the water's edge. "Now for a ride: only hurry up, and make the oars fly;" and sever

ry to improve the marsh. There is certainly danger that we shall go through th

and that will get rid of the quagmire. I

get your lumber?

y lumber, for stones are b

of them," added John. "You must like to lift better

a few rods distant. "There are stones enough for our purpose, and

is preparing to build a house there," sa

ford to lend them to us awhile. They will be just

them to you, I perceive; but you

the workmen have gone home, and tug them over here, and make the wh

lied another boy. "I will agree to do it if y

ling to take such worthless things as stones. A

d the labour of drawing them there

h twinkle of the eye showed that he knew he was doing wrong. And he added, "I reckon it

with the idea of playing off a joke. "I w

were afraid to say "No," according to the dictates of conscience, now that the enterprise was indorsed by one or two of their num

ire. The boys were accustomed to fish there at high water, and so many feet, so often treading on the sp

errand. They surveyed the pile of stones, and found it ample for their

gger than two of us

d Benjamin. "They must all be worked into a wharf t

nes for the foundation. Come, two or three must take hold o

them working away at one stone, lifting and rolling it along. Benjamin was never half so zealous in cutting candle-wicks as

ork of art that answered their purpose very well, though it was not quite so imposing as Commer

or fishing!" exclaimed Fred. "It

t through with it," said John. "We can tell better about t

er what we have done, though I hardly think they will pay us much of a compliment

ld disapprove of the deed, and that no excuse could shield them from merited censure. It was not strange, then, that they were both afraid and ashamed to tell of what the

s father, "where wa

e imagined that he had heard of their enterprise on the previous eve

you doin

ng up a place

njamin, and withhold nothing. I

ilt a

you to bui

t it of

id you get y

pile of the

y belong

ppose

ey belonged to the man wh

s,

tely resolved to s

tealing to

fter the workmen had gone home? Why did you not

e was, he could not get out of so bad a scrape unblamed. So h

e I have thought it might be better for you than so much reading. But you have now betrayed my confidence, and I am satisfied more than ever that boys should be at home in the evening, trying to improve their

er," frankly con

added his father. "Do you think you will learn

mise that I

with regret. In mature age he referred to it, and called it one of the first

himself to learn who were the authors of the deed, and in the course of the day he gained the information, and went directly, and very properly, to their parents, to enter complaint. Thus all

reat, that he even read works of this character with a degree of interest. In the library, however, were three or four books of somewhat different character. There was "Plutarch's Lives," in which he was deeply interested; also Defoe's "Essay on Projects." But to no one book was he more indebted than to Dr. Mather's "Essay to do Good." From this he derived hints and sentiments which had a beneficial influence upon his after life. He said, forty or fifty years afterwards, "It gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life." And he wrote to a son of Cotton Mather, "I have always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good, than on

an a joke. The habit of spending leisure hours in poring over books, has saved many boys from vice and ruin. Many more might have been saved, if they had been so fond of

ossible to read. The benefit he derived from the exercise when he was young caused him to address the following letter, many years thereafter

ip. They are written in the familiar, easy manner for which the French are so remarkable, and afford a good deal of philosophic and pr

ill be ready either for practice on some future occasion, if they are matters of utility, or, at least, to adorn and improve your conversation, if they are rather points of curiosity; and, as many of the terms of science are such as you cann

tisfaction, because with more understanding. When any point occurs in which you would be glad to have further information than your book affords you, I beg that you would not in the least apprehend that I should think it a trouble to receive and answer your quest

Fran