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A FALSE ALARM

As Rollo and Jonas walked along towards home, Rollo told Jonas that he thought he had been very successful in collecting curiosities that day.

“Why, what curiosities have you got besides your hornets’ nest?” asked Jonas.

“Why, there are my raspberry seeds,” said Rollo; “I think they are a curiosity; and besides that, I have got some very beautiful, bright pebbles in my pocket.”

“Let us see them,” said Jonas.

So Rollo put his hand into his pocket, and drew forth several pebbles; but they were by no means as beautiful as he had imagined. They looked rough and dull.

“They were very bright, when I got them,” said Rollo.

“That is because they were wet,” said Jonas. “Pebbles always look brightest and most beautiful when they are in their own proper place, in the brook; and that is the reason why I think it is generally best to leave them there.”

Rollo looked at his faded pebbles with an air of disappointment. He asked Jonas if there was no way of keeping them bright all the time.

“I think it probable that they might be oiled, and the oil would not dry.”

“Ho!” said Rollo, “I should not like to have them oiled.”

“Nor I,” said Jonas; “I should rather leave them in the brook.”

“But is not there any other way?”

“They might be varnished,” said Jonas. “That would bring out the colors; and the varnish would dry, so that you could handle them.”

“That would do,” said Rollo, “if I only had some varnish.”

“But the best way is to polish them,” said Jonas.

“How is that done?” asked Rollo.

“O, it is very hard to do,” replied Jonas. “They grind them on stones, and then they polish them on polishing wheels.”

“I wish I could do it,” said Rollo.

“It is not worth while to take so much pains with any of your curiosities,” said Jonas, “because you very soon get tired of them, and throw them away.”

“O, no,” said Rollo, “I never throw them away.”

“You leave them lying about the house and yard, then, and so other people throw them away.”

Rollo knew that this was true, and so he did not contradict Jonas.

“It’s not of much use to collect curiosities,” said Jonas, “unless you have a museum.”

“A museum?” said Rollo.

“Yes, that is a cabinet to put them in, and keep them safe. Then, when you have done looking at them yourself, you put them away safely; and, after a time, you get a great many collected, and you take pleasure in looking them over from time to time, and showing them to other boys that come to see you.”

“Well,” said Rollo, “I should like to have a museum.”

“O, you could not keep one,” said Jonas.

“Why not?” said Rollo.

“You have not patience and perseverance enough. You would be very much pleased with it for a day or two; but then you would get interested in other plays, and let your museum all get into disorder.”

Rollo was silent. He knew that what Jonas said was true.

“I don’t know but that your cousin Lucy might keep a museum,” said Jonas; “she is more careful than you are.”

“And cousin James could help us find the curiosities,” said Rollo.

“So he could,” said Jonas. “I think it might be a very good plan.”

“But what shall we have for our cabinet to put them in?” said Rollo.

“Why, sometimes they have something like a book-case,” replied Jonas, “with shelves and glass doors. Then the curiosities are all put upon the shelves, and you can see them through the glass doors. But this can only be done with very valuable curiosities.”

“Why?” asked Rollo.

“Because such a case, with glass doors, costs a good deal of money; and it is not worth while to pay so much money only to keep common things, such as your pebble stones.”

“But we have got such a book-case, already made; it is in mother’s chamber,” said Rollo.

“Yes,” said Jonas; “but it is full of books. Sometimes they keep a museum in the drawers of a bureau; but that is not a very good plan.”

“Why not?” said Rollo.

“Because, when you open and shut the drawers, it joggles the curiosities about.”

“Does it?” said Rollo.

“Yes,” replied Jonas. “But there is one thing you can do—I did not think of it before. There is a good large box in the barn, and I can put some shelves into it, and make the cover into a door; and if you want to collect a museum, you can do it in that. You can keep it out in the play room, and so it will not trouble any body in the house.”

Jonas meant, by the play room, a pretty large room, in the barn, made originally for a sort of granary, but which the children were accustomed to use for a play room.

