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.