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"Georgie".
THE LITTLE LANDING.
A short distance from where Rollo lives, there is a small, but
very pleasant house, just under the hill, where you go down to the stone
bridge leading over the brook. There is a noble large apple tree on one
side of the house, which bears a beautiful, sweet, and mellow kind of
apple, called golden pippins. A great many other trees and flowers are
around the house, and in the little garden on the side of it towards the
brook. There is a small white gate that leads to the house, from the
road; and there is a pleasant path leading right out from the front
door, through the garden, down to the water. This is the house that
Georgie lives in.
One evening, just before sunset, Rollo was coming along over
the stone bridge, towards home. He stopped a moment to look over the
railing, down into the water Presently he heard a very sweet-toned voice
calling out to him,
"Rol-lo."
Rollo looked along in the direction in which the sound came. It
was from the bank of the stream, a little way from the road, at the
place where the path from Georgie's house came down to the water. The
brook was broad, and the water pretty smooth and still here; and it was a
place where Rollo had often been to sail boats with Georgie. There was a
little smooth, sandy place on the shore, at the foot of the path, and
they used to call it Georgie's landing; and there was a seat close by,
under the bushes.
Rollo thought it was Georgie's voice that called him, and in a
minute, he saw him sitting on his little seat, with his crutches by his
side. Georgie was a sick boy. He could not walk, but had to sit almost
all day, at home, in a large easy chair, which his father had bought for
him. In the winter, his chair was established in a particular corner,
by the side of the fire, and he had a little case of shelves and
drawers, painted green, by the side of him. In these shelves and drawers
he had his books and playthings,--his pen and ink,--his paint-box,
brushes and pencils,--his knife, and a little saw,--and a great many
things which he used to make for his amusement. Then, in the summer, his
chair, and his shelves and drawers, were moved to the end window, which
looked out upon the garden and brook. Sometimes, when he was better
than usual, he could move about a little upon crutches; and, at such
times, when it was pleasant, he used to go out into the garden, and
down, through it, to his landing, at the brook.
Georgie had been sick a great many years, and when Rollo and
Jonas first knew him, he used to be very sad and unhappy. It was because
the poor little fellow had nothing to do. His father had to work pretty
hard to get food and clothing for his family; he loved little Georgie
very much, but he could not buy him many things. Sometimes people who
visited him, used to give him playthings, and they would amuse him a
little while, but he soon grew tired of them, and had them put away. It
is very hard for any body to be happy who has not any thing to do.
It was Jonas that taught Georgie what to do. He lent him his
knife, and brought him some smooth, soft, pine wood, and taught him to
make wind-mills and little boxes. Georgie liked this very much, and used
to sit by his window in the summer mornings, and make playthings, hours
at a time. After he had made several things, Jonas told the boys that
lived about there, that they had better buy them of him, when they had a
few cents to spend for toys; and they did. In fact, they liked the
little windmills, and wagons, and small framed houses that Georgie made,
better than sugar-plums and candy. Besides, they liked to go and see
Georgie; for, whenever they went to buy any thing of him, he looked so
contented and happy, sitting in his easy chair, with his small and
slender feet drawn up under him, and his work on the table by his side.
Then he was a very beautiful boy too. His face was delicate and
pale, but there was such a kind and gentle expression in his mild blue
eye, and so much sweetness in the tone of his voice, that they loved
very much to go and see him. In fact, all the boys were very fond of
Georgie.
GEORGIE'S MONEY.
Georgie, at length, earned, in this way, quite a little sum of
money. It was nearly all in cents; but then there was one fourpence
which a lady gave him for a four-wheeled wagon that he made. He kept
this money in a corner of his drawer, and, at last, there was quite a
handful of it.
One summer evening, when Georgie's father came home from his
work, he hung up his hat, and came and sat down in Georgie's corner, by
the side of his little boy. Georgie looked up to him with a smile.
"Well, father," said he, "are you tired to-night?"
"You are the one to be tired, Georgie," said he, "sitting here alone all day."
