and frequent demands for something to eat, one August afternoon,
for the boys were going huckleberrying, and made as much stir
about it as if they were setting out to find the North West Passage.
“Now, my lads, get off as quietly as you can, for Rob is safely out
of the way, and won’t see you,” said Mrs. Bhaer, as she tied Daisy’s
broad-brimmed hat, and settled the great blue pinafore in which
she had enveloped Nan.
But the plan did not succeed, for Rob had heard the bustle, decided
to go, and prepared himself, without a thought of disappointment.
The troop was just getting under way when the little man came
marching downstairs with his best hat on, a bright tin pail in his
hand, and a face beaming with satisfaction.
“Oh, dear! now we shall have a scene,” sighed Mrs. Bhaer, who
found her eldest son very hard to manage at times.
“I’m all ready,” said Rob, and took his place in the ranks with such
perfect unconsciousness of his mistake, that it really was very hard
to undeceive him.
“It’s too far for you, my love; stay and take care of me, for I shall
be all alone,” began his mother.
“You’ve got Teddy. I’m a big boy, so I can go; you said I might
when I was bigger, and I am now,” persisted Rob, with a cloud
beginning to dim the brightness of his happy face.
“We are going up to the great pasture, and it’s ever so far; we don’t
want you tagging on,” cried Jack, who did not admire the little
boys.
“I won’t tag, I’ll run and keep up. O Mamma! let me go! I want to
fill my new pail, and I’ll bring ’em all to you. Please, please, I will
be good!” prayed Robby, looking up at his mother, so grieved and
disappointed that her heart began to fail her.
“But, my deary, you’ll get so tired and hot you won’t have a good
time. Wait till I go, and then we will stay all day, and pick as many
berries as you want.”
“You never do go, you are so busy, and I’m tired of waiting. I’d
rather go and get the berries for you all myself. I love to pick ’em,
and I want to fill my new pail dreffly,” sobbed Rob.
The pathetic sight of great tears tinkling into the dear new pail,
and threatening to fill it with salt water instead of huckleberries,
touched all the ladies present. His mother patted the weeper on his
back; Daisy offered to stay home with him; and Nan said, in her
decided way,
“Let him come; I’ll take care of him.”
“If Franz was going I wouldn’t mind, for he is very careful; but he
is haying with the father, and I’m not sure about the rest of you,”
began Mrs. Bhaer.
“It’s so far,” put in Jack.
“I’d carry him if I was going wish I was,” said Dan, with a sigh.
“Thank you, dear, but you must take care of your foot. I wish I
could go. Stop a minute, I think I can manage it after all;” and Mrs.
Bhaer ran out to the steps, waving her apron wildly.
Silas was just driving away in the hay-cart, but turned back, and
agreed at once, when Mrs. Jo proposed that he should take the
whole party to the pasture, and go for them at five o’clock.
“It will delay your work a little, but never mind; we will pay you in
huckleberry pies,” said Mrs. Jo, knowing Silas’s weak point.
His rough, brown face brightened up, and he said, with a cheery
“Haw! haw!” “Wal now, Mis’ Bhaer, if you go to bribin’ of me, I
shall give in right away.”
“Now, boys, I have arranged it so that you can all go,” said Mrs.
Bhaer, running back again, much relieved, for she loved to make
them happy, and always felt miserable when she had disturbed the
serenity of her little sons; for she believed that the small hopes and
plans and pleasures of children should be tenderly respected by
grown-up people, and never rudely thwarted or ridiculed.