_I_ offended you; let's be friends."

And the first day of next term these two met and shook hands, and
laughed, and owned what fools they had both been.

A great many of the faults of this life come from the lack of a sense of
humour. Certainly, if sulky boys had more of it, they would be inclined
to follow the example of these two.

But, although there is a great deal about the sulky boy that merits pity
rather than blame, there is much that deserves merciless censure. Why
should one boy, by a whim of selfish resentment, mar the pleasure, not
only of those with whom he has his quarrel, but with every one else he
comes in contact with? "One dead fly," the proverb says, "makes the
apothecary's ointment unsavoury"; and one sulky boy, in like manner, may
destroy the harmony of a whole school. Isn't it enough, if you must be
disagreeable, to confine your disagreeableness to those for whom it is
meant, without lugging a dozen other harmless fellows into the shadow of
it? Do you really think so much of your own importance as to imagine
all the world will be interested in your quarrel with Smith, because he
insisted a thing was tweedledum and you insisted it was tweedledee? Or,
if you have the grace to confine your sulkiness to Smith alone, for his
private benefit, do you imagine you will convince him of the error of
his ways by shutting yourself up and never looking or speaking to him?

It used to be a matter of frequent debate at school what ought to be
done to Tom Sulks.

"Kick him," said some. "Laugh at him," said others. "Send him to
Coventry," put in a third. "Lecture him," advised others. "Let him
alone," said the rest.

And this, after all, is the best advice. If a sulky fellow won't come
round of his own accord, no kicks, or laughs, or snubs, or lectures will
bring him.

Surely none of the readers of this chapter are sulky boys! It is not to
be expected you will get through life without being put out--that is
sure to happen; and then you've three courses open to you: either to
take it like a man and a Christian, not rendering evil for evil, not
carried away by revengeful impulse, but bearing what can honourably be
borne with a good grace; and for the rest, if action is necessary,
righting yourself without malice or vindictiveness; or else you can fly
into a rage, and slog out blindly in wild passion; or you can sulk like
a cur in a corner, heeded by no one, yet disliked by all, and without a
frie