A Thoughtless Boy Punished.


"I SHALL never forget," writes a correspondent

of the Agriculturist," an incident in

my childhood by which I was taught to be

careful not to wound the feelings of the 

unfortunate.

A number of us school-boys were

playing by the roadside one afternoon,

when the stage-coach drove up to a

neighboring tavern, and the passengers

alighted. As usual, we gathered around it to

observe them. Among the number was an

elderly man with a cane, who got out with

much difficulty, and when on the ground, he

walked with the most curious contortions.

His feet turned one way, his knees another,

and his whole body looked as though the 

different members were independent of it and of

each other, and every one was making motions

to suit itself. I unthinkingly shouted,

'Look at old rattlebones!' and the other

boys took up the cry with mocking laughter,

while the old man turned his head with an 

expression of pain which I can never forget.

Just then, to my surprise and horror, my father

came around the corner, and immediately

stepped up to the stranger, shook his

hand warmly, and assisted him to walk to our

house, which was at but a little distance. I

could enjoy no more play that afternoon, and

when tea-time came, I would gladly have hid

myself, but I knew that would be vain, and so

tremblingly went into the sitting-room. To

my great relief, the stranger did not recognize

me, but remarked pleasantly to my father as

he introduced me, 'Such a fine boy was surely

worth saving.' How the words cut me to the

heart. My father had often told me the story

of a friend who had plunged into the river to

save me as I was drowning, while an infant,

and who, in consequence, took cold, and was

made a cripple by inflammatory rheumatism;

and this was the man whom I had made a

butt of ridicule, and a laughing-stock for my

companions.

"I tell you, boys and girls, I would give many

dollars to have the memory of that event taken

away. If ever you are tempted as I was, remember that while no good can come of sport

whereby the feelings of others are wounded,

you may be laying up for yourselves painful

recollections that will not leave you for a 

lifetime.''

 

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IT is only by the habit of representing faithfully

all things that we can truly learn what is beautiful 

and what is not.