﻿98 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 







Honesty is the Best Policy. 



A TRUE STORY. 



A FEW years ago, I was acquainted with three boys, who lived in 

 one of the back towns in Vermont, the oldest of whom was about 

 sixteen, and the youngest about twelve years of age. in the town 

 where they lived it was sometimes customary, when the grain fields 

 were infested with squirrels, for the young men and boys to have a 

 " squirrel hunt," in order to kill off these little mischievous animals 

 These three boys, who lived near each other, were quite impatient 

 for the day to come, when they might go in quest of game. At 

 length the time arrived. They agreed to go together ; the oldest 

 was to use the gun, and the others were to assist in finding and car- 

 rying the game. They had not proceeded far on their way, when 

 they came near to a barn, which stood in the open field, at a consid- 

 erable distance from any dwelling-house. " Stop, stop," says 

 Edward, and in a moment he raised his gun, and down dropped a 

 squirrel, that was pertly sitting on the barn door, seeming by his 

 impudent chattering to bid defiance to his new visitors. This they 

 thought was a very good beginning. After they had walked nearly 

 half a mile, and had come to a hill, from which they could look 

 back over the ground they had travelled, William, looking round, 

 exclaimed, " See, Edward, the barn where you killed the squirrel is 

 all in a blaze !" " William," cried Edward, " what shall we do ? 

 the wad from my gun must have caught in the straw and set the 

 barn on fire." They ran back with as much haste as possible to see 

 if they could obtain help to extinguish the flame. But it was too 

 late. There were no houses near, and the barn was completely 

 enveloped in the fire. After looking a little time on the mischief 

 they had carelessly, but unintentionally, done, they turned back 



/ * 



sorrowful. 



" What shall we do now?" said Edward; " we have burnt Mr. 

 Clarke's barn, and have got nothing to pay for it with what will he 

 do with us?" " O," said William, "he will never know who did 

 it, if we are not foolish enough to tell of it, for no one saw us, and 

 there are a great many other boys hunting about the fields to-day." 

 Edward walked along thoughtfully, and for a time made no reply 



