Then, spying him on the roof of the barn, he exclaimed, “Napoleon, Napoleon, come down here! Thee shouldn’t play the monkey like that!”
“Napoleon” obeyed quickly.
“Now tell me what makes thee climb such high places? Thee’ll break thy neck yet.”
“Oh! I told Posy I was going to; and you wouldn’t have me tell her a lie, would you?” replied Pollio with a very serious face.
The Quaker would not allow himself to smile at this. “Is thy mother willing to have thee do so?”
Pollio knew she was not; and he hung his head, and began to beat the dirt in the road with a stick. He was very fond of Mr. Littlefield, and did not like to have the good man know he ever did wrong.
“Stop, my son! Is it possible thee kills snakes?”
For Pollio was crushing a little snake with his stick.
“No, sir: ’twas dead in the first place, and I just killed it a little more.”