re two senses in which a
hat may be said to belong to any person. It may belong to him because he
bought it and paid for it, or it may belong to him because it fits him,
and he wears it. In other words a person may have a hat, as his
property, or he may have it only as a part of his dress. Now you see,
that according to the first of these senses, all the hats in this
school, belong to your fathers. There is not in fact a single boy in
this school who has a hat of his own."

The boys laughed.

"Is not this the fact?"

"Yes sir."

"It certainly is so, though I suppose James did not consider it. Your
fathers bought your hats. They worked for them, and paid for them. You
are only the wearers, and consequently every generous boy, and in fact
every honest boy, will be careful of the property which is intrusted to
him, but which strictly speaking is not his own."

2. MISTAKES. A wide difference must always be made between mistakes
arising from carelessness, and those resulting from circumstances beyond
control; such as want of sufficient data, &c. The former are always
censurable; the latter never; for they may be the result of correct
reasoning from insufficient data, and it is the reasoning only for which
the child is responsible.

"What do you suppose a prophet is?" said an instructer to a class of
little boys. The word occurred in their reading lesson.

The scholars all hesitated; at last one ventured to reply:

"If a man should sell a yoke of oxen, and get more for them than they
are worth, he would be a prophet."

"Yes," said the instructer, "that is right, that is one kind of
_profit_, but this is another and a little different," and he proceeded
to explain the word, and the difference of the spelling.

This child had, without doubt, heard of some transaction of the kind
which he described, and had observed that the word _profit_ was applied
to it. Now the care which he had exercised in attending to it at the
time, and remembering it when the same word, (for the difference in the
spelling he of course knew nothing about,) occurred again, was really
commendable. The fact, which is a mere accident, that we affix very
different significations to the same sound, was unknown. The fault, if
anywhere, was in the language and not in him; for he reasoned correctly
from the data he possessed, and he deserved credit for it.

3. TARDINESS. "My duty to this school," said a teacher to his pupils,
"demands, as I supp