“So it seems, in that point of view, that you were under obligation to help the man, as truly as his boy Jerry was,—though it was an obligation of a different kind. He was bound to do it, because it is every boy’s duty to obey his father; you, because it is every boy’s duty to help those who are in difficulty or trouble.”
“Yes,” said Royal.
“It is a case very much like the one we had the other day, when Lucy would not run to help you tie the knot. I asked your father about it afterwards, and he explained it to me.”
“And what did he say about it?” asked Royal.
“Why, he said,” rejoined Miss Anne, “that it very often happens that there is a duty which we ought to perform to a person, and yet we are not responsible to him if we do not perform it. He told me a story to help explain it.”
“What was the story, Miss Anne?” said Lucy. “Tell it to us.”
“It was about a widow and her garden. The widow was poor, and rather cross, and she had one son, who took care of her garden. At last her son became sick, and so the poor widow’s garden was neglected.
“Now, it happened that a gentleman lived near, who had a gardener. He was walking by the widow’s house, and he looked over the fence, and he saw that the weeds were getting up pretty high. So he told the widow that the next morning he would bring his gardener, and let him put it in order for her.
“The widow said that she had hired a man to come the next morning.
“‘Very well,’ said the gentleman, ‘I will let my gardener come and help; and then you will not have so much to pay.’