“But how can you?” said Rollo.
Jonas then explained to them how he was going to burn the hornet's nest. He said he should take a long pole with two prongs at one end like a pitchfork, and with that fork up a bunch of hay. Then he should set the top of the hay on fire, and stand it up directly under the nest.
The boys continued talking about the hornet's nest all the way home, and forgot to say any thing more about the causey until just as they were going into the yard. Then they told Jonas that he had not told them how to put on the gravel, on the top.
[pg 85]He said he could not tell them then, and, besides, they would have as much as they could do to put in stones for one day.
Besides, James said it was sundown, and time for him to go home; but he promised to come the next morning, if his mother would let him, as soon as he had finished his lessons.
Keeping Tally.
Rollo and James began their work the next day about the middle of the forenoon, determined to obey Jonas's directions exactly, and to work industriously for an hour. They put a number of small pieces of board upon their wheelbarrows, to put along the pathway at first, and just as they had got them placed, Jonas came down just to see whether they were beginning right.
He saw them wheel in one or two loads of stones, and told them he thought they were doing very well.
“We have earned one cent already,” said Rollo.