Caleb in the Country. Abbott Jacob

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СКАЧАТЬ from mistake, or mere thoughtlessness, I should not have thought so much of it; but to do it for fun!”

      Here Madam Rachel stopped, as if she did not know what to say.

      “I rather think, mother, it was only thoughtlessness,” said David, by way of excusing Dwight.

      “No; because he knew that it gave Caleb pain, and it was, in fact, for the very purpose of giving him pain, that Dwight did it. If he had been saying moo accidentally, without thinking of troubling Caleb, that would have been thoughtlessness; but it was not so. And what makes me most unhappy about this,” continued Madam Rachel, putting her hand gently on Dwight's head, “is that my dear Dwight has a heart capable under some circumstances, of taking pleasure in the sufferings of a helpless little child.”

      David and Dwight were both silent, though they saw clearly that what their mother said was true.

      “And yet, perhaps, you think it is a very little thing after all,” she continued, “just moo-ing at Caleb a little. The pain it gave him was soon over. Just sending him down cellar to get apples, made him forget it in a moment; so that you see it is not the mischief that is done, in this case, but the spirit of mind in you, that it shews. It is a little thing, I know; but then it is a little symptom of a very bad disease. It is very hard to cure.”

      “Well, mother,” said Dwight, looking up, and speaking very positively, “I am determined not to trouble Caleb any more.”

      “Yes, but I am afraid your determinations won't reach the difficulty. As long as the spirit of mind remains, so that you are capable of taking pleasure in the sufferings of another, your determinations not to indulge the bad spirit, will not do much good. You will forget them all, when the temptation comes. Don't you remember how often I have talked with you about this, and how often you have promised not to do it, before?”

      “Why, yes, mother,” said Dwight, despondingly.

      “So, you see determinations will not do much good. As long as your heart is malicious, the malice will come out in spite of all your determinations.”

      Just at this moment Caleb came in, bringing his plate of apples, with an air of great importance and satisfaction. He had nearly forgotten his troubles. Soon after this, dinner was brought in, and Madam Rachel said no more to the boys about malice. After dinner, they went out again to play.

      CHAPTER III.

      BUILDING THE MOLE

      Caleb sat down upon the step of the door, eating a piece of bread, while Dwight and David returned to their work of building the mole. They got the wheelbarrow, and loaded it with stones.

      Caleb sat a few minutes more at the door, and then he went into the house, and got his little rocking chair, and brought it out under the elm, and sat down there, looking towards the boys, who were at work near the water. At last, David spied him sitting there, and said,

      “There is Caleb, sitting under the great tree.”

      Dwight looked around, and then, throwing down the stone that he had in his hands, he said,

      “I mean to go and get him to come here.”

      So he ran towards him, and said,

      “Come, Caleb, come down here, and help us make our mole.”

      “No,” said Caleb, shaking his head, and, turning away a little; “I don't want to go.”

      “O, do come, Caleb,” said Dwight; “I won't trouble you any more.”

      “No,” said Caleb: “I am tired, and I had rather stay here in my little chair.”

      “But I will carry your chair down to the brook; and there is a beautiful place there to sit and see us tumble in the stones.”

      So Caleb got up, and Dwight took his chair, and they walked together down to the shore of the brook. Dwight found a little spot so smooth and level, that the rocking-chair would stand very even upon it, though it would not rock very well, for the ground was not hard, like a floor. Caleb rested his elbow upon the arm of his chair, and his pale cheek in his little slender hand, and watched the stones, as, one after another, they fell into the brook.

      The brook at this place, was very wide and shallow, and the current was not very rapid, so that they got along pretty fast; and thus the mole advanced steadily out into the stream.

      “Well, Caleb,” said Dwight, as he stopped, after they had tossed out all the stones from the wheelbarrow, “and how do you like our mole?”

      “O, not very well,” said Caleb.

      “Why not?” said Dwight, surprised.

      “It is so stony.”

      “Stony?” said Dwight.

      “Yes,” said Caleb, “I don't think I could walk on it very well.”

      “O,” said Dwight, “we are going to make the top very smooth, when we get it done.”

      “How?” said Caleb.

      “Why, we are going to haul gravel on it, and smooth it all down.”

      “Why can't we do it now?” said David, “as we go along: and then we can wheel our wheelbarrow out upon it, and tip our stones in at the end.”

      “Agreed,” said Dwight; and they accordingly leveled the stones off on the top, and put small stones in at all the interstices, that is, the little spaces between the large stones, so as to prevent the gravel from running down through. Then they went and got a load of gravel out of a bank pretty near, and spread it down over the top, and it made a good, smooth road; only, it was not trodden down hard at first, and so it was not very easy wheeling over it.

      They found one difficulty, however, and that was that the gravel rolled over each side of the mole, and went into the water. To prevent this, they arranged the largest stones on each side, in a row, for the edge, and then filled in with gravel up to the edge, and thus they gradually advanced towards the middle of the stream, finishing the mole completely as they went on. Caleb then said he liked it very much, and wanted to walk on it. So the boys let him. He went out to the end, and stood there a minute, and then said that he wished he had his whip there, to whip in a stick which was sailing down a little way off.

      “Where is your whip?” said David.

      “I suppose it is hanging up on its nail,” said Caleb, “I mean to go and get it.”

      So Caleb walked off the mole, and went slowly up towards the house, singing by the way, while David and Dwight went after another load of gravel. While they were putting down this load, and spreading it on, Caleb came back, looking disappointed and sorrowful, and saying that he could not find his whip.

      “Where did you put it when you had it last?” asked David.

      “I put it on the nail,” said Caleb, “I always put it on the nail.”

      “O, no, Caleb,” said Dwight; “you must have left it about somewhere.”

      “No,” said Caleb, shaking his head with a positive air, “I am sure I put it on my nail.”

      “When СКАЧАТЬ