At the same time he was saying this, he made another mark upon his paper.
"Why, you ought not to count that, cousin Forester," said Marco, "for I don't know whether you'd wish me to go and get that pencil, or take another out of my desk." "Act according to your own judgment," replied Forester.
Marco looked perplexed and troubled.

In fact, he was a little displeased to find that Forester would not answer him.

He thought that, it was an unforeseen emergency, which Forester ought to have considered an exception to his rule.

But he was obliged to decide the question for himself, and he concluded to go out for his pencil.

It took him some time to find it in the grass, and after he had found it, he stopped for some time longer, to watch some ants which were passing in and out, at the entrance to their nest, each one bringing up a grain of sand in his forceps.