of my mind now.

66

But they looked so nice! How

was it that you could help taking some too?" Why, I thought of something that hindered me. Do you remember that when our class had the commandments to answer, the teacher talked to us about the eighth, and said that we should never take the least thing that did not belong to us?"

"Yes," said Thomas; "but those things never enter my mind at the right time: you can always think of them. Will you speak to me the next time that I am about to do wrong?"

William promised that he would; and Thomas soon after became a wiser and a better boy.

com-mand'mẹnt temp-ta'tion eighth 3

what-ĕv'er1 rěc-ol-lěct'

ǎc'tive ör'chard

ĕaşe

hědģe

guil'ty 4

"WHERE are you going?" said Joseph Warren to his friend Richard West, one fine summer morning. "Do you not know that it is school time? and here you have your fishing rod instead of your satchel of books. Come, make haste, and get your books, or you will be late."

1 Pron. hwŏt-ěv'er.

2 tŏm'as.

3 atth.

4 gil'tę.

"O, I am not going to school this beautiful day," said Richard; "I am going a-fishing; I wish you would go too."

"I wish I could," said Joseph, as he looked longingly at Richard's preparation for his day's sport; "but my father would be displeased if I should stay away from school; for he says if I am an idle boy, I shall be likely to be an idle man."

"Nonsense," said Richard; "my mother says she does not believe in boys studying too much; and she does not care whether I go to school every day or not." Richard's father was dead.

"I should like to go, but I cannot," said Joseph. "The bell is ringing for school now;" and off he ran to be in time for the opening of school.

Every thing went wrong with Joseph all day; his lessons had never seemed so difficult; the teacher was cross, and the school room uncomfortable; many times he thought of Richard in some shady nook, quietly angling for the tiny fish, and wished himself with him. He was unhappy, because he was discontented.

He met Richard the next morning with his fishing rod again; but this time Charles Foster, another of their schoolmates, was with him.

"Now, Joseph, you must go with us," said Richard; "it is more pleasant by the brook than in that old school room, and your father will never know that you are not at school. You can go home when it is time for school to be out, just as if you had been there all day."

"Yes," said Charles; "that is the way I am

going to do. I did not ask my father, for I knew he would not let me go."

"But I have no line," said Joseph, beginning to hesitate.

"I will lend you one," said Richard; "and we can get a rod in the woods; so come along. I will help you carry your books;" and, seizing one side of Joseph's satchel, he led him away from his duty.

The boys climbed over a fence, and went away from the road for fear they should be seen. They crossed several lots, and then went through a beautiful wood, until they came to a clear, sparkling brook, down in the depths of which the fish were hiding.

They cut two rods from a bush growing by the side of the brook, one for Charles and one for Joseph. Richard tied a line to each, and put baits on their hooks, telling them they must be still for fear of frightening the fish. There was a bridge over the brook, and a road, though wagons seldom passed over it. Richard took his place on the bridge, with Joseph by his side, while Charles stood below it on the edge of the stream.

They threw their hooks into the water, and, after a few minutes, Richard's line went down, and he drew out a fine fish; soon he caught another, and another, until he had six, before Joseph and Charles had caught one. They soon began to think it was as bad to stand there without speaking, and catch no fish, as it was to be in school all day.

where 1 prep-a-ra'tion dif'fi-cult depths

be-gin'ning seiz'ing

sěl dom

sǎtch'el

baits

fright'en-ing2 think

schôôl

LXII. THE TRUANTS, CONCLUDED.

JOSEPH had often been a-fishing on his holidays, and enjoyed it, though he was not very successful. But now he was doing wrong, and he could not be happy.

"I am hungry now," said Richard, after he had caught a long string of fish. "I have my luncheon in this little tin pail."

"My mother gave me mine,” said Joseph, as he took his seat on a large stone by the side of Charles, who was also taking his luncheon from his satchel. The thought how wicked he was to deceive his mother, came into Joseph's mind, as he unpinned the neat, white napkin, and saw the nice bread and butter she had spread for him, and the little cakes she had made with her own hands. But he drove the thought away, and tried to talk and laugh as gayly as the others; yet all the time there was a weight at his heart, and he could not be happy.

Charles did not feel this, for his parents had never taught him, as Joseph's had, the great sin of disobeying them; he only feared punishment if he should be found out. And poor Richard was always allowed to do as he liked. Ah, how he will wish, when he becomes a man, idle and worthless, that he had been restrained in his youth!

They went towards home secretly, for fear of being seen; and when Joseph came near his father's house, he went whistling into the gate, with his satchel, as if he had just come from school; and no one suspected that he had not.

When his father came home, Joseph did not run to meet him as usual; and at tea he was so quiet that his little sister said, "Joseph, are you sick?"

“If he is, I think I have something that will make him well," said his father, as they all rose from the table, and he handed Joseph a new book, which he had long wished for. On the blank leaf was written, "A reward to my son for his diligence at school."