Rollo's Museum Part 5

"Among the rocks by the road, beyond the bridge," said James. "There are plenty of them among those rocks."

The place which James referred to, was a rocky precipice by the road side, about a quarter of a mile from the house; just at the entrance of a small village. Rollo approved of the proposal, and he went in and asked his mother's permission to go.

She consented, and Rollo, when he came back through the kitchen, said to Dorothy, who was sitting at the window, sewing,

"Dorothy, we are going to get some blue-bells to press."

"Ah!" said Dorothy. "Where are you going for them?"

"O, out by the bridge," said Rollo, as he pa.s.sed on to go out at the door.

"O Rollo!" said she, calling out to him suddenly, as if she recollected something; "stop a minute."

So Rollo came back to hear what she had to say.

"You are going pretty near the village."

"Yes," said Rollo.

"And could you be so kind as to do an errand for me?"

"Yes," said Rollo; "what is it?"

Then Dorothy went to her work-table, and began to open it, saying all the time,

"I want you to get some medicine for Sarah, for she is sick."

Sarah was a friend of Dorothy's, who lived at another house, not far from Rollo's; and Rollo used sometimes to see her at his father's, when she came over to see Dorothy. She was in very feeble health, and now wanted some medicines. Dorothy had been over at the house where she lived that day, and had found that the doctor had left her a prescription; but she had n.o.body to send for it, and she was not quite able to go herself. So Dorothy told her that if she would let her have the money, she would ask Rollo or Jonas to go.

So Sarah gave her a dollar bill, and in order to keep it safe, she put it in a little morocco wallet, and tied it up securely with a string.

This wallet was what Dorothy was looking for, in her work-table. She took it out, and untied the string. She opened the wallet, and showed Rollo the money in one of the pockets, and a small piece of white paper, upon which was written the names of the medicines which the doctor wished Sarah to take. Such a writing is called a _prescription_.

Rollo looked at the prescription to see what sort of medicines it was that he was to get, but he could not read it. The words were short and strange, and had periods at the end of them,--which Rollo told Dorothy was wrong, as periods ought to be only at the end of a sentence. Then there were strange characters and marks at the ends of the lines; and Rollo, after examining it attentively, said he could not read a word of it, and he did not believe that the apothecary could. However, he said he was willing to take it to him, and let him try.

He accordingly put the prescription back again carefully into the wallet, and Dorothy tied it up. Then he put it into his pocket, and went out to James. He found James waiting by the gate, and they both walked along together.

He and James had each a book to put their blue-bells in. They walked along, talking about their flowers, until at length they reached the bridge. Just beyond it was the rocky precipice, with shrubs and evergreens growing upon the shelves and in the crevices, and s.p.a.ces between the rocks. It towered up pretty high above the road, and the declivity extended also down to the brook below the bridge, forming one side of the deep ravine across which the bridge was built. There was a very large, old hemlock-tree growing upon a small piece of level ground between the ravine and the higher part of the precipice. Under this hemlock-tree was a large, smooth, flat stone, where the boys used very often to come and sit, when they came to play among these rocks.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The boys rambled about among the rocks, sometimes down in the ravine and near the brook, and sometimes very high up among the rocks. They were both pretty good climbers, and there were no very dangerous places, for there were no high, perpendicular precipices. They found blue-bells in abundance, and several other flowers. They also found a variety of brakes, of different forms and colors. They determined to gather as many flowers as they could, and then go down to the hemlock-tree, and there look them over, and select those best to be pressed; and then put them carefully into their books there. Then they could carry them home safely; they would, in fact, be in press all the way.

After rambling and climbing about for half an hour, the boys went down to the flat rock, under the hemlock, with large bunches of plants and flowers in their hands. Here they sat another half hour, looking over their specimens, and putting them into their books. At length, Rollo picked up a singular-looking thing, which was lying down by the side of the stone under the tree. It was about as big as his thumb, and somewhat pointed at the ends. It was black, and rather glossy, and the surface was marked regularly with little ridges. James could not imagine what it was; but Rollo told him that he thought it must be a hemlock-seed. The truth was, that it was a great _chrysalis_, though Rollo did not find it out till long afterwards.

