day, and spend it in a most unpleasant business, when I take pains
myself to come punctually every morning. Would it be just?"

"No, sir."

"I think it would be less unjust to deprive all those of their recess
who are tardy; for then the loss of a recess by a boy who had not been
to blame would not be very common, and the evil would be divided among
the whole; but in the plan of my hearing the excuses it would all come
upon one."

After a short pause one of the boys said that they might be required to
bring written excuses.

"Yes, that is another plan," said the teacher; "but there are objections
to it. Can any of you think what they are? I suppose you have all been,
either at this school or at some other, required to bring written
excuses, so that you have seen the plan tried. Now have you never
noticed any objection to it?"

One boy said that it gave the parents a great deal of trouble at home.

"Yes," said the teacher, "this is a great objection; it is often very
inconvenient to write. But that is not the greatest difficulty; can any
of you think of any other?"

There was a pause.

"Do you think that these written excuses are, after all, a fair test of
the real reasons for tardiness? I understand that sometimes boys will
tease their fathers or mothers for an excuse when they do not deserve
it, 'Yes, sir,' and sometimes they will loiter about when sent of an
errand before school, knowing that they can get a written excuse, when
they might easily have been punctual."

"Yes, sir," "Yes, sir," said the boys.

"Well, now, if we adopt this plan, some unprincipled boy would always
contrive to have an excuse, whether necessarily tardy or not; and,
besides, each parent would have a different principle and a different
opinion as to what was a reasonable excuse, so that there would be no
uniformity, and, consequently, no justice in the operation of the
system."

The boys admitted the truth of this, and, as no other plan was
presented, the rule was adopted of requiring all those who were tardy to
remain in their seats during the recess, whether they were necessarily
tardy or not. The plan very soon diminished the number of loiterers.

4. HELEN'S LESSON.--The possibility of being inflexibly firm in
measures, and, at the same time, gentle and mild in manners and
language, is happily illustrated in the following description, which is
based on an incident narrated by Mrs. Sherwood:

"Mrs. M. had observed, even durin