Rollo at Play | Page 3

did not begin
the bridge.
"I am beginning it," said he.
Rollo laughed at this, but in a minute Jonas called to him to stand back,
away from the bank; and then, after a few strokes more, the top of the
tree began to bend slowly over, and then it fell faster and faster, until it
came down with a great crash, directly across the brook.
"There!" said Jonas, "there is your bridge."

Rollo looked at it with astonishment and pleasure.
"Now," said Jonas, "I will come and help you over."
"No," said Rollo, "I can come over myself. I can take hold of the
branches for a railing."
So Rollo began to climb along the stem of the tree, holding on carefully
by the branches. When he reached the middle of the stream, he stopped
to look down into the water.
"This is a capital bridge of yours, Jonas," said he. "How beautiful the
water looks down here! O, I see a little fish! He is swimming along by
a great rock. Now he is standing perfectly still. O, Jonas, come and see
him."
"No," said Jonas, "I must mind my work."
After a little time, Rollo went carefully on over the bridge, and sat
down on the bank of the brook. But he did not have with him the parcel
his mother gave him. He had left it on the other side.
After he had watched the fishes, and thrown pebble-stones into the
brook some time, he began to be tired, and he asked Jonas what he had
better do.
"I think you had better build a wigwam."
"A wigwam? What is a wigwam?" said Rollo.
"It is a little house made of bushes such as the Indians live in."
"O, I could not make a house," said Rollo.
"I think you could if I should tell you how, and help you a little."
"But you say you must mind your work."
"Yes,--I can mind my work and tell you at the same time."

Rollo thought he should like to build a wigwam very much. Jonas told
him the first thing to be done was to find a good place, where the
ground was level. Rollo looked at a good many places, but at last chose
a smooth spot under a great oak tree, which Jonas said he was not
going to cut down. It was near a beautiful turn in the brook, where the
water was very deep.
Jonas told him that the first thing was to make a little stake, and drive it
down in the middle of his wigwam-ground. Then Rollo recollected that
he had left his hatchet over on the other side of the brook, together with
the parcel his mother gave him; and he was going over to get them,
when Jonas told him he would trim up the bridge a little, and then he
could go over more easily.
So Jonas went upon the bridge, and began to cut away the branches that
were in the way, leaving enough on each side to take hold of, and to
keep Rollo from falling in. Rollo could then go back and forth easily.
He held on with one hand, and carried his hatchet in the other. Then he
went over again, and brought his parcel, and laid it down near the great
oak tree.
Then he made a little stake, and drove it down in the middle of the
wigwam-ground. Then he asked Jonas what he must do next.
"That is the centre of your wigwam; now you must strike a circle
around it."
"What?" said Rollo.
"Don't you know how to strike a circle?" said Jonas.
Rollo said he did not, and then Jonas told him to do exactly as he
should say, and that would show him.
"First," said Jonas, "have you got a string?"
Rollo felt in his pockets in vain, but he recollected his little parcel,
which was tied with a piece of twine, and held it up to ask Jonas if that

would do. Jonas said it would, and told him to take it off carefully, and
tie one end of it to his centre stake.
And Rollo did so.
"Now," said Jonas, "make another little sharp stake for the marker, and
tie the other end of the twine to that, near the sharp end."
Rollo worked busily for some time, and then called out,
"Jonas, it is done."
All this time, Jonas was at work in the bushes, at a little distance. He
now came to Rollo's wigwam-ground, and took hold of the marker, and
held it off as far from the middle stake as it would go, and then began
to make a mark on the ground all around the middle stake. Now, as the
marker was tied to the