"Hold up your hand, father," said Georgie, reaching out his own
at the same time, which was shut up, and appeared to have something in
it.
"Why, what have you got for me?" said his father.
"Hold fast all I give you," replied he; and he dropped the
money all into his father's hand, and shut up his father's fingers over
it.
"What is all this?" said his father.
"It is my money," said he, "for you. It is 'most all cents, but then there is _one_ fourpence."
"I am sure, I am much obliged to you, Georgie, for this."
"O no," said Georgie, "it's only a _little_ of what you have to spend for me."
Georgie's father took the money, and put it in his pocket, and
the next day he went to Jonas, and told him about it, and asked Jonas to
spend it in buying such things as he thought would be useful to
Georgie; either playthings, or tools, or materials to work with.
Jonas said he should be very glad to do it, for he thought he
could buy him some things that would help him very much in his work.
Jonas carried the money into the city the next time he went, and bought
him a small hone to sharpen his knife, a fine-toothed saw, and a bottle
of black varnish, with a little brush, to put it on with. He brought
these things home, and gave them to Georgie's father; and he carried
them into the house, and put them in a drawer.
That evening, when Georgie was at supper, his father slyly put
the things that Jonas had bought on his table, so that when he went
back, after supper, he found them there. He was very much surprised and
pleased. He examined them all very particularly, and was especially glad
to have the black varnish, for now he could varnish his work, and make
it look much more handsome. The little boxes that he made, after this,
of a bright black outside, and lined neatly with paper within, were
thought by the boys to be elegant.
He could now earn money faster, and, as his father insisted on
having all his earnings expended for articles for Georgie's own use, and
Jonas used to help him about expending it, he got, at last, quite a
variety of implements and articles. He had some wire, and a little pair
of pliers for bending it in all shapes, and a hammer and little nails.
He had also a paint-box and brushes, and paper of various colors, for
lining boxes, and making portfolios and pocket-books; and he had
varnishes, red, green, blue, and black. All these he kept in his drawers
and shelves, and made a great many ingenious things with them.
So Georgie was a great friend of both Rollo and Jonas, and they
often used to come and see him, and play with him; and that was the
reason that Rollo knew his voice so well, when he called to him from the
landing, when Rollo was standing on the bridge, as described in the
beginning of this story.
TWO GOOD FRIENDS.
Rollo ran along to the end of the bridge, clambered down to the
water's edge, went along the shore among the trees and shrubbery, until
he came to the seat where Georgie was sitting. Georgie asked him to sit
down, and stay with him; but Rollo said he must go directly home; and
so Georgie took his crutches, and they began to walk slowly together up
the garden walk.
"Where have you been, Rollo?" said Georgie.
"I have been to see my cousin James, to ask him to go to the city with us to-morrow."
"Are you going to the city?"
"Yes; uncle George gave James and I a half a dollar apiece, the
other day; and mother is going to carry us into the city to-morrow to
buy something with it."
"Is Jonas going with you?"
"Yes," said Rollo. "He is going to drive. We are going in our carryall."
"I wish you would take some money for me, then, and get Jonas to buy me something with it."
"Well, I will," said Rollo. "What shall he buy for you?"
"O, he may buy any thing he chooses."
"Yes, but if you do not tell him what to buy, he may buy something you have got already."
"O, Jonas knows every thing I have got as well as I do."
Just then they came up near the house, and Georgie asked Rollo to look up at the golden pippin tree, and see how full it was.
"That is my branch," said he.
He pointed to a large branch which came out on one side, and
which hung down loaded with fruit. It would have broken down, perhaps,
if there had not been a crotched pole put under it, to prop it up.
"But all the apples on your branch are not golden pippins,"
said Rollo. "There are some on it that are red. What beautiful red
apples!"
"Yes," said Georgie. "Father grafted that for me, to make it bear rosy-boys. I call the red ones my rosy-boys."
"Grafted?" said Rollo; "how did he graft it?"
"O," said Georgie, "I do not know exactly. He cut off a little
branch from a rosy-boy tree, and stuck it on somehow, and it grew, and
bears rosy-boys still."
