e is pretty big. He is almost
as big as the horse. I should think he could draw you alone in the wagon."

"Perhaps he is strong enough for that; but Elky has never learned to work
yet."

"Never learned!" said Rollo, in great surprise. "Do horses have to _learn_
to work? Why, they have nothing to do but to pull."

"Why, suppose," said his father, "that he should dart off at once as soon
as he is harnessed, and pull with all his strength, and furiously."

"O, he must not do so: he must pull gently and slowly."

"Well, suppose he pulls gently a minute, and then stops and looks round,
and then I tell him to go on, and he pulls a minute again, and then stops
and looks round."

"O no," said Rollo, laughing, "he must not do so; he must keep pulling
steadily all the time."

"Yes, so you see he has something more to do than merely to pull; he must
pull right, and he must be taught to do this. Besides, he must learn to
obey all my various commands. Why, a horse needs to be taught to work as
much as a boy."

"Why, father, I can work; and I have never been taught."

"O no," said his father, smiling, "you cannot work."

"I can plant beans," said Rollo.

Just then, Rollo, who was all this time riding on the horse, looked down
from his high seat into a little bush by the side of the road, and saw
there a little bunch that looked like a birdsnest; and he said, "O,
father, please to take me down; I want to look at that birdsnest."

His father knew that he would not hurt the birdsnest; so he took him off
of the horse, and put him on the ground. Then he walked on with the horse,
and Rollo turned back to see the nest. He climbed up upon a log that lay
by the side of the bush, and then gently opened the branches and looked
in. Four little, unfledged birds lifted up their heads, and opened their
mouths wide. They heard the noise which Rollo made, and thought it was
their mother come to feed them.

"Ah, you little dickeys," said Rollo; "hungry, are you? _I_ have not got
any thing for you to eat."

Rollo looked at them a little while, and then slowly got down and walked
along up the lane, saying to himself, "_They_ are not big enough to work,
at any rate, but _I_ am, I know, and I do not believe but that _Elky_ is."

Preparations.

When Rollo got back into the yard, he found his father just getting into
the wagon to go away. Jonas stood by the horse, having just finished
harnessing him.

"Father," said Rollo, "I ca