ies
about."

"Does it?" said Rollo.

"Yes," replied Jonas. "But there is one thing you can do--I did not
think of it before. There is a good large box in the barn, and I can put
some shelves into it, and make the cover into a door; and if you want to
collect a museum, you can do it in that. You can keep it out in the play
room, and so it will not trouble any body in the house."

Jonas meant, by _the play room_, a pretty large room, in the barn, made
originally for a sort of granary, but which the children were accustomed
to use for a play room.

Rollo was very much pleased with this plan. He determined to collect a
museum, and to put his hornets' nest in it for the first thing. As soon
as he got home, as he found that dinner was not quite ready, he and
Jonas went out into the barn to look at the box. It was a large box,
which had been made to pack up a bureau in, so that the bureau should
not get injured in the wagon which it was brought home in. As it
happened, the box was smooth inside and out, and the cover of it was
made of two boards, which Jonas had taken off carefully, when he took
the bureau out, and had then tacked them on again; thinking that he
might perhaps want it some time or other,--box, covers, and all.

Now it happened, as it generally does to persons who take care of
things, that the article which Jonas thus preserved, came into use
exactly. The box, he said, would be just the thing. He showed Rollo how
he could place it so that it would make a convenient sort of cabinet.

"I can put it upon its end," said he, "and then I can put on the two
cover boards with hinges,--one pair of hinges on each side; then the
covers will make little doors, and it will open like a book case, only
it will not be quite so elegant."

"I think it will be very elegant indeed," said Rollo; "and you can make
it for us this afternoon."

"No," said Jonas; "not this afternoon."

"Why not?" said Rollo.

"O, I must attend to my work in the meadow."

"O, no," said Rollo. "I mean to ask my father to let you make it this
afternoon."

"No; I'd rather you wouldn't," said Jonas.

"Why not?" asked Rollo. "I know he will let you."

"Yes, I suppose he would let me, if you were to ask him; but that would
spoil the museum."

"Spoil it?" said Rollo.

"Yes," said Jonas. "The way to spoil any pleasure is to neglect duty for
the sake of it. Work first, and play afterwards. That's the rule."

"Well, but, Jonas, we want to beg