before.

"There," said Jonas, when it was done, "now it is as full as the other
was, and I should think you have been less than two minutes in doing it.
We will call it two minutes. Two minutes for each basket full would make
thirty baskets full in an hour. Now, I don't think there are more than
thirty baskets full in all; so that, if you work steadily, but without
hurrying any, you would get them all in in an hour."

"In an hour?" said Rollo. "Could I get them all in in an hour?"

"Yes," said Jonas, "I have no doubt you can. But you must not hurry and
get tired out. Work moderately, but _steadily_;--that is the way."

So Jonas went to the field, leaving Rollo to go on with his thirty
baskets. Rollo thought it would be a fine thing to get the chips all in
before his father should come home, and he went to work very busily
filling his basket the third time.

"I can do it quicker," said he to himself. "I can fill the basket a great
deal faster than that. I will get it all done in half an hour."

So he began to throw in the chips as fast as possible, taking up very
large ones too, and tossing them in in any way. Now it happened that he
did fill it this time very quick; for the basket being small, and the
chips that he now selected very large, they did not pack well, but lay up
in every direction, so as apparently to fill up the basket quite full,
when, in fact, there were great empty spaces in it; and when he took it up
to carry it, it felt very light, because it was in great part empty.

He ran along with it, forgetting Jonas's advice not to hurry, and thinking
that the reason why it seemed so light was because he was so strong. When
he got to the coal-bin, the chips would not come out easily. They were so
large that they had got wedged between the sides of the basket, and h