"Well, sir," said Rollo, turning back to his father, again, "he lent it
to me for the whole walk, and so I don't think he had any right to take
it back again."

"That is coming to the point exactly," said his father. "It all depends
upon that,--whether Henry had a right to reclaim his dipper at that
time, after only lending it to Rollo. And that, you see, is another
bailment case. Henry bailed Rollo the dipper. This shows the truth of
what I said before, that a great many of the disputes among boys arise
from cases of bailment. This seems to be a sort of doubled and twisted
case. And it all hinges on the question whether Henry or Rollo had the
right to the dipper at the time when Henry took it. For, as I have
already explained, if _Henry_ had a right to it, then his keeping
Rollo's fish in it was for Rollo's advantage, and Rollo ought to bear
the loss. But if _Rollo_ had a right to keep the dipper longer, then he
bailed the fish to him, in order to be able to let him have the dipper,
for he could not let him have the one without the other; and so it was
for Henry's benefit; and, as the loss was not from _inevitable_
accident, Henry ought to bear it."

"Well, sir, and now please to tell us," said Mary, "who had the right to
the dipper."

"Rollo," said her father.

"Rollo!" exclaimed several voices.

"Yes," replied Rollo's father. "There is a principle in the law of
bailment which I did not explain to you the other day. It is this:
Whenever a person bails a thing to another person, for a particular
purpose, and receives a compensation for it, the bailor has no right to
take it back again from the bailee, until a fair opportunity has been
allowed to accomplish that purpose. For instance, if I go and hire a
horse of a man to make a journey, I have a right to keep the horse
until the journey is ended. If the owner of the horse meets me on the
road, fifty miles from home, it is not reasonable, you see, that he
should have the right to take the horse away from me there, on the
ground that it is his horse, and that he has a right to him wherever he
finds him. So, if one boy lends another his knife to make a whistle
with, he ought not to take it away again, when the boy has got his
whistle half done, and so make him lose all his labor."

"Why, it seems to me he ought to give it back to him," said Rollo, "if
it is his knife, whenever he wants it."

"Yes," replied his father, "he ought to give it up, no doubt, if the
o