“‘I do hate my tasks,’ said little Robert,—‘I wish there never had been a school in the whole world. I think the man that first thought of a school must have been a very cruel, hardhearted man, and could never have been a child. What is the good of sitting, and spell, spell, spell? First, learn this by heart, and then that; then say the multiplication table; and then say the pence table; and then the Latin grammar; and then the catechism; and then read; and then write; and then cypher; and then, and then, and then——. But there is no end to it,’ said Master Robert.
“‘But there is one good thing,—we can play truant; and so I am off for a ramble, and am determined to be as idle as ever I can be. I am resolved not to do anything to-day; I will do nothing but caper, and run, and catch butterflies, and make ducks and drakes in the water, and blow the heads off the dandelions, and kick my hat about for sport, and roll about among the daisies. There, you stupid old spelling-book,’ continued he, giving it a toss into a corner,—‘go and take your rest there. If you were as tired of me, as I am of you, we should never see each other again.’
“So saying, little Robert ran out at the garden gate, bounded over the next meadow, leaped over hedge and ditch, up hill and down dell, till, at last, he thought no one would follow him.
“So he leaped, and capered, and rolled on the grass. He took up many a dandelion stalk, and blew off the winged seeds; at last he approached a pond, and began to make ducks and drakes in the water. At this sport he continued for some time, but at last grew tired; he then set himself down in the warm sun. The smell of the flowers and vernal grass quite overpowered him, and so, in a short time, he fell fast asleep.
“No sooner had he fallen asleep than he began to dream. He dreamed that a number of birds, and beasts, and insects, were humming and singing about him, and that they were busied in all sorts of ways. On a tall tree, just above him, he thought he saw a monkey swinging by his tail to and fro, with his arms folded, and looking as if he was half asleep. This monkey very much resembled himself.
“Buzz, buzz, buzz, went a bee, close to his ear, as he thought. ‘What makes you so merry, Mr. Bee?’ said the little boy. The bee never turned to look at him, but immediately dived deeply into the bell of a flower, and licked out all the honey, and scraped up the wax; then he came out, and dived into another flower, singing all the time. ‘What makes you so merry, Mr. Bee?’ called out Robert, a second time. ‘Because I have got something to do,’ said the bee. ‘And pray what can you have to do?’ the little boy thought he said to the bee. ‘Oh! a great deal,’ said the bee:—‘I have to visit above a thousand flowers this afternoon; I have to go to my hive, and back, a score of times; I have honey to put in my cells, and wax to make, and a great deal to do.’ And hum, hum, hum—bum, bum—m-m-m, z-z-z-z-z; and so the bee put its head into another flower.
“‘But you seem so merry,’ said Robert: ‘you seem so merry, Mr. Bee.’
“‘That is because I have plenty to do:—
‘To work is my delight,
From morning until night.’