hould.' 'Well, but Tom,' interrupted the gentleman, 'if in a
million of years you should not forget us, I dare say, in less than two
months you will forget our advice, and before you have been at school
half that time, you will get to squabbling with and tricking the other
boys, just as they do with one another; and instead of playing at all
times with the strictest openness and honour, you will, I sadly fear,
learn to cheat, and deceive, and pay no attention to what your mother
and I have been telling you.' 'No', that I am sure I sha'n't!' replied
the boy. 'What! do you think I shall be so wicked as to turn a thief,
and cheat people?' 'I dare say, my dear,' resumed the father, 'you will
not do what we call thieving; but as I know there are many naughty boys
in all schools, I am afraid they will teach you to commit dishonourable
actions, and to tell you there is no harm in them, and that they are
signs of cleverness and spirit, and qualifications very necessary for
every boy to possess.' 'Aye, that's sure enough,' said the boy, who
appeared about ten years old, 'for they almost all declare, that if
a boy is not sharp and cunning, he might almost as well be out of the
world as in it. But, as you say, papa, I hate such behaviour, I am sure
there is one of our boys, who is so wonderfully clever and acute, as
they call him, that I detest ever having any thing to do with him; for
unless one watches him as a cat would watch a mouse, he is sure to cheat
or play one some trick or other.' 'What sort of tricks do you mean?'
inquired the little boy. 'Why, I will tell you,' replied the other. 'You
know nothing of the games we have at school, so if I was to tell you how
he plays at them, you would not understand what I meant. But you know
what walking about blindfold is, don't you? Well! one day, about a dozen
boys agreed to have a blind race, and the boy who got nearest the goal,
which was a stick driven in the ground with a shilling upon the top of
it, was to win the shilling, provided he did it fairly without seeing.'
'I suppose,' interrupted Tom, 'you mean the boy who got to the stick
first.' 'No, I do not,' replied his brother, 'I mean what I say, the boy
who got nearest it, no matter whether he came first or last; the fun
was to see them try to keep in a straight path, with their eyes tied
up, whilst they wander quite in the wrong, and not to try who could run
fastest. Well! when they, were all blinded, and twisted round three or