LESSON 60 True courage
A teacher had been much annoyed by some of his boys whistling during school hours. At last he was obliged to threaten with punishment any one who should repeat the offence. The next morning, when the room was very quiet, a loud whistle was heard! The scholars were very much startled, and the teacher at once looked around to discover the offender. The blame fell on a bad boy who was often in mischief. When charged, he strongly denied the act: yet his words were not believed, for I am sorry to say he was not a truthful boy; so the master brought him up for punishment. Seeing what was about to take place, a slender little fellow, about nine years old, who had been anxiously watching the proceedings, sprang from his seat. "Do not punish John, sir," he said to the teacher. "It was I who whistled. I was doing a long, hard sum, and in rubbing out another sum to make room for it, I rubbed out the difficult one by mistake.