12. "Who are you?" was all the reply he could get; and James thought he was a mean fellow, whoever he was, and he said so, too. 13. "You are a mean fellow," said James. 14. " mean fellow," said the unknown boy; and James began to get a little angry. 15. "Come out here, and I'll show you. 16. But he would not come, but sent back to James the words, " I'll show you."

17. This was too much for James to stand. 18. "Come out here, and I'll beat you," said James in anger.

I'll beat you," was said back, but

nobody would come out.

66

20. "I dare you," said James.

21. "

dare you," said he.

22. "You are a coward," said James.

23. " coward," said he.

24. James could not stand it any longer, and he went into the house, crying and very angry, and told his mother what a mean boy there was in the barn, but that he could not find him.

25. "What has the boy been doing?" asked his mother.

26. "He has been calling me hard names, and he talked very mean to me."

27. "Did my son call him hard names, too?'

28. "Well, mother, I could not help it, he was so provoking."

29. "Let us go out and see what we can do," said his mother; and she took James by the hand and led him back. "I will speak to him," said she.

30. And she called in a loud voice, "My son!"

31. Sure enough, the same words came back, but they were so pleasant.

32. "James!" called his mother again, in just as loud a voice, and the answer was, "James."

33. "Now, James, you may speak;" and James said, "Halloo!" and "Halloo" was,

the answer.

is

34. "Do you not see that just what we say said back, and it is said in the same tone, too? 35. "If you speak in a loud, angry tone, a loud, angry tone comes back.

36. "There is no one in the barn, my son. What you hear is only the echo of what you

say.

37. "The barn reflects your words, just as the glass reflects your features.

38. "If you had given kind words, kind words would have been returned.

39. "There is a lesson, my son, that this It is this: AS WE TREAT OTHERS,

may

teach

you.

SO THEY WILL TREAT US.

40. "If we treat others well, they will treat us well; but if we are rough and unkind to others, we must expect that others will be rough and unkind to us."

1. It was a little past twelve o'clock, and a merry group of boys were seated on the grass, eating their dinners, under a clump of shadetrees that were in the school-yard.

2. "I should like to know," said Howard Colby, "why Joe Green never comes out here to eat his dinner.

3. "I guess he brings so many goodies he is afraid we shall rob him," said John Allen.

4.

Pooh!" said Will Brown, "more likely

he does not bring any thing at all.”

5. “I heard father say, the family were badly pinched, since Mr. Green was killed," said James Bates.

6. "Mother says, 'Folks have no business to be poor,' and I don't care if he does not have any dinner," added Will Brown.

7. "Well," said Sam Morell, "I know Mary Green asked my mother for some plain sewing the other day; but folks do that who are not so very poor."

8. "And Joe is wearing his winter clothes all this warm weather," said Howard Colby, as he looked at his own new suit of light gray, in a kind of satisfied way.

9. "I tell you what, boys," said Will Brown, "let us look to-morrow, and see what the fellow does bring. You know he is always in his seat when the first bell rings."

10. The boys agreed to this-all but Ned Collins, who had not spoken before, and now he simply said, "I can't see what fun there will be in that."

11. “You are always such a granny, Ned,” said Will; "you have every one of your old Aunt Sally's notions."

12. Ned could not bear to be laughed at, and it made him a little angry to hear his kind aunt spoken of in that way.

13. His eyes flashed-only for a minuteand then he sprung up and shouted, "Hurrah, boys! for foot-ball;" and in five minutes the whole school-yard was in an uproar of fun and frolic.

14. The next morning, at the first stroke of the bell, a half-dozen roguish faces peeped into the school-room, and, sure enough, there was Joe Green busily plying his pencil over the problems of the algebra lesson.

15. It was but the work of an instant to hurry into the little clothes-room, and the whole group were soon pressing around Will Brown, as he held the mysterious basket in his hand.

16. Among them, in spite of the remonstrance of yesterday, was Ned Collins, with his fine face fairly crimsoned with shame-or with something else; we shall see.

17. "It is big enough to hold a day's rations for a regiment," said Howard Colby, as Will pulled out a nice white napkin.

18. Next came a whole newspaper, a large one, too; and then, in the bottom of the basket, was one poor little cold potato! That was all.