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Transcriber's note:

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CALEB IN THE COUNTRY.

A Story for Children.

by

JACOB ABBOTT,

Author of "The Child at Home."







[Illustration: Caleb in the country.]



Halifax:
Milner and Sowerby.
1852.




PREFATORY NOTICE.


The object of this little work, and of others of its family, which may
perhaps follow, is, like that of the "Rollo Books," to furnish useful
and instructive reading to young children. The aim is not so directly to
communicate knowledge, as it is to develop the moral and intellectual
powers,--to cultivate habits of discrimination and correct reasoning,
and to establish sound principles of moral conduct. The "Rollo Books"
embrace principally intellectual and moral discipline; "Caleb," and the
others of its family, will include also _religious_ training, according
to the evangelical views of Christian truth which the author has been
accustomed to entertain, and which he has inculcated in his more serious
writings.

J. A.




CALEB IN THE COUNTRY




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I     Caleb's Discovery                5

CHAPTER II    Trouble                         30

CHAPTER III   Building the Mole               43

CHAPTER IV    A Discussion                    54

CHAPTER V     The Story of Blind Samuel       61

CHAPTER VI    Engineering                     68

CHAPTER VII   The Sofa                        74

CHAPTER VIII  The Cart Ride                   90

CHAPTER IX    The Fire                       101

CHAPTER X     The Captive                    123

CHAPTER XI    Mary Anna                      129

CHAPTER XII   The Walk                       148

CHAPTER XIII  The Junk                       166

POETRY                                       189




CHAPTER I.

CALEB'S DISCOVERY.


Caleb was a bright-looking, blue-eyed boy, with auburn hair and happy
countenance. And yet he was rather pale and slender. He had been sick.
His father and mother lived in Boston, but now he was spending the
summer at Sandy River country, with his grandmother. His father thought
that if he could run about a few months in the open air, and play among
the rocks and under the trees, he would grow more strong and healthy,
and that his cheeks would not look so pale.

His grandmother made him a blue jacket with bright buttons. _She_ liked
metal buttons, because they would wear longer than covered ones, but
_he_ liked them because they were more beautiful. "Besides," said he, "I
can see my face in them, grandmother."

Little Caleb then went to the window, so as to see his face plainer. He
stood with his back to the window, and held the button so that the light
from the window could shine directly upon it.

"Why grandmother," said Caleb, "I cannot see now so well as I could
before."

"That is because your face is turned away from the light," said she.

"And the button is turned _towards_ the light," said Caleb.

"But when you want to see any thing reflected in a glass, you must have
the light shine upon the thing you want to see reflected, not upon the
glass itself; and I suppose it is so with a bright button."

Then Caleb turned around, so as to have his _face_ towards the light;
and he found that he could then see it reflected very distinctly. His
grandmother went on with her work, and Caleb sat for some time in
silence.

The house that Caleb lived in was in a narrow rocky valley. A stream of
water ran over a sandy bed, in front of the house, and a rugged mountain
towered behind it. Across the stream, too, there was a high, rocky hill,
which was in full view from the parlour window. This hill was covered
with wild evergreens, which clung to their sides, and to the interstices
of the rocks; and mosses, green and brown, in long festoons, hung from
their limbs. Here and there crags and precipices peeped out from among
the foliage, and a grey old cliff towered above, at the summit.

Caleb turned his button round again towards the window, and of course
turned his face _from_ the window. The reflection of