d out jumped Uncle
George and cousin Lucy.

Lucy was a very pleasant little blue-eyed girl, two or three years older
than Rollo. She had a small tin pail in her hand, with a cover upon it.

"Good morning, Rollo," said she. "Have you got your basket ready?"

"Yes," said Rollo; "but I am afraid it is going to rain."

While the children were saying this, Uncle George said to Rollo's
father,

"I suppose we shall have to give up our expedition to-day. I am in hopes
we are going to have some rain."

"In _hopes_," thought Rollo; "that is very strange when we want to go a
blueberrying."

Rollo's father and mother and his uncle looked at the clouds all
around. They concluded that there was every appearance of rain, and that
it would be best to postpone their excursion, and then went into the
house. Rollo was very confident it would not rain, and was very eager to
have them go. He asked Lucy if she did not think it was going to be
pleasant, but Lucy was more modest and reasonable than he was, and said
that she did not know; she could not judge of the weather so well as her
father.

Rollo began by this time to be considerably out of humor. He said he
knew it was not going to rain, and he did not see why they might not go.
He did not believe it would rain a drop all day.

Lucy just then pointed down to a little dark spot on the stone step of
the door, where a drop had just fallen, and asked Rollo what he called
that.

"And that,--and that,--and that," said she, pointing to several other
drops.

Rollo at first insisted that that was not rain, but some little spots on
the stone.

Then Lucy reached out her hand and said,

"Hold out your hand so, Rollo, and you will feel the drops coming down
out of the sky."

Rollo held out his hand a moment, but then immediately withdrew it,
saying, impatiently, that he did not care; it was not rain; at any rate
it was only a little sprinkling.

Lucy observed that Rollo was getting very much out of humor, and she
tried to please him by saying,

"Rollo, I would not mind. If it does rain, I will ask my father to let
me stay and play with you to-day, and we can have a fine time up in your
little room."

"No, we cannot," said Rollo; "and besides, they will not let you stay, I
know. I went yesterday to ask my father to let Jonas go with us to-day,
and he would not."

It was certainly very unreasonable for Rollo to imagine that his father
and uncle would be unwilling to have Lucy