'I give this for a law,' he said, 'that he who will not work shall not
eat.'"
Mrs. Collins said that night that the girls must not play Jamestown
settlers any more. They might get ill or hurt or snake-bit; and who
ever heard of such a game for little girls? they ought to stay in the
house and keep their faces white and their frocks clean and play dolls.
Anne and Lizzie, however, teased next day until she relented and even
waddled down the hill to see their settlement.
"I told them chillen they shouldn't put thar foots in that ma'sh on the
branch, gettin' wet and draggled and catchin' colds and chills," she
explained to her husband. "But they begged so hard I told 'em to go on
and have a good time. Maybe it won't hurt 'em. They're good-mindin'
gals. And I never did believe in encouragin' chillen to disobey you by
tellin' 'em they shouldn't do things you see thar heads set on doin'.
Don't be so hard on the boys, Peter, for stoppin' awhile to play. If the
Lord hadn't 'a' meant for chillen to have play-time, He'd 'a' made 'em
workin' age to begin with."
The Jamestown colony, like the great undertaking after which it was
patterned, had many ups and downs,--flourishing when Jake and Peter
could steal off to be Indians and new settlers, and then being neglected
and almost deserted.
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