so; would not you, Lucy?"

"I ought to, I know," said Lucy, "but perhaps I should not."

"I should, I am sure," said Rollo.

Lucy was a polite girl, and she did not contradict Rollo, though she
recollected how much selfishness he had shown that morning, and it did
not seem to her very likely that he would have been willing to make any
very great sacrifice to oblige others.

"My father says we cannot tell what we should do until we are tried,"
said Lucy.

"Well, I _know_ I should have been willing to stay at home, if I had
been Maria," replied Rollo.

"But, only think, that would be preferring another person's pleasure
rather than your own."

"Well, I _should_ prefer another person's pleasure rather than my own."

Rollo was beginning to get a little excited and vexed. People who boast
of excellences which they do not possess, are very apt to be
unreasonable and angry when any body seems to doubt whether their
boastings are true. He was thus going on, insisting upon it that he
should have acted as Maria had done, and was just saying that he should
prefer another person's pleasure rather than his own, when Jonas came
into the entry from the kitchen, with an armful of wood, which he was
carrying into the parlor.