to disclose a crime to his mother,
which he thought she never would find out. The first day in each week he
had sixpence given him for pocket-money, and he laid a plan to save that
money, and to bestow it for a month to come on the girl. This, he
thought, was doing even more than justice: for as her three plumbs were
only worth one penny, he should by this means give her two shillings
for them, and save his own credit with his mamma. He wished with all his
heart he had never touched the plumbs; but as he had done it, it seemed
to him less painful to leave the poor girl to suffer the blame, than to
accuse himself.

With this plan of further deceit in his mind, George went to dinner; but
before the cloth was taken from the table he had reason enough to repent
of his double error. Mrs. Loft, in paying for the plumbs, had given a
number of half-pence, among which, unseen by her, a shilling had
slipped. When the poor girl reached the cottage she found the shilling,
and lost not a moment in coming back to restore it to its right owner.
Mrs. Loft well knew that she who could be thus just in one instance must
have an honest mind. Her doubts of the poor girl were at an end, but no
sooner did she cast her eyes on George, than she read, in the deep blush
that spread over his face, in his downcast look, and the trembling of
his limbs, who was the guilty person.

Guilt not only fixes the stings of remorse within the bosom, but
imprints its hateful mark upon the outward form.

[1] The spelling is Mrs. Fenwick's.

The Choice of Friends

The moon was shining on a clear cold night, and it was near ten o'clock,
and all the children of the village of Newton, except one, were in bed
and asleep. That one, whose name was Frank Lawless, was above three
miles from home, weeping with pain and fear, alone, forlorn, cold, and
wretched, with no shelter but a leafless hedge and no seat but a hard
stone; while his father and mother were running wildly about the fields
and lanes, not knowing what had become of their naughty boy.

Frank Lawless had been playing truant that day, and was met by his
father with a number of bad boys, to whom he ought not at any time to
have spoken. They were the children of brickmakers, and most likely they
had never been taught what was right; so that if they said wicked words,
told lies, and took things which did not belong to them, one could
scarcely wonder at it; but that Frank Lawless, who had the mean