"Yes," said Rollo, "but I don't think it is very pretty now."
"That shows what I said was true. When you first had it, it was new, and the sight of it gave you pleasure; but the pleasure consisted in the novelty and drollery of it, and after a little while, when you became familiar with it, it ceased to give you pleasure, and then you did not value it. I found it the other day lying on the ground in the yard, and took it up and put it away carefully in a drawer."
"But if the value is all gone, what good does it do to save it?" said Rollo.
"The value to you is gone, because you have become familiar with it, and so it has lost its power to awaken feelings of pleasure in you. But it has still power to give pleasure to other children, who have not seen it, and I kept it for them."
"I should like to see it, very much," said James. "I never saw such a one."
"I will show it to you some time. Now, this is one kind of plaything,—those which please by their novelty only. It is not generally best to buy such playthings, for you very soon get familiar with them, and then they cease to give you pleasure, and are almost worthless."
"Only we ought to keep them, if we have them, to show to other boys," said Rollo.
"Yes," said his mother. "You ought never to throw them away, or leave them on the floor, or on the ground."
"O, the little fool," said Rollo suddenly.