ut in the yard, for instance, and try to get him to tell
you how he got hurt, you only make him cry the more. Get him quiet
first, and then learn the story afterwards.

"Then, besides the difficulty of his speaking intelligibly," she
continued, "at such a time, boys are very strongly tempted to misrepresent
the facts, during the excitement of the first moments. They are very
likely to be a little vexed or angry, and, under the influence of those
feelings, not to give a correct and honest account. So that it is always
best to put off inquiries till the trouble is all over."

Here Nathan came into the room. His forehead had ceased to give him
pain, and so he had clambered down from the bed where his mother had
placed him, and now came into the room, looking quiet and calm, though
still not very happy.

Rollo went to him, and said, "Come, Nathan, now we will go down stairs
to play again." And he began to lead him down stairs. As they walked
along, Rollo said,

"I am going to make you a beetle and wedge for your own, Nathan, and
then you and I can split together: only, it is not a _reward_, you must
understand. It was wrong for you to keep my beetle, and run away with my
knife, and you are sorry you did so, an't you, Nathan?"

"Yes," said Nathan.

"And you won't do so any more, will you, Nathan?"

"No," said Nathan, "I won't do so any more."

Whether Nathan was really sorry for what he had done, or whether he only
said so because Rollo was going to make him a beetle, is very doubtful;
though it is not impossible that he was a little sorry.

Rollo went down into the shed again with Nathan; and while he was at
work making the new beetle and wedge, he let Nathan use his. The first
piece of board had been split up; so he laid another one before Nathan,
and gave him his beetle and wedges and knife, and then went away out to
the barn to get some more wood for wedges, and an auger.

When he came back, he found Nathan standing at the shed door, with the
little beetle in his hand, waiting for him. As Nathan saw Rollo coming,
he called to him, saying,

"Come, Rollo, come and help me; the board won't split."

"What is the matter with it?" said Rollo.

"I don't know," said Nathan, "only it won't split."

So Rollo went in to see. He found that Nathan had gone to work wrong.
Instead of trying to drive the wedge into the _end_ of the board, so as
to split it _along_ the grain, he had made the cleft with the knife in
the s