“Why, Lucy,” said Royal, “I don’t think I am under any obligation to make you any garden.”
“Yes, Royal,” said Lucy, “you promised me that you would, if I would help you make the coop.”
“Well, that was because I expected that we could have some hens; but, now that we cannot have any hens, the coop will not do us any good at all; and I don’t see that I ought to make you a garden for nothing.”
Lucy did not know how to answer this reasoning, but she was very far from being satisfied with it. She, however, had nothing to say, but that he had agreed to make her a garden, and that she thought he ought to do it.
Royal said that he meant if they got any hens to put into the coop; and Lucy said she did not believe that he meant any such thing.
Royal was wrong in refusing thus to fulfil his agreement. And the reason which he gave was not a good reason. He did, indeed, expect, when he made the promise, that he should have some hens to put into his hen-coop; but he did not make his promise on that condition. The promise was absolute—if she would help him make his coop, he would make her a garden. When she had finished helping him make the coop, her part of the agreement was fulfilled, and he was bound to fulfil his.
At last Lucy said,
“If you don’t make me a garden, I shall go and tell Joanna of you.”
“Very well,” said Royal; “we will go and leave it to Joanna, and let her decide.”
They went in and stated the case to Joanna. When she heard all the facts, she decided at once against Royal.