“What are you going to do?”
“I am going to clear up some ground.”
“May I go with you?”
“I should like it—but that is not for me to say.”
Rollo knew by this that he must ask his mother. He went in and asked her, and she, in return, asked him if he had read his lesson that morning. He said he had not; he had forgotten it.
“Then,” said his mother, “you must first go and read a quarter of an hour.”
Rollo was sadly disappointed, and also a little displeased. He turned away, hung down his head, and began to cry. It is not strange that he was disappointed, but it was very wrong for him to feel displeased, and begin to cry.
“Come here, my son,” said his mother.
Rollo came to his mother, and she said to him kindly,
“You have done wrong now twice this morning; you have neglected your duty of reading, and now you are out of humor with me because I require you to attend to it. Now it is my duty not to yield to such feelings as you have now, but to punish them. So I must say that, instead of a quarter of an hour, you must wait half an hour, before you go out with Jonas.”