Rollo thought this was very curious; Georgie told him he would
give him an apple, and that he might have his choice--a pippin or a
rosy-boy.
Rollo hesitated, and looked at them, first at one, and then at
another; but he could not decide. The rosy-boys had the brightest and
most beautiful color, but then the pippins looked so rich and mellow,
that he could not choose very easily; and so Georgie laughed, and told
him he would settle the difficulty by giving him one of each.
"So come here," said he, "Rollo, and let me lean on you, while I knock them down."
So Rollo came and stood near him, while Georgie leaned on him,
and with his crutch gave a gentle tap to one of each of his kinds of
apples, and they fell down upon the soft grass, safe and sound.
They then went into the house, and Georgie gave Rollo his
money, wrapped up in a small piece of paper; and then Rollo, bidding him
good by, went out of the little white gate, and walked along home.
The next morning, soon after breakfast, Jonas drove the
carryall up to the front door, and Rollo and his mother walked out to
it. Rollo's mother took the back seat, and Rollo and Jonas sat in front,
and they drove along.
They called at the house where James lived, and found him waiting for them on the front steps, with his half dollar in his hand.
He ran into the house to tell his mother that the carryall had
come, and to bid her good morning, and then he came out to the gate.
"James," said Rollo, "you may sit on the front seat with Jonas, if you want to."
James said he should like to very much; and so Rollo stepped
over behind, and sat with his mother. This was kind and polite; for boys
all like the front seat when they are riding, and Rollo therefore did
right to offer it to his cousin.
A LECTURE ON PLAYTHINGS.
After a short time, they came to a smooth and pleasant road,
with trees and farmhouses on each side; and as the horse was trotting
along quietly, Rollo asked his mother if she could not tell them a
story.
"I cannot tell you a story very well, this morning, but I can give you a lecture on playthings, if you wish."
"Very well, mother, we should like that," said the boys.
They did not know very well what a lecture was, but they
thought that any thing which their mother would propose would be
interesting.
"Do you know what a lecture is?" said she.
"Not exactly," said Rollo.
"Why, I should explain to you about playthings,--the various
kinds, their use, the way to keep them, and to derive the most pleasure
from them, &c. Giving you this information will not be as
_interesting_ to you as to hear a story; but it will be more _useful_,
if you attend carefully, and endeavor to remember what I say."
The boys thought they should like the lecture, and promised to
attend. Rollo said he would remember it all; and so his mother began.
"The value of a plaything does not consist in itself, but in the pleasure it awakens in your mind. Do you understand that?"
"Not very well," said Rollo.
"If you should give a round stick to a baby on the floor, and
let him strike the floor with it, he would be pleased. You would see by
his looks that it gave him great pleasure. Now, where would this
pleasure be,--in the stick, or in the floor, or in the baby?"
"Why, in the baby," said Rollo, laughing.
"Yes; and would it be in his body, or in his mind?"
"In his face," said James.
"In his eyes," said Rollo.
"You would see the _signs of it_ in his face and in his eyes,
but the feeling of pleasure would be in his mind. Now, I suppose you
understand what I said, that the value of the plaything consists in the
pleasure it can awaken in the mind."
"Yes, mother," said Rollo.
"There is your jumping man," said she; "is that a good plaything?"
"Yes," said Rollo, "my _kicker_. But I don't care much about it. I don't know where it is now."
"What was it?" said James. "_I_ never saw it."
"It was a pasteboard man," said his mother; "and there was a
string behind, fixed so that, by pulling it, you could make his arms and
legs fly about."
"Yes," said Rollo, "I called him my _kicker_."
"You liked it very much, when you first had it."
"Yes," said Rollo, "but I don't think it is very pretty now."
"That shows what I said was true. When you first had it, it was
new, and the sight of it gave you pleasure; but the pleasure consisted
in the novelty and drollery of it, and after a little while, when you
became familiar with it, it ceased to give you pleasure, and then you
did not value it. I found it the other day lying on the ground in the
yard, and took it up and put it away carefully in a drawer."
"But if the value is all gone, what good does it do to save it?" said Rollo.
