, are always in
trouble; and for this reason they hate school. It is their own
fault, however, that they dislike it, for if they did right, they
would be happy not only there, but everywhere else.

Tommy dragged along the street like a snail, or like a sheep led to
the slaughter. When he got about half way to the school house, he
met Joe Birch and Ben Tinker.

My readers already know Joe Birch, and know that he was a bad boy;
and I suppose, after being told that Ben Tinker was his constant
companion, they can easily guess what kind of a boy he was. They
were very much alike, and were the leaders in all the mischief done
in Riverdale.

"Where are you going, Tommy?" asked Ben.

"I am going to school," he replied, stopping to talk with the two
boys, who were seated on a rock at the side of the road.

"Have you got any money, Tom?" said Joe.

"No, I haven't."

"'Cause, if you've got three cents about you, I will tell you
something."

"What?" inquired Tommy, without thinking of the price which the bad
boy asked for his important information.

"That's telling," replied Joe, winking at his companion.

"Won't you tell me?"

"Give me three cents, and I will."

"I haven't got three cents; but I will give them to you some time."

"I won't trust you. Give me the money now, and I will tell you all
about it," added Joe.

"How can I give it to you when I haven't got it?"

The two bad boys saw that he was willing enough to pay them for
what they had to tell him, and they had only to devise a plan by
which he could raise the funds.

"Are you going to school, Tom?" asked Joe Birch.

"Yes."

"What for?"

"Because my father makes me go. I tried to get off this morning. I
made believe sick; but father was going to make me take some of his
nasty physic, and I thought I'd rather go to school than do that."

"I can tell you how you can stay away from school without taking
any physic."

"How?"

"Give me the three cents, and I will tell you."

"I haven't them; if I had I would."

"Well, I will tell you how to get them, if you like."

"How?"

"Go home to your mother, and tell her the schoolma'am sent you home
for three cents to buy a new book."

"I'll do that," replied Tommy, not stopping to think how wicked was
the act which the bad boy proposed to him.

"Mind you, Tom, go to your mother--don't go to your father."

Tommy promised to do just as he was told by these bad boys, and ran
home with all his migh