CHAPTER VI.

Work.

“Oscar, go down cellar and get some coal,” said Mrs. Preston one evening, when the fire was getting low.

“I ’m reading—­you go and get it, Ralph,” said Oscar, without looking up from the newspaper in his hand.

“No, I shan’t,” replied Ralph; “I ’ve done all your chores to-day, and I won’t do any more.”

“Tell Bridget to bring it up, then,” added Oscar, his eyes still fastened upon his paper.

“Oscar,” said Mrs. Preston, sharply, “I told you to get it, and do you obey me, this minute.  Bridget has worked hard all day, and Ralph has already had to do several errands and jobs that you ought to have done, and that is the reason why I did not ask them to get the coal.  You have done nothing but play, when you were out of school, since morning, and now, when I ask you to do a trifling thing, you try to shirk it upon somebody else.  I do wish you would break yourself of your laziness, and have a little consideration for other people.”

Oscar reluctantly obeyed his mother’s order.  Indeed, it was seldom that he was very prompt to obey, when any kind of labor was required of him.  He had a peculiar knack of getting rid of work.  If he was directed to do a thing, he was almost sure to try to coax Alice, or Ella, or Ralph, or Bridget, or somebody else, to do it for him.  He never taxed his own legs, or hands, or muscles, when he could make use of other people’s.  This lazy habit was a source of no small anxiety to his mother, and was a constant annoyance to all the family.

“Well, you did make out to get it,” said Mrs. Preston, in a pleasant tone, when Oscar returned with the coal.  “I hope it did n’t hurt you much.”

“I was n’t afraid of its hurting me,” said Oscar “but I was reading, and did n’t want to stop.”

“I am afraid that is only an excuse,” replied his mother.  “It has really got to be a habit with you to call upon somebody else, whenever you are told to do a thing.  We have all noticed it, a hundred times, and you alone seem to be blind to it.  In a year or two, when you are old enough to leave school, and go to a place, what do you suppose you will be good for, if you keep on in this way?  Why, the man who should take you into his employ, would have to hire another boy on purpose to wait upon you.”

“It is just as mother says, Oscar,” added his eldest sister, Alice.  “It was only this morning that Bridget was scolding, because you wanted to be waited upon so much.  She says you make her more trouble than all the rest of us together.”

Oscar could not deny these charges, and so he said nothing, but appeared to be reading his newspaper very intently.  Mr. Preston came in soon after, and the family sat down to tea.

“Oscar,” said Mr. Preston, “next week is vacation, is it not?”

“Yes, sir,” replied Oscar.