278 APPENDIX. 



pany, and prevent the annoyance (of ridiculous 

 frequency in all like cases) of not knowing where to 

 find your boy when a friend arrives on horseback. 



Of petty faults stealing fruit is likely to be one, 

 as the opportunities are many. In the heat of the 

 sun make your boy lay down his hoe, and refresh 

 himself at the fountain of gooseberries. I have 

 never seen any other effect of this than greater 

 modesty and better work. Give liberty as to this 

 fruit, the best of all, and which it is easy to have 

 as plentiful as an ocean. Tell your little man that 

 you will give him other fruits when ripe, but that 

 he must not take with his own hand, as all theft 

 is bad to the value of a pin ; and your word of 

 kindness, together with the word of God's law, will 

 do far more than spring-guns or man-traps. 



A further rule of moral discipline, and one most 

 essential, is to provide for working hours a con- 

 stancy of work, and so arranged that the boy may 

 know at all times what he has to do. This alters 

 the natural current of his ideas, and cuts off at 

 once a perpetual fountain of falsehoods. The great 

 object of the youngster is to get done and away ; 

 but he sees by this plan, that it is of no use to do 

 a thing ill in order to have it soon over; and he is 

 afraid to run off to idlers, for the ready excuse of 

 not knowing what to do will in no case serve. The 

 most unmanageable part of his duty is that of go- 

 ing messages. Two or three that might occupy as 

 many half hours are sufficient to consume the day; 

 new attractions are formed, whilst old ones, as with 



