Jonas on a Farm in Winter | Page 4

and Oliver and
Josey with the horse, were slowly moving along up the road which led
back from the pond towards the wood lot. The wood lot was a portion
of the forest, which had been reserved, to furnish a supply of wood for
the winter fires. The road followed for some distance the bank of the
brook, which emptied into the pond at the place where Jonas and Oliver
had cleared land, when Jonas first came to live on this farm.
It was a very pleasant road. The brook was visible here and there
through the bushes and trees on one side of it. These bushes and trees
were of course bare of leaves, excepting the evergreens, and they were
loaded down with the snow. Some were bent over so that the tops
nearly touched the ground.

The brook itself, too, was almost buried and concealed in the snow. In
the still places, it had frozen over; and so the snow had been supported
by the ice, and thus it concealed both ice and water. At the little
cascades and waterfalls, however, which occurred here and there, the
water had not frozen. Water does not freeze easily where it runs with
great velocity. At these places, therefore, the boys could see the water,
and hear it bubbling and gurgling as it fell, and disappeared under the
ice which had formed below.
At last, they came to the wood lot. The wood which they were going to
haul had been cut before, and it had been piled up in long piles,
extending here and there under the trees which had been left. These
piles were now, however, partly covered with the snow, which lay light
and unsullied all over the surface of the ground.
The sticks of wood in these piles were of different sizes, though they
were all of the same length. Some had been cut from the tops of the
trees, or from the branches, and were, consequently, small in diameter;
others were from the trunks, which would, of course, make large logs.
These logs had, however, been split into quarters by a beetle and
wedges, when the wood had been prepared, so that there were very few
sticks or logs so large, but that Jonas could pretty easily get them on to
the sled.
Jonas drove his team up near to one end of the pile, while Josey and
Oliver went to the other, where the wood was generally small. While
Jonas was loading, he heard a conversation something like this between
the other boys:--
"Let's put some good large logs on our sled," said Josey.
"Well," said Oliver, "as large as we can; only we'd better put this small
wood on first."
"I wish you'd go around to the other side, Oliver," said Josey again;
"you're in my way."
"No," said Oliver, "I can't work on that side very well."

"Then I mean to move the old General round a little."
"No," said Oliver, "the sled stands just right now; only you get up on
the top of the pile, and I'll stay here." "No," said Josey, "I'd rather stand
here myself."
So the boys continued at work a few minutes longer, each being in the
other's way.
At length, Josey said again,--
"O, here is a large log, and I mean to get it out, and put it upon our
sled."
The log was covered with smaller wood, so that Josey could only get
hold of the end of it. He clasped his hands together under this end, and
began to lift it up, endeavoring to get it free from the other wood. He
succeeded in raising it a little, but it soon got wedged in again, worse
than before.
"Come, Oliver," said Josey, "help me get out this log. It is rock maple."
"No," said Oliver, "I'm busy."
"Jonas," said Josey, calling out aloud, "Jonas, here's a stick of wood,
which I can't get out. I wish you'd come and help me."
In answer to this request, Jonas only called both the boys to come to
him.
They accordingly left the old General standing in the snow, with his
sled partly loaded, and came to the end of the pile, where Jonas was at
work.
"I see you don't get along very well," said Jonas.
"Why, you see," said Josey, "that Oliver wouldn't help me put on a
great log."

"The difficulty is," said Jonas, "that you both want to be master.
Whereas, when two people are working together, one must be master,
and the other servant."
"I don't want to be servant," said Josey.
"It's better to be servant on some accounts," said Jonas; "then you have
no responsibility."
"Responsibility?" repeated Josey.
"Yes," said Jonas. "Power and responsibility always go together;--or at
least they ought to.