venge, but I don't see any great harm in it.
Schoolboys always play such tricks, and no boy thinks the worse of
another for such a thing."

"You think," said Mrs. Chilton, "that this schoolmate of yours will
be so embarrassed at answering the questions that he will not know
what he is about; you mean, one of you, to pretend to be his friend
and help him, while the other makes him appear like a fool to the
rest of the boys."

Frank and Harry looked a little troubled, and were silent a while.
Then Frank said, "It is no more than what John would do; 'tis what
he deserves, and it is true enough that he is a dunce."

"I will tell you, Frank, a better way of being revenged," replied
his mother.

"What is it, Mother?"

"Sit by him, as you intended, and when he is troubled and perplexed,
help him as well as you can, and be particularly kind to him."

"And so reward him for making fools of us," said Prank, pettishly.
"No, Mother, what you say may be very good, but I don't want to do
such a thing as that."

"If you were to treat him in the way I propose, do you think he
would ever treat you unkindly again? Would he not feel deeply
ashamed of his conduct if you thus returned him good for evil?"

The boys were silent, but it was evident that they did not quite
relish their mother's advice, nor feel at all disposed to help John
Green say his lessons.

"I will tell you a story," said Mrs. Chilton, of a man who overcame
evil with good. A gentleman was once travelling alone in a gig
through a very unfrequented road. There was no house, no sign of
human existence there. It was so still that the hills and rocks and
deep woods gave back the echo of his horse's hoofs; the song of a
bird or the chirping of a cricket seemed to fill a great space, and
fell on the ear with a strange and almost startling effect. He was
observing or rather feeling this extreme solitude and stillness,
when suddenly at a turn in the road he came upon a man who placed
himself directly before the horse's head. The man had a dark, bad
expression in his face, and fixed his eye upon the traveller in such
a way as to convince him that the man meant to stop and rob him.

The gentleman immediately drew up his reins, and said kindly,
"Friend, if you are going my way, step into my gig, and let me take
you on."

The man hesitated, and then got in. My friend, who was a clergyman,
began immediately to talk earnestly about many interesting things,
and kept up a