Rollo was very much pleased with this plan. He determined to collect a museum, and to put his hornets’ nest in it for the first thing. As soon as he got home, as he found that dinner was not quite ready, he and Jonas went out into the barn to look at the box. It was a large box, which had been made to pack up a bureau in, so that the bureau should not get injured in the wagon which it was brought home in. As it happened, the box was smooth inside and out, and the cover of it was made of two boards, which Jonas had taken off carefully, when he took the bureau out, and had then tacked them on again; thinking that he might perhaps want it some time or other,—box, covers, and all.

Now it happened, as it generally does to persons who take care of things, that the article which Jonas thus preserved, came into use exactly. The box, he said, would be just the thing. He showed Rollo how he could place it so that it would make a convenient sort of cabinet.

“I can put it upon its end,” said he, “and then I can put on the two cover boards with hinges,—one pair of hinges on each side; then the covers will make little doors, and it will open like a book case, only it will not be quite so elegant.”

“I think it will be very elegant indeed,” said Rollo; “and you can make it for us this afternoon.”

“No,” said Jonas; “not this afternoon.”

“Why not?” said Rollo.

“O, I must attend to my work in the meadow.”

“O, no,” said Rollo. “I mean to ask my father to let you make it this afternoon.”

“No; I’d rather you wouldn’t,” said Jonas.

“Why not?” asked Rollo. “I know he will let you.”

“Yes, I suppose he would let me, if you were to ask him; but that would spoil the museum.”

“Spoil it?” said Rollo.

“Yes,” said Jonas. “The way to spoil any pleasure is to neglect duty for the sake of it. Work first, and play afterwards. That’s the rule.”

“Well, but, Jonas, we want to begin our museum this afternoon.”

“Very well,” said Jonas; “you may begin collecting your curiosities, you know; and you can put them all in a safe place, and have them all ready to put in when I get the case made.”

Rollo did not quite like this plan; but he knew that Jonas was always firm when it was a question of right and wrong, and so he said no more; only, after a moment’s pause, he asked Jonas when he would make the cabinet.

“The first rainy day,” replied Jonas.

“Then I hope it will rain to-morrow,” said Rollo; and he went out of the barn to see if it was not cloudy. But the sun shone bright, and the sky was clear and serene.

While Rollo was looking up at the sky, trying to find some appearance of rain, he heard a chaise coming, and looking out into the road, he saw that his cousin James was in it.

“Ah,” said he to himself, “there comes cousin James! Now I will have a frolic with him, by means of my hornets’ nest.”

So Rollo ran into the garden, and slyly fixed his hornets’ nest up in a lilac bush; and then ran out to the front of the house to find his cousin. But his cousin was nowhere to be found. The chaise was at the door, the horse being fastened to a post; but nobody was near it. So Rollo went into the house to see if he could find James.

They told him in the house that James had gone through the house into the yard, in pursuit of Rollo.

Rollo then ran out again, and at length found James, and after talking with him a minute, he said,

“Come, James, let us go into the garden.”

So they walked along towards the garden, Rollo telling James, by the way, about the canal which Jonas had made that day. At length, when they reached the lilac bush, Rollo looked up, and started in pretended fright, saying,

“O James! look there!”

“O!” exclaimed James; “it is a hornets’ nest.”

“So ’tis,” said Rollo; “run! run!”

James and Rollo started off at these words, and away they ran down the alley, Rollo convulsed with laughter at the success of his stratagem. At length they stopped.

“Now, how shall we get back?” said James. For the lilac, upon which Rollo had put the hornets’ nest, was close to the garden gate.

“I am not afraid to go,” said Rollo.

So Rollo walked along boldly; James following slowly and with a timid air, remonstrating with Rollo for his temerity.

“Rollo!” said he, “Rollo! take care. You had better not go.”

But what was his surprise and astonishment at seeing Rollo go deliberately up to the bush, and take down the twig that had the hornets’ nest attached to it, and hold it out towards him!

“I put it up there,” said Rollo. “There are no hornets in it.”