"The value to _you_ is gone, because you have become familiar
with it, and so it has lost its power to awaken feelings of pleasure in
you. But it has still power to give pleasure to other children, who have
not seen it, and I kept it for them."
"I should like to see it, very much," said James. "I never saw such a one."
"I will show it to you some time. Now, this is one kind of
plaything,--those which please by their _novelty_ only. It is not
generally best to buy such playthings, for you very soon get familiar
with them, and then they cease to give you pleasure, and are almost
worthless."
"Only we ought to keep them, if we have them, to show to other boys," said Rollo.
"Yes," said his mother. "You ought never to throw them away, or leave them on the floor, or on the ground."
"O, the little fool," said Rollo suddenly.
His mother and James looked up, wondering what Rollo meant. He
was looking out at the side of the carryall, at something about the
wheel.
"What is it," said his mother.
"Why, here is a large fly trying to light on the wheel, and every time his legs touch it, it knocks them away. See! See!"
"Yes, but you must not attend to him now. You must listen to my lecture. You promised to give your attention to me."
So James and Rollo turned away from the window, and began to listen again.
"I have told you now," said she, "of one kind of
playthings--those that give pleasure from their _novelty_ only. There is
another kind--those that give you pleasure by their _use_;--such as a
doll, for example."
"How, mother? Is a doll of any _use_?"
"Yes, in one sense; that is, the girl who has it, _uses_ it
continually. Perhaps she admired the _looks_ of it, the first day it was
given to her; but then, after that, she can _use_ it in so many ways,
that it continues to afford her pleasure for a long time. She can dress
and undress it, put it to bed, make it sit up for company, and do a
great many other things with it. When she gets tired of playing with it
one day, she puts it away, and the next day she thinks of something new
to do with it, which she never thought of before. Now, which should you
think the pleasure you should obtain from a ball, would arise from, its
_novelty_, or its _use_?"
"Its _use_," said the boys.
"Yes," said the mother. "The first sight of a ball would not
give you any very special pleasure. Its value would consist in the
pleasure you would take in playing with it.
"Now, it is generally best to buy such playthings as you can
use a great many times, and in a great many ways; such as a top, a ball,
a knife, a wheelbarrow. But things that please you only by their
_novelty_, will soon lose all their power to give you pleasure, and be
good for nothing to you. Such, for instance, as jumping men, and
witches, and funny little images. Children are very often deceived in
buying their playthings; for those things which please by their novelty
only, usually please them very much for a few minutes, while they are in
the shop, and see them for the first time; while those things which
would last a long time, do not give them much pleasure at first.
"There is another kind of playthings I want to tell you about a
little, and then my lecture will be done. I mean playthings which give
_you_ pleasure, but give _other persons_ pain. A drum and a whistle, for
example, are disagreeable to other persons; and children, therefore,
ought not to choose them, unless they have a place to go to, to play
with them, which will be out of hearing. I have known boys to buy masks
to frighten other children with, and bows and arrows, which sometimes
are the means of putting out children's eyes. So you must consider, when
you are choosing playthings, first, whether the pleasure they will give
you will be from the _novelty_ or the _use_; and, secondly, whether, in
giving _you_ pleasure, they will give _any other persons_ pain.
"This is the end of the lecture. Now you may rest a little, and look about, and then I will tell you a short story."
THE YOUNG DRIVERS.
They came, about this time, to the foot of a long hill, and
Jonas said he believed that he would get out and walk up, and he said
James might drive the horse. So he put the reins into James's hands, and
jumped out. Rollo climbed over the seat, and sat by his side. Presently
James saw a large stone in the road, and he asked Rollo to see how well
he could drive round it; for as the horse was going, he would have
carried one wheel directly over it. So he pulled one of the reins, and
turned the horse away; but he contrived to turn him out just far enough
to make the _other_ wheel go over the stone. Rollo laughed, and asked
him to let him try the next time; and James gave him the reins; but
there was no other stone till they got up to the top of the hill.
