64 ROBERT DAWSON.

“Mr. Merry might have told you to go—the brute!"
“And the boys might have called again, I think, in
their waggons! and then Mr. Merry could not have
_ helped himself,” said Mary.
“At any rate I would have gone, work or no work!”
added Jane. :
‘Robert decided the matter himself, and acted ac-
cordingly. I do not see that any one is to be blamed,”
said my mother, taking off her spectacles and wiping
the glasses with the corner of her apron,
Meanwhile I was eating a piece of pie with great
‘relish and in silence. This being done, I went back
to work. Another man, with his saw, was in the yard,
and the business went forward rapidly.
- At dinner my sisters again discussed my day’s occu.”
pation.
_ “Do you think, father, Robert might have gone just
as well as not?” asked Jane.
“I think, my dear, that Robert acted like a boy who .
has business that he means to do. He had an object

in view, and he resolved to accomplish it.”