Still, James was somewhat afraid. He knew of course, now, that there could be no hornets in it; but, still, the association of the idea of danger was so strong with the sight of a hornets’ nest, that he could not feel quite easy. At length, however, he came up near to it, and examined it attentively.

“What made you frighten me so, Rollo?” said he.

“O, only for fun,” said Rollo.

“But you deceived me,” said James; “and I don’t think that that was right. It is never right to deceive.”

“O, I only did it for fun,” said Rollo.

James insisted upon it that it was wrong, and Rollo that it was not wrong; and finally they concluded to leave it to Jonas. So they both went to him, and told him the story.

“Wasn’t it wrong?” asked James.

“It wasn’t—was it?” said Rollo.

“It was deception,” added James.

“But it was only in fun,” said Rollo.

“One or the other of you must be to blame,” said Jonas.

“How?” asked Rollo.

“Why, James seems displeased with you for frightening him so; and now, either you must have done wrong, and given him just cause for his displeasure, or else, if you did right, then his displeasure is unreasonable, and so it is ill humor.”

The boys did not answer.

“So that the question is, Did Rollo do wrong? or, Is James out of humor?”

“Why, I think deception is always wrong,” said James.

“Did you ever play blind-man’s-buff?” asked Jonas.

“Yes,” replied James.

“And did you ever go and squeak in a corner, and then creep away, to make the blind man think you were there, and so go groping after you?”

“Why, yes,” said James; “but that is not deception.”

“Why, don’t you try to make the blind man think you are in the corner, when, in fact, you have gone?”

“Yes,” said James.

“And is not that trying to deceive him?”

“Yes—” said James, hesitating, “but,—I think that that is a very different thing.”

“How is it different?” said Jonas.

It is probable that James would have found some difficulty in answering this question; but, in fact, he did not have the opportunity to try, for, just then, he heard some one calling him, and he and Rollo went into the house. They wanted him to go, and so he got into the chaise and rode away, promising to come and see Rollo in the afternoon, if he could get permission. Soon after this, Rollo sat down, with the rest of the family, to dinner. He determined to commence in earnest the work of collecting curiosities that afternoon.

THE HEMLOCK-SEED

James came to play with Rollo that afternoon, and Rollo explained to him his plan of collecting a museum of curiosities. James was very much interested in it indeed, and he said that he had some shells and some Guinea peas at home, which he would put into it.

Rollo went to show him the box out of which Jonas was going to make the cabinet the first rainy day. Then the boys went out again to see if there were yet any signs of a storm. But they looked in vain. There were no clouds to be seen, except here and there a few of those white, fleecy tufts floating in the heavens, which indicate fair weather rather than rain.

The boys played together in the yard for some time. Among other things, they amused themselves by collecting some flowers, and pressing them in a book. Suddenly James said,

“O Rollo, let us go and get some blue-bells to press; they will be beautiful.”

“Where?” said Rollo.

“Among the rocks by the road, beyond the bridge,” said James. “There are plenty of them among those rocks.”

The place which James referred to, was a rocky precipice by the road side, about a quarter of a mile from the house; just at the entrance of a small village. Rollo approved of the proposal, and he went in and asked his mother’s permission to go.

She consented, and Rollo, when he came back through the kitchen, said to Dorothy, who was sitting at the window, sewing,

“Dorothy, we are going to get some blue-bells to press.”

“Ah!” said Dorothy. “Where are you going for them?”

“O, out by the bridge,” said Rollo, as he passed on to go out at the door.

“O Rollo!” said she, calling out to him suddenly, as if she recollected something; “stop a minute.”

So Rollo came back to hear what she had to say.

“You are going pretty near the village.”

“Yes,” said Rollo.

“And could you be so kind as to do an errand for me?”

“Yes,” said Rollo; “what is it?”

Then Dorothy went to her work-table, and began to open it, saying all the time,

“I want you to get some medicine for Sarah, for she is sick.”

