is father. "If you come down, I will throw the
quarter of a dollar into the water."

So saying, Rodolphus extended his hand as if he were about to throw the
money off, into the stream.

[Illustration.]

The Pursuit.

Mrs. Linn and Annie had come out from the house, to see how Mr. Linn's
pursuit of the fugitive would end; but instead of following Rodolphus and
his father over the rocks, they had come across the road to the little
gate, where they could see the flat rock on which Rodolphus was standing,
and his father on the cliffs above. Mrs. Linn stood in the gateway. Annie
had come forward, and was standing in the path, at the head of the steps.
When she saw Rodolphus threatening to throw the money into the river, she
seemed very much concerned and distressed. She called out to her brother,
in a very earnest manner.

"Rodolphus! Rodolphus! That is my father's quarter of a dollar. You _must
not_ throw it away."

"I _will_ throw it away," said Rodolphus, "and I'll jump into the water
myself, in the deepest place that I can find, if he won't let me have it
to buy my rabbit with."

"I would let him have it, husband," said Mrs. Linn, "if he wants it so
very much. I don't care much about it, on the whole. I don't think the
rabbit will be any great trouble."

When Rodolphus heard his mother say this, he considered the case as
decided, and he walked off from the flat rock to the shore, and from the
shore up the path to his mother. There was some further conversation
between Rodolphus and his parents in respect to the rabbit, but it was
finally concluded that the rabbit should be bought, and Rodolphus was
allowed to keep the quarter of a dollar accordingly.

Such was the way in which Rodolphus was brought up in his childhood. It is
not surprising that he came in the end to be a very bad boy.

II. Ellen.

The next morning after Rodolphus had obtained his quarter of a dollar in
the manner we have described, he proposed to Annie to go with him to buy
his rabbit. It would not be very far, he said.

"I should like to go very much," said Annie, "if my mother will let me."

"O, she will let you," said Rodolphus, "_I_ can get her to let you."

Rodolphus waited till his father had gone away after breakfast, before
asking his mother to let Annie go with him. He was afraid that his father
might make some objection to the plan. After his father had gone, he