AN EXPERIMENT IN MORAL TRAINING. 53 



" Mr. Norton, the boys did it. When I cut up they talked to me, 

 and they kept on talking till I just had to quit my old ways." 

 Then I said to Ned, " Who is going to talk to Tom ? " He replied 

 quick as a flash, " Mr. Norton, I never could, for you see Tom 

 and I used to be in the same boat, and if I should talk to Tom 

 he would laugh at me good." I did not ask him to speak to his 

 friend, but I did ask him who would do it and help get him on 

 the up-grade. To make the story short, the outcome was that Ned 

 volunteered to talk to Tom. Tom turned round, and in a year that 

 Tom who had not, according to his own father's statement, a sin- 

 gle literary aspiration, elected to enter the academy and go on 

 with his education. Ned did a good work' for Tom. Tom was 

 the hardest boy I ever knew who turned right about and set his 

 face toward the top of the hill. I have known worse boys whose 

 faces were always toward the foot of the hill. 



(During the preceding narrative the class was an engaging 

 sight. Their faces, grave at first, broadened. The little chap 

 who had got good in " that room " expanded till he covered all 

 that part of his desk separating him from Mr. Norton ; he put 

 his head on his outspread arms and opened every avenue to the 

 reception of information regarding the boys who made it very 

 interesting for their teachers. Suppressed chuckles showed his 

 admiration for Mr. Norton's word-pictures of boys. Even Mary 

 smiled protestingly. In Ned's relation to Tom, John saw his to 

 Ward and Frank ; the sense of his obligation to them grew stronger, 

 and finally he screwed his courage up to volunteering to promise 

 to do his duty and talk to them when they disturbed the class.) 



Teacher. I know it is not always easy to speak to a friend who 

 is doing wrong. One has to deny one's self for others. I visited 

 a home a while ago in which were father, mother, three sons, and 

 two daughters. There was a small salary and a little farm. The 

 boys were to be sent to college two were there. All the nicest 

 fruit on the farm, the best vegetables, the cream were sold, and 

 the family lived on the plainest food, that the boys might be edu- 

 cated. The father wore old clothes except when he preached. 

 The mother had no nice dresses, she worked hard, her hands 

 were not pretty, and her face was full of wrinkles. The father 

 and mother were always denying themselves every luxury and 

 many comforts for their children. Do you suppose they gained 

 anything because they denied themselves ? 



Pupils. They grew good. They grew generous. They would 

 have their reward. 



Teacher. Yes, patience, fortitude, love, goodness showed in the 

 faces of that father and mother. A reward comes to any one who 

 denies himself through love of another ; he is not just the same 

 after the denial ; he is better and stronger. 



