her what they had better
do.

"I always find," said his mother, "that when I am disappointed of any
pleasure, it is best not to try to find any other pleasure in its place,
but to turn to _duty_."

The children did not understand this very well, and they were silent.

"What I mean," she continued, "is this: When we have just been
disappointed of any pleasure which we had set our hearts upon, it is
very difficult to find any thing else that we can have in its place,
that will look as pleasant as the one we had lost. You see that you are
not satisfied with any thing you propose to one another. Now, I find
that the best way, in such cases, is to give up pleasure altogether, and
turn to some duty; and after performing the duty a short time, peace and
satisfaction return to the mind again, and we get over the effects of
the disappointment in the quickest and pleasantest way."

Rollo and Lucy looked at one another rather soberly. They did not seem
to know what to say.

"I presume, however, you will not do this," continued his mother.

"Why?" said Rollo.

"Because," said his mother, "it requires a good deal of resolution, at
first, to turn to _duty_ when you have just been setting your heart on
_pleasure_."

"O, we have got resolution enough," said Rollo.

"What duty do you think we had better do?" asked Lucy.

"If I were you," replied Rollo's mother, "I should first of all sit down
and have a good reading lesson."

Rollo and Lucy hesitated a little, but they concluded to take their
mother's advice at last, and went to Rollo's little library, and chose a
book, and then went down to the back entry, and sat down there, on a
long cricket, and began to read.

At first, it was rather hard to do it, for it did not look very pleasant
to either of them to sit down and read, just at the time when they
expected to be gathering blueberries on the mountain. Rollo said, when
they were opening the hook and finding the place, that, if they had
gone, they should, by that time, have just about arrived at the foot of
the mountain.

"Yes," said Lucy, "but we must not think of that now. Besides, just see
how it rains. It would be a fine time now to go up a mountain, wouldn't
it?"

Rollo looked out of the open door, and saw the rain pouring down into
the yard, and felt again ashamed to recollect how he had insisted that
it was not going to rain.

Lucy said it was beautiful to see it pouring down so fast. "Look," said
she; "ho