?"

"Indeed, father," said Dicky, crying, "I did not know it was loaded."

"It is but last week," continued his father, "that you were told never
to take such a thing without asking, and not even then till some one
had tried if it were loaded. So many accidents have happened with
firearms which have been supposed not to be loaded, that he who
unguardedly shoots another ought to take a similar chance for his own
life; for you know the Scripture says: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth.' Think, Richard, that if I had been standing before the
mirror, what would have been the consequence. You would have shot your
father! Your mother would have died of grief, and you and Letitia have
been orphans!"

"Ah, then I should have died too!" said Dicky, wiping the tears from
his eyes with the back of his hand. "But how came you to load the
pistol last night, father?"

"Because," replied his father, "I thought I heard something fall in
the parlor, and the passage-door being directly after shut to in a
still manner. I loaded the pistols, thinking that thieves had broken
into the house, and pushed up the sash to shoot the first that came
out."

"Then it was lucky," said Richard, "I did not come out again, or you
might have killed me; for I got up in the night to let Juno out of the
shed, where I had tied her up, and she was making a sad howling.
Indeed, before I was aware, she ran into the parlor, and, as it was
quite dark, I tumbled over her."

"And broke the geranium tree," added his father.

"Yes, I did indeed," said Dicky, "but I did not go to do it. After
that I turned Juno into the yard, and this I dare say is all the noise
you heard."

"There is an old saying, my dear little friends," said Mr. Random,
"which I wish you to attend to, because it has a great deal of truth
in it: '_The pitcher that goes often safe to the well may come home
broken at last_.' And so, though the thoughtless and giddy may go on
for a long while without danger, it will overtake them sooner or
later. Here is a strong instance of escape from the consequences which
might have attended Richard's thoughtlessness; besides which, his
mother could get no more sleep all night, and I, after running the
risk of catching cold in searching over the house, have this morning
been at the expense of new fastenings to the doors and windows. The
next time, however, you rise, Richard, to alarm the family, you shall
in future roost with the hens or bed in