After the boys had thrown one or two large stones into the water, they took hold of the wheelbarrow, and, then, tipping it up, the whole load slid down into the water, close to the shore. The boys then came back, wheeling the great wheelbarrow up into the road.
They went after another load of stones, and Caleb's curiosity was so far awakened, that he rose slowly, and walked down towards the place. In a few minutes, the boys came back with their load; David wheeling, and Dwight walking along by his side, and pushing as well as he could, to help. As soon as he saw Caleb, he began to call out,
“O Caleb, you were afraid of a cow!”
Caleb looked sad and unhappy. David said,
“I would not laugh at him, Dwight. Caleb, we are building a mole.”
“A mole!” said Caleb. “What is that?”
“Why, it is a kind of wharf, built out far into the water, to make a harbour for our shipping. We learned about it in our geography.”
“Yes,” said Dwight, coming up, eagerly, to Caleb, “you see the current carries all our vessels down the stream, you know, Caleb, and we are going to build out a long mole, out into the middle of the brook, and that will stop our vessels; and then we are going to make it pretty wide, so that we can walk out upon it, and the end of it will do for a wharf.”
“Yes, it will be a sort of harbour for 'em,” said David.
Caleb looked quite pleased at this plan and wanted the boys to let him help; and Dwight said he might go and help them get their next load of stones.
But Caleb did not help much, although he really tried to help. He kept getting into the other boys' way. At last Dwight got out of patience, and said,
“Caleb, you don't help us the least mite. I wish you would go away.”
But Caleb wanted to help; and Dwight tried to make him go away. Presently, he began to laugh at him for being afraid of a cow.
“I suppose I could frighten you by moo-ing at you, Caleb.”
Caleb did not answer, but walked along by the side of the wheelbarrow. David was wheeling it; for they had now got it loaded, and were going back to the shore of the brook, Caleb on one side, and Dwight upon the other. Dwight saw that Caleb hung his head, and looked confused.
“Moo! moo!” said Dwight.
Caleb walked along silent as before.
“Moo! moo!” said Dwight, running round to Caleb's side of the wheelbarrow, and moo-ing close into his ear.
Caleb let go of the wheelbarrow, turned around, burst into tears, and walked slowly and sorrowfully away towards the house.
“There, now,” said David, “you have made him cry. What do you want to trouble him so for?”
Dwight looked after Caleb, and seeing that he was going to the house, he was afraid that he would tell his grandmother. So he ran after him, and began to call to him to stop; but, before he had gone many steps, he saw his grandmother standing at the door of the house, and calling to them all to come.
Caleb had nearly stopped crying when he came up to his grandmother. She did not say any thing to him about the cause of his trouble, but asked him if he was willing to go down cellar with Mary Anna, and help her choose a plateful of apples for dinner. His eye brightened at this proposal, and Mary Anna, who was sitting at the window, reading, rose, laid down her book, took hold of his hand with a smile, and led him away.
Madam Rachel then went to her seat in her great arm-chair, and David and Dwight came and stood by her side.
“I am sorry, Dwight, that you wanted to trouble Caleb.”
“But, mother,” said Dwight, “I only moo-ed at him a little.”
“And what did you do it for?”
“O, only for fun, mother.”
“Did you suppose it gave him pain?”
“Why,—I don't know.”
“Did you suppose it gave him pleasure?”
“Why, no,” said Dwight, looking down.
“And did not you know that it gave him pain? Now, tell me, honestly.”
“Why, yes, mother, I knew it plagued him a little; but then I only did it for fun.”
“I know it,” said Madam Rachel; “and that is the very thing that makes me so sorry for it.”
“Why, mother?” said Dwight in a tone of surprise.
“Because if you had given Caleb four times as much pain for any other reason, I should not have thought half so much of it, as to have you trouble him for fun. If it had been to do him any good, or to do any body else any good, or from mistake, or mere thoughtlessness, I should not have thought so much of it; but to do it for fun!”
Here Madam Rachel stopped, as if she did not know what to say.
“I rather think, mother, it was only thoughtlessness,” said David, by way of excusing Dwight.
“No; because he knew that it gave Caleb pain, and it was, in fact, for the very purpose of giving him pain, that Dwight did it. If he had been saying moo accidentally, without thinking of troubling Caleb, that would have been thoughtlessness; but it was not so. And what makes me most unhappy about this,” continued Madam Rachel, putting her hand gently on Dwight's head, “is that my dear Dwight has a heart capable under some circumstances, of taking pleasure in the sufferings of a helpless little child.”
David and Dwight were both silent, though they saw clearly that what their mother said was true.
“And yet, perhaps, you think it is a very little thing after all,” she continued, “just moo-ing at Caleb a little. The pain it gave him was soon over. Just sending him down cellar to get apples, made him forget it in a moment; so that you see it is not the mischief that is done, in this case, but the spirit of mind in you, that it shews. It is a little thing, I know; but then it is a little symptom of a very bad disease. It is very hard to cure.”
“Well, mother,” said Dwight, looking up, and speaking very positively, “I am determined not to trouble Caleb any more.”
“Yes, but I am afraid your determinations won't reach the difficulty. As long as the spirit of mind remains, so that you are capable of taking pleasure in the sufferings of another, your determinations not to indulge the bad spirit, will not do much good. You will forget them all, when the temptation comes. Don't you remember how often I have talked with you about this, and how often you have promised not to do it, before?”
“Why, yes, mother,” said Dwight, despondingly.
“So, you see determinations will not do much good. As long as your heart is malicious, the malice will come out in spite of all your determinations.”
Just at this moment Caleb came in, bringing his plate of apples, with an air of great importance and satisfaction. He had nearly forgotten his troubles. Soon after this, dinner was brought in, and Madam Rachel said no more to the boys about malice. After dinner, they went out again to play.
CHAPTER III.
BUILDING THE MOLE
Caleb sat down upon the step of the door, eating a piece of bread, while Dwight and David returned to their work of building the mole. They got the wheelbarrow, and loaded it with stones.
Caleb sat a few minutes more at the door, and then he went into the house, and got his little rocking chair, and brought it out under the elm, and sat down there, looking towards the boys, who were at work near the water. At last, David spied him sitting there, and said,
“There is Caleb, sitting under the great tree.”
Dwight