LAZY ROBERT;

OR,

THE COLONEL'S SERVANT

BY

BY AUNT HATTIE. [Madeline Leslie.]

"We command you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat."—Paul.

BOSTON:

HENRY A. YOUNG & CO.

24 CORNHILL.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by HENRY A. YOUNG & CO., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE HAPPY HOME STORIES. FOR BOYS.

I. DILIGENT DICK. II. COUSIN WILLIE. III. LAZY ROBERT. IV. LITTLE FRITZ. V. THE NEW BUGGY. VI. BERTIE AND HIS SISTERS.

LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE HAPPY HOME STORIES. FOR GIRLS.

I. LITTLE FLYAWAY. II. THE SPOILED PICTURE. III. FLEDA'S CHILDHOOD. IV. THE SINGING GIRL. V. MOLLY AND THE WINE GLASS VI. THE TWINS.

CONTENTS. ————

CHAPTER I.

ROBERT AND THE MAJOR

CHAPTER II.

ROBERT AND THE REGIMENT

CHAPTER III.

ROBERT'S LESSON

CHAPTER IV.

ROBERT'S DECEIT

CHAPTER V.

ROBERT'S CONFESSION

CHAPTER VI.

ROBERT'S SPELLING

CHAPTER VII.

ROBERT'S LETTER

CHAPTER VIII.

ROBERT, THE RUNAWAY

CHAPTER IX.

ROBERT'S MOTHER

CHAPTER X.

ROBERT'S DEATH

LAZY ROBERT.

CHAPTER I.

ROBERT AND THE MAJOR.

"ANOTHER failure, Robert," said his aunt sorrowfully, as she made a mark in a small blank book. "What were you doing all the time I set you to study?"

"I did study. I mean, I did some of the time. The butcher came and brought his dog, and he tried to fight Major. And then of course, I had to go out and stop them."

"And Major followed you into the house, and you had a grand frolic in the library, which was the noise I heard. Oh, Robert!"

"I tried to keep him out right hard, 'deed I did, aunt Josephine, but he would come. And then he looked so coaxable and cunning, I couldn't help one little game just to show the old fellow that we were good friends again, 'deed that was all, aunty."

"Have you and Major had a falling out, Robert?"

There was a little twinkle in the lady's eye which encouraged the lad, and he forthwith entered on a minute account of his grievances.

"You know my stuffed squirrel. It had such funny little bright eyes; they looked exactly like as if it was alive, and such a long, bushy tail, with wire in it so that you could bend it any way; and it was stuffed just as full as—as—"

"As Robert Weeks," suggested his aunt playfully.

"Yes, aunty," he added with a bright flush at the comparison. "Well, you see, Major couldn't bear the sight of my squirrel. He'd run at it, barking as loud as he could; and then when the tail went up, you see I fixed it with a string, Major's tail would go down quicker 'n shot, and he'd back out of the scrape real mean. Oh, it was the best fun!"

Robert forgot all about his lessons, bad marks, good resolutions and every thing else, but Major and the squirrel. His head went back, and he laughed, laughed till he ached all over.

"Well," said aunt Josephine, "I don't quite understand what all this has to do with it."

"Oh, I forgot!" exclaimed the boy, trying to recover himself. "Yesterday, I coaxed Major up-stairs. He was awful shy of my room; and I set Bonny up on the bed, and stuck his tail right straight up in the air. Major began to growl, and I laughed at him. Just then you called me to recite, and I ran down, shutting major in the room."

"No wonder you failed entirely your lesson, Robert!"

"I'm sorry, aunty, 'deed I am; but I kept wondering what Major would do. I never thought he'd act so."

Robert's face grew sober so suddenly that his aunt asked:

"What did he do?"

"Why he tore my squirrel all to pieces, so there wasn't hardly a speck of him left, only the wire in his tail. The fur and the bran were scattered all round, and Major was growling awfully. I was so mad, I took a cane and whipped him, till he couldn't stand."

"Oh, Robert, how could you!"

"I know 'twas mean, aunt Josephine. I was right sorry, 'deed I was. I meant to save some of my dinner for the poor fellow to make up, but it did taste so good I couldn't stop till every mouthful was gone. But I coaxed cook for some pieces, and gave him a whole plate full. Oh, Major was so glad to see that I had forgiven him!"

"I should think it was for Major to forgive you, Robert."

"Yes, aunty, I suppose it was, but he didn't see it in that light. And so this morning, when the butcher's dog came, I wanted to show the old fellow I didn't keep any grudge against him. I believe he loves me better than ever. He watches me every minute to see what I am going to do next."

