Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 42 CHAPTER III. STORIES. A Few afternoons after this, when Royal came down stairs from the room where he was accustomed to study, he saw Lucy walking away from the house, with a little parcel in her hand. Lucy turned round, but she continued moving, — walking now, however, backwards; and she said with a tone of voice expressive of great pleas ure,— " I am going of an errand, Royal, all by myself. I am going of an errand, and a good long errand too." Lucy was so young, that she had been very seldom, if ever, before employed to go of errands; and she was very much pleased that her mother had intrusted her with one now. " I'll go with you, Lucy," said Royal. " No," said Lucy, " I don't want you to go with me. I must go all alone by myself." Lucy thought that having a companion like Royalwould detract somewhat from the credit that she would deserve by going alone. " But, Lucy," said Royal, " I won't trouble you at all; and, besides, I'll show you the way." But Lucy did not want to have the way shown to her. One great part of the pleasure which she took in the expedition was in the idea of finding the way herself. Lucy kept walking along backwards all this time, and was just upon the point of turning round again, when her foot struck the upper part of a long and large root, which ran from one of the trees which grew near the sidewalk, and the course of which was so near to the surface of the ground, that the upper part of it rose a little above the path. Royal had just time to say, " There you go," when Lucy fell over upon the grass. Although it was in the walk, still it was a grassy place, for the walk was not much travelled; so that Lucy was hurt only a very little. She began to cry; but, perceiving that it was not necessary in such a case, she sto...