In a few minutes, Rollo came back with the money in his hand, and said,
“She won’t take it. She said I must bring it back. It was as much as I could do to get her to take the wallet.”
“But she must take it,” replied his father. “You carry it to her again, and tell her she has nothing to do with the business. The money is for Sarah, and she must not refuse it, but take it and give it to her the first opportunity.”
So Rollo carried the money again to Dorothy. She received it this time, and put it in the wallet, and then deposited both in a safe place in her work-table. Then Rollo came back to his father to ask him a little more about bailments.
“Father,” said Rollo, when he came back, “if James should give me his knife, or any thing, for my own, would that be a bailment?”
“No,” said his father. “A bailment is only where property is intrusted to another, for a certain purpose, to be returned again to the possession of the owner, when the purpose is accomplished. For instance, when Jonas is sawing wood with my saw, the saw is a bailment from me to him; it remains my property; but he is to use it for a specific purpose, and then return it to my possession.”
“He does not bring it back to you,” said Rollo.
“No, but he hangs it up in its place in my shed, which is putting it again in my possession. And so all the things which Dorothy uses in the kitchen are bailments.”
“And if she breaks them, must she pay for them?”