Then James said that Rollo might ride on the front seat now,
and when Jonas got in, he climbed back to the back seat, and took his
place by the side of Rollo's mother.
"Come, mother," then said Rollo, "we are rested enough now: please to begin the story."
"Very well, if you are all ready."
So she began as follows:--
THE STORY Of SHALLOW, SELFISH, AND WISE.
Once there were three boys going into town to buy some
playthings: their names were Shallow, Selfish, and Wise. Each had half a
dollar. Shallow carried his in his hand, tossing it up in the air, and
catching it, as he went along. Selfish kept teasing his mother to give
him some more money: half a dollar, he said, was not enough. Wise walked
along quietly, with his cash safe in his pocket.
Presently Shallow missed catching his half dollar,
and--chink--it went, on the sidewalk, and it rolled along down into a
crack under a building. Then he began to cry. Selfish stood by, holding
his own money tight in his hands, and said he did not pity Shallow at
all; it was good enough for him; he had no business to be tossing it up.
Wise came up, and tried to get the money out with a stick, but he could
not. He told Shallow not to cry; said he was sorry he had lost his
money, and that he would give him half of his, as soon as they could get
it changed at the shop.
So they walked along to the toy-shop.
Their mother said that each one might choose his own plaything; so they began to look around on the counter and shelves.
After a while, Shallow began to laugh very loud and heartily at
something he found. It was an image of a grinning monkey. It looked
very droll indeed. Shallow asked Wise to come and see. Wise laughed at
it too, but said he should not want to buy it, as he thought he should
soon get tired of laughing at any thing, if it was ever so droll.
Shallow was sure that he should never get tired of laughing at
so very droll a thing as the grinning monkey; and he decided to buy it,
if Wise would give him half of his money; and so Wise did.
Selfish found a rattle, a large, noisy rattle, and went to springing it until they were all tired of hearing the noise.
"I think I shall buy this," said he. "I can make believe that
there is a fire, and can run about springing my rattle, and crying,
'Fire! Fire!' or I can play that a thief is breaking into a store, and
can rattle my rattle at him, and call out, 'Stop thief!'"
"But that will disturb all the people in the house," said Wise.
"What care I for that?" said Selfish.
Selfish found that the price of his rattle was not so much as
the half dollar; so he laid out the rest of it in cake, and sat down on a
box, and began to eat it.
Wise passed by all the images and gaudy toys, only good to look
at a few times, and chose a soft ball, and finding that that did not
take all of his half of the money, he purchased a little morocco box
with an inkstand, some wafers, and one or two short pens in it. Shallow
told him that was not a plaything; it was only fit for a school; and as
to his ball, he did not think much of that.
Wise said he thought they could all play with the ball a great
many times, and he thought, too, that he should like his little inkstand
rainy days and winter evenings.
So the boys walked along home. Shallow stopped every moment to
laugh at his monkey, and Selfish to spring his rattle; and they looked
with contempt on Wise's ball, which he carried quietly in one hand, and
his box done up in brown paper in the other.
When they got home, Shallow ran in to show his monkey. The
people smiled a little, but did not take much notice of it; and, in
fact, it did not look half so funny, even to himself, as it did in the
shop. In a short time, it did not make him laugh at all, and then he was
vexed and angry with it. He said he meant to go and throw the ugly old
baboon away; he was tired of seeing that same old grin on his face all
the time. So he went and threw it over the wall.
Selfish ate his cake up, on his way home. He would not give his
brothers any, for he said they had had their money as well as he. When
he got home, he went about the house, up and down, through parlor and
chamber, kitchen and shed, springing his rattle, and calling out, "Stop
thief! Stop thief!" or "Fire! Fire!" Every body got tired, and asked him
to be still; but he did not mind, until, at last, his father took his
rattle away from him, and put it up on a high shelf.
Then Selfish and Shallow went out and found Wise playing
beautifully with his ball in the yard; and he invited them to play with
him. They would toss it up against the wall, and learn to catch it when
it came down; and then they made some bat-sticks, and knocked it back
and forth to one another, about the yard. The more they played with the
ball, the more they liked it, and as Wise was always very careful not to
play near any holes, and to put it away safe when he, had done with it,
he kept it a long time, and gave them pleasure a great many times all
summer long.
