Rollo in the Woods | Page 3

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 middle stake by the string, the mark was equally
distant from the middle stake in every part, and that made it exactly
round. Then Jonas laid down the marker, and pulled out the middle
stake; and they looked down and saw that there was a round mark on
the ground, about as large as a cart-wheel.
Then Jonas took the crowbar, and made deep holes all around, in this
circle, so far apart that Rollo could just step from one to the other. But
Rollo could not understand how he could make a house so.
"I will tell you," said Jonas. "You must now go and get some large
branches of trees, and trim off the twigs from the lower end, and stick
them down in these holes. I will show you how."
So Jonas took a large bough, and trimmed the large end, and sharpened
it a little, and then he fixed it down in one of these holes, in such a

manner that the top of it bent over towards the middle of the circle;
then he went back to his work, leaving Rollo to go on with the
wigwam.

A VISITOR.
Rollo put down two or three branches very well, and was very much
delighted at seeing it gradually begin to look like a house, when he
thought he heard a voice. He listened a moment, and heard some one at
a distance calling, "Rol--lo, Rol--lo."
Rollo dropped his hatchet, and looked in the direction that the sound
came from, and called out as loud as he could, "What!"
"Where--are--you?" was heard in reply.
Rollo answered, "Here," and then immediately clambered along over
the bridge, and ran through the woods until he came out into the open
field; and there he saw a small boy, away off at a