One day little Rollo was sitting by the fire on his green cricket. His mother was sewing at her work-table.
“Mother,” said Rollo, “when do you think father will come home?”
His mother said, “I think he will come home pretty soon.”
“Then,” said Rollo, “I think I had better get a chair for him.”
So he went and took hold of the great rocking-chair, to pull it to the fire for his father; but it was so heavy that it would not come. So Rollo began to cry.
His mother looked up and said, “Rollo, what is the matter?”
Rollo said, “This rocking-chair will not come.”
“Where do you want to carry it?”
“I want it to be by the fire, so that my father can sit in it when he comes home,” said Rollo.
“Why do you want your father to have it?”
“Because;” said he. He did not know exactly how to tell the reason, and so he only said “Because.”
“It is because you wish to please him and to save him trouble, is it not?”
“Yes, mother,” said Rollo.
“Well, do you not think it displeases me and gives me trouble to have you cry, and make me get up and come and move the chair for you?”
Rollo knew it did, but he did not answer.
Then his mother said, “What good does it do to displease me and make me trouble, for the sake of pleasing father and saving him trouble?”
Rollo could not answer this question; so he kept swinging and rocking, back and forth, on the chair. His mother went on with her work.
By and by he said, “Well, I can get my father’s slippers for him.”
So he went to the little closet by the side of the fire, and took out the slippers, and put them down in the corner, and then when his father came in, he ran to the door to meet him, and he said,
“Father, father, I could not move up your chair, but there are your slippers all ready.”