w shall you destroy it?" said Rollo.

"I shall burn it up."

"But how can you?" said Rollo.

Jonas then explained to them how he was going to burn the hornet's nest.
He said he should take a long pole with two prongs at one end like a
pitchfork, and with that fork up a bunch of hay. Then he should set the
top of the hay on fire, and stand it up directly under the nest.

The boys continued talking about the hornet's nest all the way home, and
forgot to say any thing more about the causey until just as they were
going into the yard. Then they told Jonas that he had not told them how to
put on the gravel, on the top.

He said he could not tell them then, and, besides, they would have as much
as they could do to put in stones for one day.

Besides, James said it was sundown, and time for him to go home; but he
promised to come the next morning, if his mother would let him, as soon as
he had finished his lessons.

Keeping Tally.

Rollo and James began their work the next day about the middle of the
forenoon, determined to obey Jonas's directions exactly, and to work
industriously for an hour. They put a number of small pieces of board upon
their wheelbarrows, to put along the pathway at first, and just as they
had got them placed, Jonas came down just to see whether they were
beginning right.

He saw them wheel in one or two loads of stones, and told them he thought
they were doing very well.

"We have earned one cent already," said Rollo.

"How," said Jonas; "is your father going to pay you for your work?"

"Yes," said Rollo, "a cent for every two loads we put in."

"Then you must keep tally," said Jonas.

"_Tally_," said Rollo, "what is tally?"

"Tally is the reckoning. How are you going to remember how many loads you
wheel in?"

"O, we can remember easily enough," said Rollo: "we will count them as we
go along."

"That will never do," said Jonas. "You must mark them down with a piece of
chalk on your wheelbarrow."

So saying, Jonas fumbled in his pockets, and drew out a small, well-worn
piece of chalk, and then tipped up Rollo's wheelbarrow, saying,

"How many loads do you say you have carried already?"

"Two," said Rollo.

"Two," repeated Jonas; and he made two white marks with his chalk on the
side of the wheelbarrow.

"There!" said he.

"Mark mine," said James; "I have wheeled two loads."

Jonas marked them, and then laid the chalk down upon a flat stone by the
side of the path,