Rollo at Play

Rollo at Play

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rollo at Play, by Jacob Abbott This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Rollo at Play Safe Amusements
Author: Jacob Abbott
Release Date: February 18, 2004 [EBook #11140]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
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ROLLO AT PLAY;
OR,
SAFE AMUSEMENTS.
[Illustration: "Now he is standing perfectly still. O, Jonas, come and see him."]
ROLLO AT PLAY.

THE ROLLO SERIES
IS COMPOSED OF FOURTEEN VOLUMES. VIZ.
Rollo Learning to Talk. Rollo Learning to Read. Rollo at Work. Rollo at Play. Rollo at School. Rollo's Vacation. Rollo's Experiments.
Rollo's Museum. Rollo's Travels. Rollo's Correspondence. Rollo's Philosophy--Water. Rollo's Philosophy--Air. Rollo's Philosophy--Fire. Rollo's Philosophy--Sky.

A NEW EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR.
NOTICE TO PARENTS.
Although this little book, and its fellow, "ROLLO AT WORK," are intended principally as a means of entertainment for their little readers, it is hoped by the writer that they may aid in accomplishing some of the following useful purposes:--
1. In cultivating the thinking powers; as frequent occasions occur, in which the incidents of the narrative, and the conversations arising from them, are intended to awaken and engage the reasoning and reflective faculties of the little readers.
2. In promoting the progress of children in reading and in knowledge of language; for the diction of the stories is intended to be often in advance of the natural language of the reader, and yet so used as to be explained by the connection.
3. In cultivating the amiable and gentle qualities of the heart. The scenes are laid in quiet and virtuous life, and the character and conduct described are generally--with the exception of some of the ordinary exhibitions of childish folly--character and conduct to be imitated; for it is generally better, in dealing with children, to allure them to what is right by agreeable pictures of it, than to attempt to drive them to it by repulsive delineations of what is wrong.

CONTENTS.
ROLLO AT PLAY.
STORY 1. ROLLO AT PLAY IN THE WOODS.--The Setting out. Bridge-Building. A Visitor. Difficulty. Hearts wrong. Hearts right again.
STORY 2. THE STEEPLE-TRAP.--The Way to catch a Squirrel. The Way to lose a Squirrel. How to keep a Squirrel. Fires in the Woods.
STORY 3. THE HALO ROUND THE MOON; OR LUCY'S VISIT.--A Round Rainbow. Who knows best, a Little Boy or his Father! Repentance.
STORY 4. THE FRESHET.--Maria and the Caravan Small Craft. The Principles of Order. Clearing up.
STORY 5. BLUEBERRYING.--Old Trumpeter. Deviation. Little Mosette. Going up. The Secret out.
STORY 6. TROUBLE ON THE MOUNTAIN.--Boasting. Getting in Trouble. A Test of Penitence.

ROLLO AT PLAY IN THE WOODS.

THE SETTING OUT.
One pleasant morning in the autumn, when Rollo was about five years old, he was sitting on the platform, behind his father's house, playing. He had a hammer and nails, and some small pieces of board. He was trying to make a box. He hammered and hammered, and presently he dropped his work down and said, fretfully,
"O dear me!"
"What is the matter, Rollo?" said Jonas,--for it happened that Jonas was going by just then, with a wheelbarrow.
"I wish these little boards would not split so. I cannot make my box."
"You drive the nails wrong; you put the wedge sides with the grain."
"The wedge sides!" said Rollo; "what are the wedge sides,--and the grain? I do not know what you mean."
But Jonas went on, trundling his wheelbarrow; though he looked round and told Rollo that he could not stop to explain it to him then.
Rollo was discouraged about his box. He thought he would look and see what Jonas was going to do. Jonas trundled the wheelbarrow along, until he came opposite the barn-door, and there he put it down. He went into the barn, and presently came out with an axe. Then he took the sides of the wheelbarrow off, and placed them up against the barn. Then he laid the axe down across the wheelbarrow, and went into the barn again. Pretty soon he brought out an iron crowbar, and laid that down also in the wheelbarrow, with the axe.
Then Rollo called out,
"Jonas, Jonas, where are you going?"
"I am going down into the woods beyond the brook."
"What are you going to do?"
"I am going to clear up some ground."
"May I go with you?"
"I should like it--but that is not for me to say."
Rollo knew by this that he must ask his mother. He went in and asked her, and she, in return, asked him if he had read his lesson that morning. He said he had not; he had forgotten it.
"Then," said his mother, "you must first go and read a quarter of an hour."
Rollo was sadly