Jonas on a Farm in Winter | Page 6

would not allow him to command until he had learned to obey.
They had the two sleds loaded nearly at the same time, and then went down. When they were going back after the second load, they all got on to Jonas's sled, which was forward, to ride, leaving the old General to follow with his sled. He was so well trained that he walked along very steadily. Oliver fastened the reins to one of the stakes, so that they should not get down under the horse's feet. The boys all got together upon the forward sled, in order that they might talk with one another as they were going back to the woods.
"Now, Josey," said Jonas, "we will let you have the command for the next trip, and, while we are going back, I will give you both some instructions."
"About obeying?" said Josey.
"Yes, and about commanding too," said Jonas. "It requires rather more skill to know how to command, than how to obey; to know how to direct work, than to know how to execute it. A good director, in the first place, takes care to plan wisely, and he feels a responsibility about the work, and a desire to have it go on to good advantage. If some men build a way, and, after it is finished, it tumbles down, the man who had charge of the work would feel more concerned about it than any of the others, because the chief responsibility comes upon him. So with your work,--if you have the command, and you and Oliver idle away the time, and when my sled is loaded, yours has but little wood in it, you would be more to blame than Oliver."
"What, if I didn't play any more than Oliver?"
"Yes," said Jonas, "because you are responsible. It is your duty to be industrious, and it is also your duty to see that Oliver is industrious, if you are the director,--so that you neglect two duties.
"It is a good plan, too," said Jonas, "for a director to give his directions in a mild and gentle tone. Some boys are very domineering and authoritative in their manner."
"How do you mean?" said Josey.
"Why, they would say, for example, 'Get out of the way, John, quick.' Whereas, it would be better to say, 'John, you are in the way, where we want to come along.' Some men give their directions with great noise and vociferation, and others give them quietly and gently."
"I shouldn't think they'd mind 'em," said Josey.
"Yes," said Jonas. "Directions ought to be given very distinctly, so as to be plainly understood; but they are not obeyed any better for violence and noise in giving them.
"A commander ought to have a regard for those under him," continued Jonas, "and deal justly by them. If a number of boys were going to ride a wagon, and their father put one of them in charge, he ought not to keep the best seat in the wagon for himself."
While talking thus, the oxen continued slowly advancing along the road. Their previous trip had broken out the road, but the pathway was filled with loose snow of a pure and spotless white, through which the great sled runners, following the oxen, ploughed their way. On each side of the track which they had made, the surface was smooth and unbroken, excepting under some of the trees, where masses of snow had fallen down from above. They saw, at length, as they were passing along by the brook, a little track, like a double dotting, running along, in a winding way, under the trees,--then crossing the road, and disappearing under the trees upon the other side.
"What's that?" asked Josey.
"That's a rabbit track," replied Oliver.
"Let's go and catch him," said Josey.
"No," said Jonas, "we must go on with our work."
At a little distance farther on, they saw another track. It was larger than the first, and not so regular.
"What sort of a track is that?" said Josey.
"I don't know," said Oliver; "it looks like a dog's track; but I shouldn't think there would be a dog out here in the woods."
They found that this track followed the road along for some distance. The animal which made it, seemed sometimes to have gone in the middle of the road, and sometimes out at the side; and Jonas said that he had passed there since they went down with the first load of wood.
"How do you know?" said Oliver.
"Because," said Jonas, "his track is made upon the broken snow, in the middle of the road."
They watched the track for some time, and then they lost sight of it. Presently, however, they saw it again.
"I wonder which way he went," said Oliver.
"I'll jump off, and look at the track," said Jonas.
So saying, he jumped off the sled, and examined