“I wish I could get up there,” said Lucy.

“I wish I could too,” said Rollo.  “I should like to climb up one of those trees which hangs over, and then I could look down.”

“O, Rollo,” said Lucy, “you would not dare to climb up one of those trees.”

“Yes, I should dare to,” said Rollo.

Rollo was sometimes a proud, boasting boy, pretending that he could do great things, and talking very largely.  This was one of his greatest faults; and whenever he seemed to be in this boasting mood, he almost always got into some difficulty after it.  There is a text in the Bible that was proved true, very often, in Rollo’s case.  It is this—­“Pride cometh before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Rollo had a sad Tall this day, though it was not from that high rock.  It was a different sort of a fall from that, as we shall presently see.

“Lucy,” said he again, “I do not believe but that I could get up upon that rock myself.  I can climb rocks.”

“O no, you could not,” said Lucy.

“Why, yes, I see a way.”

“Which way?”

“O, round by that great black log There is a path there through the bushes.”

“O no,” said Lucy, “you could not get up there.  But there are some boys by that log; what boys are they?”

Rollo looked.  They were some boys which they had seen coming up the mountain, and Rollo’s father had warned him not to go near them.  They had wanted Rollo to go with them before, but his father had forbidden it.  Rollo wanted to go, and now he was glad to see them again; but Lucy was sorry.

GETTING IN TROUBLE.

The blueberries were very thick and large, and the bottoms of the baskets were soon covered with them.  Each one picked where he found them most plenty.

Rollo and Lucy kept pretty near together, talking, and gradually strayed away to some distance from the rest of the party.  After a little while, Rollo looked up, and saw the three boys pretty near them.  As soon as Lucy saw them so near, she moved along towards their parents; and Rollo ought to have done so too, but he remained where he was, and presently one of the boys came up to him.

“Why did you not come up where we were?” said he.  “They were thicker out there.”

“My father would not let me,” said Rollo.

“O, come along,” said the boy; “he will not care.  Besides, he will not know it.  He is busy picking by himself.  He does not mind where you are.”

Rollo thought this was not exactly the way that a good boy would speak of obeying a father, but he wanted very much to see the place where the berries were so much thicker.

“How far is it?” said he to the boy.

“O, it is only a little way-just around that rock.”

By this time the other two boys came up, and they talked with Rollo a little while, and endeavored to persuade him to go.  He said finally that he would go and ask his father.  So he left his basket, and went and asked his father if he might just go with those boys round the rock.  He said the blueberries were much thicker around there, and also that he had been talking with the boys, and he was sure they were good boys.