s a family of German boys living across the street, that you
could stone whenever they came out of their front gate, for the simple
and sufficient reason that they were Dutchmen, and without going to the
trouble of a quarrel with them. My boy was not allowed to stone them;
but when he was with the other fellows, and his elder brother was not
along, he could not help stoning them.

There were shade trees all along that street, that you could climb if
you wanted to, or that you could lie down under when you had run
yourself out of breath, or play mumble-the-peg. My boy distinctly
remembered that under one of these trees his elder brother first
broached to him that awful scheme of reform about fibbing, and applied
to their own lives the moral of "The Trippings of Tom Pepper;" he
remembered how a conviction of the righteousness of the scheme sank into
his soul, and he could not withhold his consent. Under the same tree,
and very likely at the same time, a solemn conclave of boys, all the
boys there were, discussed the feasibility of tying a tin can to a dog's
tail, and seeing how he would act. They had all heard of the thing, but
none of them had seen it; and it was not so much a question of whether
you ought to do a thing that on the very face of it would be so much
fun, and if it did not amuse the dog as highly as anybody, could
certainly do him no harm, as it was a question of whose dog you should
get to take the dog's part in the sport. It was held that an old dog
would probably not keep still long enough for you to tie the can on; he
would have his suspicions; or else he would not run when the can was
tied on, but very likely just go and lie down somewhere. The lot finally
fell to a young yellow dog belonging to one of the boys, and the owner
at once ran home to get him, and easily lured him back to the other boys
with flatteries and caresses. The flatteries and caresses were not
needed, for a dog is always glad to go with boys, upon any pretext, and
so far from thinking that he does them a favor, he feels himself greatly
honored. But I dare say the boy had a guilty fear that if his dog had
known why he was invited to be of that party of boys, he might have
pleaded a previous engagement. As it was, he came joyfully, and allowed
the can to be tied to his tail without misgiving. If there had been any
question with the boys as to whether he would enter fully into the
spirit of the affair, it must have been instantly dissip