the leaves, and walked along towards the
village. When they arrived at the apothecary's, Rollo put his book down
upon the counter, and then took the wallet from his pocket, and untied
the string, and took the prescription out, and handed it to the
apothecary. The apothecary was talking with another man, at the time;
but he took the prescription, and Rollo watched his countenance to see
how perplexed and puzzled he would look, when he tried to read it.
Instead, however, of appearing perplexed and puzzled, the apothecary
only glanced his eye over it, and laid it down upon the counter, and
immediately began to look upon his shelves to find the articles.

"That's strange!" said Rollo to himself. "He reads it as easily as I
should a guide board."

While the apothecary was weighing out his medicines, Rollo was very much
interested in looking at the little pair of scales in which he weighed
them. Rollo never had seen so small a pair of scales. The weights, too,
were small, square weights of brass, with little figures stamped upon
them. He asked the apothecary what such scales as those would cost. He
answered that they were of various prices, from one dollar to five.
Rollo thought that that was too much for him to give; but while he was
thinking whether his father would probably be willing to let him have a
dollar to buy a pair with, James said that he wished _he_ had such a
pair of scales.

"So do I," said Rollo; "then we could play keep store. We could have our
store out in the play room, and weigh things."

"So we could," said James. "We could put a long board upon two barrels
for a counter."

"O, you must _make_ your scales, boys," said the apothecary.

"How can we make them?" said Rollo.

"Why, you can get a good, stout knitting-needle for a beam. Tie a silk
thread around the middle of it to hold it up by, and slip it along until
you get it so that the needle will exactly balance. Then for scales, you
must cut out two round pieces of thin pasteboard. Then take three
threads for each scale, and run them through the pasteboard, near the
edge, and at equal distances from each other. You must tie knots at the
lower ends of the threads to keep them from drawing through. Then you
must gather the other ends of the threads together, about half a foot
from the pasteboard, and tie them to the ends of the knitting-needle,
one on each side; and that will make a very respectable pair of scales
for you."

"But what shall we do