Sarah was a friend of Dorothy’s, who lived at another house, not far from Rollo’s; and Rollo used sometimes to see her at his father’s, when she came over to see Dorothy. She was in very feeble health, and now wanted some medicines. Dorothy had been over at the house where she lived that day, and had found that the doctor had left her a prescription; but she had nobody to send for it, and she was not quite able to go herself. So Dorothy told her that if she would let her have the money, she would ask Rollo or Jonas to go.

So Sarah gave her a dollar bill, and in order to keep it safe, she put it in a little morocco wallet, and tied it up securely with a string. This wallet was what Dorothy was looking for, in her work-table. She took it out, and untied the string. She opened the wallet, and showed Rollo the money in one of the pockets, and a small piece of white paper, upon which was written the names of the medicines which the doctor wished Sarah to take. Such a writing is called a prescription.

Rollo looked at the prescription to see what sort of medicines it was that he was to get, but he could not read it. The words were short and strange, and had periods at the end of them,—which Rollo told Dorothy was wrong, as periods ought to be only at the end of a sentence. Then there were strange characters and marks at the ends of the lines; and Rollo, after examining it attentively, said he could not read a word of it, and he did not believe that the apothecary could. However, he said he was willing to take it to him, and let him try.

He accordingly put the prescription back again carefully into the wallet, and Dorothy tied it up. Then he put it into his pocket, and went out to James. He found James waiting by the gate, and they both walked along together.

He and James had each a book to put their blue-bells in. They walked along, talking about their flowers, until at length they reached the bridge. Just beyond it was the rocky precipice, with shrubs and evergreens growing upon the shelves and in the crevices, and spaces between the rocks. It towered up pretty high above the road, and the declivity extended also down to the brook below the bridge, forming one side of the deep ravine across which the bridge was built. There was a very large, old hemlock-tree growing upon a small piece of level ground between the ravine and the higher part of the precipice. Under this hemlock-tree was a large, smooth, flat stone, where the boys used very often to come and sit, when they came to play among these rocks.

The boys rambled about among the rocks, sometimes down in the ravine and near the brook, and sometimes very high up among the rocks. They were both pretty good climbers, and there were no very dangerous places, for there were no high, perpendicular precipices. They found blue-bells in abundance, and several other flowers. They also found a variety of brakes, of different forms and colors. They determined to gather as many flowers as they could, and then godown to the hemlock-tree, and there look them over, and select those best to be pressed; and then put them carefully into their books there. Then they could carry them home safely; they would, in fact, be in press all the way.

After rambling and climbing about for half an hour, the boys went down to the flat rock, under the hemlock, with large bunches of plants and flowers in their hands. Here they sat another half hour, looking over their specimens, and putting them into their books. At length, Rollo picked up a singular-looking thing, which was lying down by the side of the stone under the tree. It was about as big as his thumb, and somewhat pointed at the ends. It was black, and rather glossy, and the surface was marked regularly with little ridges. James could not imagine what it was; but Rollo told him that he thought it must be a hemlock-seed. The truth was, that it was a great chrysalis, though Rollo did not find it out till long afterwards.

“A hemlock-seed!” said James.

“Yes,” said Rollo; “I have seen the cones which grow on fir-trees, and they are a good deal like this.”

“But they are not so handsome,” said James.

“I know it,” said Rollo; “they are not so handsome. This is the most beautiful one I ever saw.”

“We can plant it,” said James, “next spring.”

“Yes,” said Rollo; “and then we can have a great hemlock-tree near our house.”

“But we shall have to wait a great many years,” said James.

“O, no, not a great many,” said Rollo. “It is such a great seed, I think it would grow pretty fast.”

But James did not like the idea of planting it very well. He proposed that they should keep it, for a curiosity, in their museum. Rollo insisted, at first, upon planting it; but at length, reflecting that it was not then the right season to plant it, he concluded to put it into the museum, with his raspberry-seeds, until the next spring, and to plant it then.