"Major is a noble dog, Robert—too trustworthy and affectionate to receive such cruel treatment. If you cannot control your temper so as to refrain from beating him, I shall have to devise some method of separating you."

"Why, aunt Josephine, I wouldn't whip him again for all the world! And he knows it. I cried over him and asked him to forgive me; and we had a regular making up."

"But, Robert, this habit of idleness grows upon you every day. I'm afraid after all I can't keep my promise to your mother, and I shall have to send you back to her."

"Oh, please don't do that!" urged the lad, growing very red in the face. "I will study, 'deed I will, I'll begin now, right away and I wont look off my book once, only I do hate grammar. Need I study grammar? I'll get geography, and find out all the map questions; and I'll try to master the spelling, though that's awful hard. But I hate grammar and sums."

"You must learn to like them, Robert. You don't know the pleasure of study, because you never apply your mind to any thing. I watched you the other day at your spelling lesson. Shall I tell you how you did?"

"Yes, if you please, aunty," said Robert hanging his head.

"You seated yourself near the window where you could not fail to see every one who passed, and with your head propped by your hand you began:

"'C-o-n-s-t-i-t-u-t-i-o-n, constitution, whew! What a long word! I know I can never learn it. What's the use, I wonder? C-o-n; Oh, there is the milk cart! And the woman gets so cross after she rings her bell, if cook don't go quick. I'll guess I'll run.'

"'I wouldn't go,' Ellen pleads; 'cook will attend to her own business.'

"You take up the book again with a sigh.

"'Spelling is horrid, Ellen; don't you think so? Great long words that have no meaning.'

"Ellen shook her head laughing.

"'Now here's another, c-o-m-b-i-n-a-t-i-o-n, combination. Do you think, Ellen, aunty 'll let me go out in the boat?'

"'I think you're a lazy, good for nothing fellow,' was her laughing reply. 'I should think you'd be ashamed to idle your time when mamma takes so much pains with you.'

"Your countenance shows that for the moment you are of the same opinion, and you take up your book with a sudden resolution. But it is only for a moment, with the first temptation you allow your attention to be diverted. Ellen's ball rolls to the floor, and you jump to catch it and spend two or three minutes in crawling under the sofa to get it out."

"I want to be kind to Ellen; she's so good to me, aunty."

"Of course, but when you are studying, you ought not to see any thing that goes on. I am beginning to be quite discouraged. I told your mother I thought I could interest you in your lessons. She has her heart set on your being a scholar as your father was; and your mind is bright enough. But the fact can't be denied, Robert, you are too lazy to apply yourself. And another-thing, I begin to believe what your uncle says, that you eat too much. He says, you stuff yourself at every meal till you can scarcely breathe. This is wrong, my dear boy, as well as ungentlemanly. The Bible tells us to be temperate in all things. Immoderate eating unfits any one for the active duties of life. It impairs the vigor of your mind, makes you dull and heavy, and in the end will certainly injure your health."

CHAPTER II.

ROBERT AND THE REGIMENT.

"MAMMA," softly called Ellen the next morning, "please come here a moment, and see what Robert is doing."

The lady followed, wondering what would happen next.

Ellen quietly pushed open the door leading into the library. And there sat the boy in a rocking-chair, in the centre of the room, his fingers pressed into his ears, a large shade covered with green silk tied over his eyes, with his book in his lap, rocking himself with all his might.

"What is orthoepy?" he was saying. "Orthoepy is—is—bother it, I thought I knew that Orthoepy is,—is—" He stamped his foot,—"I can't remember it; I think it's wicked for me to study grammar, it makes me so angry; I mean to tell aunt Josephine so."

The lady and her daughter darted from the room without being seen. Presently, she sent a servant to tell Robert she would like to see him.

"I have tried; indeed, aunty. I wouldn't go to sleep last night till I made a resolution to begin right off. I shut Major up in the coal cellar, so he needn't take off my attention, and—I—really I—"

"No matter now, Robert. I want you to do something for me. Part of a regiment of soldiers are going to pass here in a few minutes, and I want you to count them. I have a particular reason for wishing to know how many there are. Do you think you can do it?"

"Oh, yes, aunty; 'deed I can! I know how to count right smart."

Robert's brown eyes kindled, and there was an expression of resolution on his face seldom seen there.

"Stand in the bay window," added the lady, "and be sure you count correctly."