"A hemlock-seed!" said James.

"Yes," said Rollo; "I have seen the cones which grow on fir-trees, and they are a good deal like this."

"But they are not so handsome," said James.

"I know it," said Rollo; "they are not so handsome. This is the most beautiful one I ever saw."

"We can plant it," said James, "next spring."

"Yes," said Rollo; "and then we can have a great hemlock-tree near our house."

"But we shall have to wait a great many years," said James.

"O, no, not a great many," said Rollo. "It is such a great seed, I think it would grow pretty fast."

But James did not like the idea of planting it very well. He proposed that they should keep it, for a curiosity, in their museum. Rollo insisted, at first, upon planting it; but at length, reflecting that it was not then the right season to plant it, he concluded to put it into the museum, with his raspberry-seeds, until the next spring, and to plant it then.

So Rollo put the hemlock-seed into his pocket, and he and James took their books under their arms, with a great many flowers and plants carefully placed between the leaves, and walked along towards the village. When they arrived at the apothecary's, Rollo put his book down upon the counter, and then took the wallet from his pocket, and untied the string, and took the prescription out, and handed it to the apothecary. The apothecary was talking with another man, at the time; but he took the prescription, and Rollo watched his countenance to see how perplexed and puzzled he would look, when he tried to read it.

Instead, however, of appearing perplexed and puzzled, the apothecary only glanced his eye over it, and laid it down upon the counter, and immediately began to look upon his shelves to find the articles.

"That's strange!" said Rollo to himself. "He reads it as easily as I should a guide board."

While the apothecary was weighing out his medicines, Rollo was very much interested in looking at the little pair of scales in which he weighed them. Rollo never had seen so small a pair of scales. The weights, too, were small, square weights of bra.s.s, with little figures stamped upon them. He asked the apothecary what such scales as those would cost. He answered that they were of various prices, from one dollar to five.

Rollo thought that that was too much for him to give; but while he was thinking whether his father would probably be willing to let him have a dollar to buy a pair with, James said that he wished _he_ had such a pair of scales.

"So do I," said Rollo; "then we could play keep store. We could have our store out in the play room, and weigh things."

"So we could," said James. "We could put a long board upon two barrels for a counter."

"O, you must _make_ your scales, boys," said the apothecary.

"How can we make them?" said Rollo.

"Why, you can get a good, stout knitting-needle for a beam. Tie a silk thread around the middle of it to hold it up by, and slip it along until you get it so that the needle will exactly balance. Then for scales, you must cut out two round pieces of thin pasteboard. Then take three threads for each scale, and run them through the pasteboard, near the edge, and at equal distances from each other. You must tie knots at the lower ends of the threads to keep them from drawing through. Then you must gather the other ends of the threads together, about half a foot from the pasteboard, and tie them to the ends of the knitting-needle, one on each side; and that will make a very respectable pair of scales for you."

"But what shall we do for weights?" asked Rollo.

"O, weights!--yes, you must have some weights. You must make them of lead. I will show you how."

So the apothecary took a small piece of sheet lead, rather thin, and cut off a little square of it. He then put it into one of his scale balances, and put a thin, square weight of bra.s.s, similar to it, into the other scale. The lead weight was a little too heavy. He then clipped off a very little with his scissors. This made it about right. Then, with the point of his scissors, he scratched a figure 1 upon it.

"There," said he, "boys, there is a standard for you."

"What is a standard?" said Rollo, taking up the weight.

"Why, it is a weight made exactly correct, for you to keep, and make yours by. It is a _one-grain_ weight. I will give you some sheet lead, and when you get home and have made your scales, you can cut off another piece, and weigh it by that, and so you will have two one-grain weights.

Then you can put those two into one scale, and a piece of lead as big as both of them into the other scale, and when you have made it exactly as heavy as both of the others, you must mark a figure 2 upon it, and then you will have a _two-grain_ weight. In the same way you can make a _five-grain_ weight, and a _ten-grain_ weight, and a pennyweight."

"What is a pennyweight?" said Rollo.

"It is a weight as heavy as twenty-four grains."

"The pennyweight will be very big, then," said Rollo.