So Rollo put the hemlock-seed into his pocket, and he and James took their books under their arms, with a great many flowers and plants carefully placed between the leaves, and walked along towards the village. When they arrived at the apothecary’s, Rollo put his book down upon the counter, and then took the wallet from his pocket, and untied the string, and took the prescription out, and handed it to the apothecary. The apothecary was talking with another man, at the time; but he took the prescription, and Rollo watched his countenance to see how perplexed and puzzled he would look, when he tried to read it. Instead, however, of appearing perplexed and puzzled, the apothecary only glanced his eye over it, and laid it down upon the counter, and immediately began to look upon his shelves to find the articles.

“That’s strange!” said Rollo to himself. “He reads it as easily as I should a guide board.”

While the apothecary was weighing out his medicines, Rollo was very much interested in looking at the little pair of scales in which he weighed them. Rollo never had seen so small a pair of scales. The weights, too, were small, square weights of brass, with little figures stamped upon them. He asked the apothecary what such scales as those would cost. He answered that they were of various prices, from one dollar to five. Rollo thought that that was too much for him to give; but while he was thinking whether his father would probably be willing to let him have a dollar to buy a pair with, James said that he wished he had such a pair of scales.

“So do I,” said Rollo; “then we could play keep store. We could have our store out in the play room, and weigh things.”

“So we could,” said James. “We could put a long board upon two barrels for a counter.”

“O, you must make your scales, boys,” said the apothecary.

“How can we make them?” said Rollo.

“Why, you can get a good, stout knitting-needle for a beam. Tie a silk thread around the middle of it to hold it up by, and slip it along until you get it so that the needle will exactly balance. Then for scales, you must cut out two round pieces of thin pasteboard. Then take three threads for each scale, and run them through the pasteboard, near the edge, and at equal distances from each other. You must tie knots at the lower ends of the threads to keep them from drawing through. Then you must gather the other ends of the threads together, about half a foot from the pasteboard, and tie them to the ends of the knitting-needle, one on each side; and that will make a very respectable pair of scales for you.”

“But what shall we do for weights?” asked Rollo.

“O, weights!—yes, you must have some weights. You must make them of lead. I will show you how.”

So the apothecary took a small piece of sheet lead, rather thin, and cut off a little square of it. He then put it into one of his scale balances, and put a thin, square weight of brass, similar to it, into the other scale. The lead weight was a little too heavy. He then clipped off a very little with his scissors. This made it about right. Then, with the point of his scissors, he scratched a figure 1 upon it. “There,” said he, “boys, there is a standard for you.”

“What is a standard?” said Rollo, taking up the weight.

“Why, it is a weight made exactly correct, for you to keep, and make yours by. It is a one-grain weight. I will give you some sheet lead, and when you get home and have made your scales, you can cut off another piece, and weigh it by that, and so you will have two one-grain weights. Then you can put those two into one scale, and a piece of lead as big as both of them into the other scale, and when you have made it exactly as heavy as both of the others, you must mark a figure 2 upon it, and then you will have a two-grain weight. In the same way you can make a five-grain weight, and a ten-grain weight, and a pennyweight.”

“What is a pennyweight?” said Rollo.

“It is a weight as heavy as twenty-four grains.”

“The pennyweight will be very big, then,” said Rollo.

“Yes,” said the apothecary; “but you can take a little strip of lead like a ribbon, and then roll it up, when you have made it just heavy enough, and then it will not take up much room. So you can make another roll for two pennyweights, and another for five pennyweights, and another for ten pennyweights.”

“And another for twenty pennyweights,” said James.

“Yes; only twenty pennyweights make an ounce. So you will call that an ounce weight. But you cannot weigh more than an ounce, I should think, in your knitting-needle scales.”

By this time the apothecary had put up the medicines, and he gave them to Rollo. There was a middle-sized parcel, and a very small parcel, and small, round box. Rollo put them all into the pocket of his pantaloons. Then he opened his wallet, and took out the bill, and gave it to the apothecary. The apothecary handed him the change. It was half a dollar, and one small piece of silver besides. Rollo put the change back into the wallet, and tied it up just as it had been before, and then crowded the wallet back into his pocket, by the side of the parcels which the apothecary had given him.