And then his inkstand box was a great treasure. He would get it
out in the long winter evenings, and lend Selfish and Shallow, each,
one of his pens; and they would all sit at the table, and make pictures,
and write little letters, and seal them with small bits of the wafers.
In fact, Wise kept his inkstand box safe till he grew up to be a man.
That is the end of the story.
THE TOY-SHOP.
"I wish I could get an inkstand box," said Rollo, when the story was finished.
"I think he was very foolish to throw away his grinning monkey," said James "I wish I could see a grinning monkey."
They continued talking about this story some time, and at
length they drew nigh to the city. They drove to a stable, where Jonas
had the horse put up, and then they all walked on in search of a
toy-shop.
They passed along through one or two streets, walking very
slowly, so that the boys might look at the pictures and curious things
in the shop windows. At length they came to a toy-shop, and all went in.
They saw at once a great number and variety of playthings
exhibited to view. All around the floor were arranged horses on wheels,
little carts, wagons, and baskets. The counter had a great variety of
images and figures,--birds that would peep, and dogs that would bark,
and drummers that would drum--all by just turning a little handle. Then
the shelves and the window were filled with all sorts of boxes, and
whips, and puzzles, and tea-sets, and dolls, dressed and not dressed.
There were bows and arrows, and darts, and jumping ropes, and glass
dogs, and little rocking-horses, and a thousand other things.
When the boys first came in, there was a little girl standing
by the counter with a small slate in her hand. She looked like a poor
girl, though she was neat and tidy in her dress. She was talking with
the shopman about the slate.
"Don't you think," said she, "you could let me have it for ten cents?"
"No," said he, "I could not afford it for less than fifteen. It cost me more than ten."
The little girl laid the slate down, and looked disappointed
and sad. Rollo's mother came up to her, took up the slate, and said,
"I should think you had better give him fifteen cents. It is a very good slate. It is worth as much as that, certainly."
"Yes, madam, so I tell her," said the shopman.
"But I have not got but ten cents," said the little girl.
"Have not you?" said Rollo's mother. She stood still thinking a moment, and then she asked the little girl what her name was.
She said it was Maria.
She asked her what she wanted the slate for; and Maria said it
was to do sums on, at school. She wanted to study arithmetic, and could
not do so without a slate.
Jonas then came forward, and said that he should like to give
her five cents of Georgie's money, and that, with the ten she had, would
be enough. He said that Georgie had given him authority to do what he
thought best with his money, and he knew, if Georgie was here, he would
wish to help the little girl.
Rollo and James were both sorry they had not thought of it
themselves; and, as soon as Jonas mentioned it, they wanted to give some
of their money to the girl; but Jonas said he knew that Georgie would
prefer to do it. At last, however, it was agreed that Rollo and James
should furnish one cent each, and Georgie the rest. This was all agreed
upon after a low conversation by themselves in a corner of the store;
and then Jonas came forward, and told the shopman that they were going
to pay the additional five cents, and that he might let the girl have
the slate. So Jonas paid the money, and it was agreed that Rollo and
James should pay him back their share, when they got their money
changed. The boys were very much pleased to see the little girl go away
so happy with her slate in her hand. It was neatly done up in paper,
with two pencils which the shopman gave her, done up inside.
After Maria was gone, the boys looked around the shop, but
could not find any thing which exactly pleased them; or at least they
could not find any thing which pleased them so much more than any thing
else, that they could decide in favor of it. So they concluded to walk
along, and look at another shop.
They succeeded at last in finding some playthings that they
liked, and Jonas bought a variety of useful things for Georgie. On their
way home, the carryall stopped at the house where Lucy lived, and
Rollo's mother left him and James there, to show Lucy their playthings.
One of the things they bought was a little boat with two sails,
and they went down behind the house to sail it. The other playthings
and books they carried down too, and had a fine time playing with them,
with Lucy and another little girl who was visiting her that afternoon.
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