"Yes, aunty. I believe I hear the music now. No, it's poor Major. Shall I have time to let him out?"

"I think so."

Robert flew over the stairs, opened the cellar door, and not waiting to answer Major's joyful bark, was speedily back at his place in the bay window.

In a few moments, a company of boys running on the sidewalk, continually looking behind them, gave intimation that the soldiers were in sight, and presently the sound of martial music was heard.

"Must I count the band too, aunty?" cried Robert, his cheeks crimson with excitement, and not daring to turn his eyes from the window.

"No, none but the officers and soldiers."

Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and still the boy stood, his attention so completely absorbed in the business of counting that he noticed nothing that was passing in the room.

"Two, four, six, eight," he went on aloud as they marched by two and two in regular, martial order. It was fortunate for him that they were not marching in double quick time; indeed the regiment was passing from New York to Washington by the Baltimore and Ohio cars, and knew that they had abundant time to walk leisurely from one station to another.

When the last one had passed out of sight, Robert threw up his arras with a triumphant shout.

"Just seven hundred and sixty-eight, officers and all. Oh, don't I wish I was a soldier? Didn't they look splendidly, though?"

"You forget, Robert," said his aunt in a sad tone, "that it is not all of a soldier's duty to march leisurely through the streets in dress uniform to the sound of music, and with admiring spectators thronging the windows. Don't you remember the line of ambulances after the last battle?"

"I shall never forget that sight as long as I live," faltered Ellen. They went so slowly along, and then one after another backed up to the door of the great hospital. The nurses seemed real kind though and took hold of the litters as though they truly pitied them. "Oh, mamma, wasn't it dreadful; so many without arms and legs, and their heads done up in towels. Don't you remember how we sat up all night tearing bandages and scraping lint, and making beef tea and coffee for the nurses?"

"Oh, that's only once in a great while!" suggested Robert. "I heard some gentlemen talking about it, and they said only one in two or three hundred were ever hurt. I mean to be a soldier when I'm a man."

"I thought you meant to be a pig-driver," said Ellen archly.

"Oh, I gave that up with short dresses!" exclaimed Robert laughing heartily. "When I began to wear pants, I changed my mind and said I'd be a constable!"

"A constable has to be very tall and strong," urged Ellen. "Now you grow very fast, but it is all in breadth."

"I've resolved this long time to be a soldier."

"Your mother will never consent."

"Then I shall run away, and join the army. After that, I shall write to her, and tell her what a splendid time I'm having, and how I like it and then she wont care."

"That would be very wrong, Robert," remarked his aunt.

"I don't think there's much danger of his really doing it, mamma, he is too fond of lying in bed and taking his ease, and having a good dinner, to enlist for marching through swamps and sleeping on the ground and eating hard tack and raw pork."

"Pshaw! That's just as much as girls know," angrily retorted Robert. "I've been in camp before I came to Baltimore, and I know all about it."

CHAPTER III.

ROBERT'S LESSON.

"HOW many soldiers did you say there were, Robert?" inquired his aunt.

"Seven hundred and sixty-eight."

"Come and sit by me. I want to say something; and I want your whole attention. Ellen, will you sit in the library a few minutes?"

"Have I been naughty, aunt Josey?" inquired the boy rather frightened at the lady's serious face.

"No, but listen! Do you know why I asked you to count the soldiers in the regiment?"

"I suppose you're going to give them stockings as you did the other one. I saw heaps and heaps piled up in the back room and little balls of yarn to mend them with."

"No, Robert! I was simply trying an experiment on you. When I visited Georgetown last spring, I found your mother worried about you. She told me she had made great sacrifices to keep you at school; but the teachers complained that you would not study, that you were too lazy to make the necessary application. She shed tears as she talked with me; and I tried to comfort her. I knew she had not herself the time to spend on your lessons, because your grandparents need so much attention. And then I made some excuse for you on account of their indulgence."

"Yes, aunty, I never could study there, grandpa used to want me to play dominoes with him; and grandma was always calling me to hold yarn for her to wind. And then they didn't believe in keeping boys too strict. They said it cowed me down to study so much."

"I'm afraid you don't know what the word study means, Robert;—but I was telling you how I came to invite you here. Your father was my dear brother. He was the oldest, and I the youngest child. Five brothers and sisters between us died. We clung to each other more on that account I believe. When he died, he made me promise to interest myself for you, his only child, and I have tried to do so."

Mrs. Woodward sat silent for a few minutes, her thoughts reverting to the painful scene. Her dying brother lying in bed propped by pillows, herself seated by his side, trying to calm her fears in order to listen to his last words.

