The children wished extremely to go to this cherry orchard, where they knew that they might gather as many cherries as they liked, and where they thought that they should be very happy, sitting down under the trees, and eating fruit—But none of these children had any money; for they had spent their last halfpence in paying for those cherries which they never tasted—those cherries which Owen, in the fury of his passion, trampled in the dust.
The children asked their dame what they could do to earn six-pence a piece; and she told them, that they might perhaps be able to earn this money by plaiting straw for hats, which they had all been taught to make by their good dame.
Immediately the children desired to set to work.
Owen, who was very eager to go to the cherry orchard, was the most anxious to get forward with the business: he found, however, that nobody liked to work along with him; his companions said, "We are afraid that you should quarrel with us—We are afraid that you should fly into a passion about the straws, as you did about the cherries; therefore we will not work with you."
"Will not you? then I will work by myself," said Owen; "and I dare say that I shall have done my work long before you have any of you finished yours; for I can plait quicker and better than any of you."
It was true that Owen could plait quicker and better than any of his companions; but he was soon surprised to find that his work did not go on so fast as theirs.
After they had been employed all the remainder of this evening, and all the next day, Owen went to his companions, and compared his work with theirs.
"How is this?" said he; "how comes it, that you have all done so much, and I have not done nearly so much, though I work quicker than any one of you, and I have worked as hard as I possibly could?—What is the reason that you have done so much more than I have?"
"Because we have all been helping one another, and you have had no one to help you: you have been obliged to do every thing for yourself."
"But still, I do not understand how your helping one another can make such a difference," said Owen: "I plait faster than any of you."