something ought to be done.

"What shall I do?" asked he. "Can any one propose a plan which will
remedy the difficulty?"

There was no answer.

"The easiest and pleasantest way to secure punctuality is for the
scholars to come early of their own accord, upon principle. It is
evident, from the reports, that many of you do so, but some do not. Now
there is no other plan which will not be attended with very serious
difficulty, but I am willing to adopt the one which will be most
agreeable to yourselves, if it will be likely to accomplish the object.
Has any one any plan to propose?"

There was a pause.

"It would evidently," continued the teacher, "be the easiest for me to
leave this subject, and do nothing about it. It is of no personal
consequence to me whether you come early or not, but as long as I hold
this office I must be faithful, and I have no doubt the school
committee, if they knew how many of you were tardy, would think I ought
to do something to diminish the evil.

"The best plan that I can think of is that all who are tardy should lose
their recess."

The boys looked rather anxiously at one another, but continued silent.

"There is a great objection to this plan from the fact that a boy is
sometimes necessarily absent, and by this rule he will lose his recess
with the rest, so that the innocent will be punished with the guilty."

"I should think, sir," said William, "that those who are _necessarily_
tardy might be excused."

"Yes, I should be very glad to excuse them, if I could find out who they
are."

The boys seemed to be surprised at this remark, as if they thought it
would not be a difficult matter to decide.

"How can I tell?" asked the master.

"You can hear their excuses, and then decide."

"Yes," said the teacher: "but here are fifteen or twenty boys tardy this
morning; now how long would it take me to hear their excuses, and
understand each case thoroughly, so that I could really tell whether
they were tardy from good reasons or not?"

No answer.

"Should you not think it would take a minute apiece?"

"Yes, sir."

"It would, undoubtedly, and even then I could not in many cases tell. It
would take fifteen minutes, at least. I can not do this in school hours,
for I have not time, and if I do it in recess it will consume the whole
of every recess. Now I need the _rest_ of a recess as well as you, and
it does not seem to me to be just that I should lose the whole of mine
every