THE INSOLENT BOY.

131

Peel, in his in'so-lent way, began to call out to him and said, "Halloo! what barn did you escape from?"

8. The man looked round, said nothing, and passed on. "Give him some snow-balls!" cried Peel. A volley of snow-balls fell upon the stranger, and, as he turned to re-buke the boys, a lump of ice struck him over the eye and drew blood.

9. The in'so-lent are always cow'ard-ly, and the boys ran off as soon as they saw they had hurt the stranger. Peel skulked round the corner of the street, and went and coasted down hill.

10. About an hour af'ter-wards, he went home. His little sister opened the door for him, and exclaimed, "O Peel, Peel! our own dear father, whom you never saw, is in the house. He has re-turned, and means to stay with us. As he passed through the village, some wicked boys threw pieces of ice at him, and hit him over the eye. Mother is bathing the wound with vin'e-gar."

11. What was Peel's dis-may on learn'ing this! As I have al-read'y told you, his father had been away from home so long, that father and son did not know each other by sight. Peel was afraid to enter the parlor, but his sister drew him in ex-claim'ing, "Father, here is Peel!"'

12. "Do not tell me this is my son 99 ! said Mr. Haydon, starting up. "This is the boy who insult'ed me, and threw the lump of ice which wounded He is no gen'tle-man. I will not own him for

me.

a son.'

13. Peel burst into tears, and fell on his knees,

66

begging for pardon. His father raised him, and said, My son, if your re-pentance is sin-cere, I forgive you; but do not let me hear of your ever being guilt'y again of in-ci-vil'i-ty to man, woman, or child. The first time I hear of such conduct, you shall suffer for it se-vere'ly. Remember!"

14. His father looked so stern and de-ter'mined, that Peel well knew it would be dan'ger-ous to offend him. The in'so-lent boy made a very sudden change in his conduct. He was careful to insult no'bod-y, either by word, or deed, or look. The lesson he had re-ceived was one which he could not forget.

15. The young should be u'ni-form-ly po-lite, not only to old'er persons, but to those of their own age. Do as you would be done by.

(2, 6, 15, 16, 18, 27, 41, 43, 66, 310, 311, 313, 315, 319, 325, 329.)

1. AT a time of scar'ci-ty, a certain rich man invit'ed twen'ty poor hil'dren to his house, and said to them, "In this basket there is a loaf of bread for ev'er-y one of you; take it, and come a-gain 6 ev'er-y day at this hour till better times."

2. The children seized up-on the bas'ket, and wran'gled and fought for the bread. Each wished to get the best and largest loaf; and at last they went a-way with-out even thank'ing the good man.

3. But there was a little girl named Rose, poor but neatly-dressed, who stood mod'est-ly at a dis'tance, and took the small'est loaf which was left in the bas'

SIR CHARLES NAPIER.

133

ket. She then thanked the gen'tle-man, and went home in a qui'et and or'der-ly man'ner.

4. On the next day the chil'dren were just as illbehaved and poor Rose this time re-ceived a loaf which was scarce'ly half the size of the rest. But when she came home, and her moth'er be-gan to cut the bread, there fell out of it some bright new silver pie'ces.

5. Her mother was per-plexed, and said, “Take back the money this in'stant; for it has, no doubt, got in to the bread through some mis-take."

e-nev'o-lent

6. Rose car'ried it back. But the man said: "No, no! it was no mis-take. I had the mon'ey baked in'to the small'est loaf in order to reward you, you good child!

7. "Al-ways con-tin'ue thus mod'est and un-selfish. The person who will take the small'est loaf rath'er than quarrel for the largest, will find bless'ings of still more worth than mon'ey baked in the bread."

"A mod ́est, peace'ful, thank ́ful life,

Gains more than dis-con-tent and strife."

1. A GOOD while ago, a boy named Charles had a large dog, which was very fond of the water. In hot weath'er this dog used to swim a-cross the riv'er near which the boy lived.

2. One day Charles thought that it would be fine

fun to make the dog carry him across the river; so he tied a string to the dog's collar, and ran down with him to the water's edge.

3. There Charles took off his clothes, and then holding hard by the dog's neck and the bit of string, he went into the water, and the dog pulled him across.

4. After playing about on the other side for some time they re-turned in the way they had come; but when Charles looked for his clothes, he could find nothing but his shoes. The wind had blown all the rest into the water.

5. The dog saw what had happened, and, making his little master let go the string, by making be-lieve to bite him, he dashed into the river and brought out* first his coat, and then all the rest in suc-ces'sion.

6. Charles dressed, and went home in his wet clothes, and told his mother what fun he and the dog had been having. His mother told him that he did very wrong in going across the river as he had done.

7. She told him that he should thank God for māking the dog take him over and back again safe'ly; for if the dog had made him let go in the river, he would most likely have sunk, and been drowned.

8. Little Charles said, "Shall I thank God now, mother?" and he kneeled down at her knee and thanked God; then getting up again, he threw his arm around the dog's neck, saying, "I thank you, too, dear dog, for not letting go." Little Charles is now Ad'mi-ral Sir Charles Na'pi-er.

There should often be a pause (as here) where no punctuation mark is put.

1. A SOLDIER lay wounded on the field of battle. Around him were dead and dying men and horses. He held in his right hand a broken sword; broken in aiming a blow at one of the en'e-my.

2. His left arm was still thrust through the strap of his shield. His life was fast failing him. He lifted his broken sword, and ad-dressed it thus:

66

3. "O faith'less sword! why didst thou fail me in my time of need? Hadst thou not broken, I might have warded off the blow aimed at my life. Is it thus thou dost serve thy master?"

4. Then the soldier dropped his head, and other thoughts came into his mind. "Ah," said he, "I wish that all the swords in the world were broken like this!

5. "How sad a thing is war! How much sin, and