After a time it did clear up, and Rollo obtained his mother’s leave to go and ask all the children who were going to have a share in the museum, to come one afternoon and begin to collect the curiosities. They all came—Lucy, James, and Henry. And when Rollo saw them all collected in the garden yard, with baskets in their hands all ready to go forth after curiosities, he capered about full of anticipations of delight.
“Now,” said Henry, “let us go down to the hemlock-tree.”
“No,” said Rollo, “it will be better to go to the brook, where I found the pebbles.”
“But I want to go and see if I can’t find another hemlock-seed,” said Henry.
Rollo was, however, very unwilling to go that way, and yet Henry insisted upon it. Lucy listened to the dispute with a countenance expressive of distress and anxiety. First, she proposed to Rollo to yield to Henry, and then to Henry to yield to Rollo; but in vain. Henry said that Rollo ought to let him decide, because he was the oldest; and Rollo said that he himself ought to decide, because it was his museum. They were both wrong. Neither ought to have insisted upon having his own way so strenuously. At length, after quite a long and unpleasant altercation, Lucy proposed that they should draw lots for it. The boys consented.
“I’ll tell you a better plan than that,” said a voice above them. They looked up, and saw Mary sitting at the window of the chamber. She had been reading, but, on hearing this dispute, she had closed her book, and now interposed to do what she could to aid in settling it.
When Rollo heard his sister Mary’s voice, he felt a little ashamed of his pertinacity. Lucy asked Mary what the plan was.
“Why,” said she, “in all expeditions where there are several children, it is very desirable to have a regent.”
“A regent?” said Lucy.
“Yes,” said Mary, “a commander, to take the lead, and decide the thousand little questions which are likely to occur. Unless there is somebody to decide them, there will be endless disputes.”