"I made a mistake, Josephine," he said faintly, "a mistake which has blighted my whole life. Father was right when he told me he did not think my feelings for Annie would last. Ah, it was true, a fancy, a boy's fancy for a pretty face and lively manners, that was all. She has nothing to inspire a lasting affection, but I have tried never to let her know this. She has been satisfied with what I could give her; but my boy. Oh, Josephine! I cannot leave my boy under such influences as he will have at his grandfather's. By our love to each other, I ask you to do what you can for him."

Then she recalled her answer given freely, heartily.

"I will, brother, I will."

She was recalled from the past by a growl from Major who was standing by Robert submitting with as much patience as he could to having his ears pulled. Quietly the lady rose, and put the dog from the room.

"You must attend now," she said firmly, though there were tears in her eyes. "I told your mother I would bring you home with me for one year; and I would do my best to cultivate a love for study. I did not encourage her to suppose that you would ever become a professional man as your father was, but that you would try to apply yourself so as to make a man of business, I had no doubt.

"Now, Robert, almost four months have passed. I have devoted to your lessons nearly twice the time I give Ellen, but I can not see that you have improved in the least. You know why I do not send you to school, because the boys of your age are so much in advance of you, that you were ready to cry for shame, and because you promised faithfully to do your best.

"Yesterday, I was so discouraged, I was on the point of sending you back to your mother. Only my promise to your father to do what I could for you, held me back. I began to be really afraid you were wanting in some faculty of mind so that you could not apply yourself. I resolved to try an experiment. That is the reason I asked you to count the soldiers. It really required quite an effort to number them correctly. I stood behind you and did it, but you had no difficulty. Why, Robert? Just because you were interested. I am relieved on one point. You can study and apply your mind if you please; and you are acting very wickedly to waste your time and energies as you have done since you have been here with me. God has given you health, a fine constitution and a good mind. He requires you to use them. You remember the unfaithful steward who hid his talent in the earth; and how God punished him.

"Soon your opportunities for study will be passed, and the time for entering upon the duties of a man will come. How will you meet these responsibilities? You can neither be a merchant, nor a farmer, without some degree of book learning. Now you can neither write nor spell correctly, to your mother. How could you make out a bill, or keep accounts? If you went into society, you would not be respected, because you cannot talk good English; and you will not apply yourself properly to the study of English grammar."

"I don't understand it. I have tried, 'deed I have," faltered Robert in a grieved tone.

"No, I don't think you really have tried. Your mind floats about like a cork on the water, and the longer you allow it to do so, the more difficult it will be to apply yourself."

"What shall I do, aunt Josephine? I like to stay here a great deal better than I do at home."

"Why do you?"

"Oh, for a good many reasons! I had to cut up the kindling every morning; and then we didn't have very good things to eat. Besides I had to wear old patched clothes."

CHAPTER IV.

ROBERT'S DECEIT.

"WHERE is Robert?" inquired his uncle a few days later, coming in from the street in an excited manner.

"Up in his room, studying his lesson. He has idled away all the morning, and I forbade him to leave his room till he could repeat every word of it."

Mrs. Woodward sighed as she said this; and her husband glancing anxiously at her, noticed that she looked pale and careworn.

"I will go up, and talk to the boy," he said angrily. "There must and shall be an end to this."

Robert's door was locked from the inside.

"Unlock this, and be quick about it," said his uncle.

There was no answer.

Again he called, "Robert, are you there? Unlock your door, I say."

Still, no movement from inside.

Putting his eye to the key-hole, Mr. Woodward saw at once that the key had been taken out. After trying half a dozen keys from other doors in the same hall, he found one which would turn the bolt, and by this time, Ellen was with him.

They entered together. But Robert was not there. The room was empty, and the window wide open. It was a back room and opened directly upon a shed.

By jumping six or eight feet, Robert could reach the shed; and from this, let himself to the ground by a tree whose branches rested on the roof.

"Call your mother," was all that Woodward said, after standing at the window a short time.

She entered with a look of surprise and asked instantly:

"Where is he?"

"He has jumped from the window to the shed, and escaped to the street by the back yard. Following and pelting an old drunken soldier, I saw a boy greatly resembling him, but I doubted the evidence of my own eyes. I hurried home hoping, but scarcely daring to expect that I was mistaken."

"Oh, mamma! Look at his slate," exclaimed Ellen, "and see, he has been eating in bed."