The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1879-06-20
eGamiw Girrhe.
Honesty, Family Teaching.

"You are too strict, ma'am !
Your boy will never get on III the
world if you bring him up with
such notions; he will find that he
must do like other men, or else he
must go underw =,
Such was the tone of n remark
by an elderly man, il furniture
dealer of long experience, made at
bis own table and in the presence OF
his two sons, in response to the
hope expressed by a lady visitor IN
regard to her baby.boy, that he
"would grow up to hate a lie, and
be a strictly honest man."
"Strictly honest" said he. "No.
body is that, nobody can be ana
make money " .
"Then he had better be poor !"
was the %rcjoinder; but not wishing
to appear rude to her host, and OBJ.
serving the evident uneaslncss or
his wife, her friend, she courteousiy
changed the topic OF conversation.
Is not the question Il pertinent
onef Are parents doing all they
can and ought to stem the tide Of
dishonesty which now seems ready
to Overwhelm our land with disas-
ter and shame9
Many years ago a little lad was
living with his parents and his
many brothers and sisters, on a
rocky farm near II OF Massachu.
sets hilliest towns.
Down in the valley two or three
miles away was the village store,
near by it the meeting house, and a
little further on, the mil.
johnny had only lately been pro-
noted to the dignity of going alone,
OH horseback, to do the few family
errandS, and bring home the grist
from the weekly gainding. Gu the
particular day OF which we write,
he had been forced to wait his
"turn" for some time at the mill,
and had %sauntered back to the
store to listen to the farmers talk,
and to look with childish wonder at
the incongruous medley of goods,
i'll his eyes enormous, also as to
quantity, such as were to be found
i'll any country store fifty years ago.
Now, Johnny was an incipient
northumberland Yankee lad is mott
and ne had already often found his
powers of construction circum-
scribed by the lack of necessary
aids to his inventive genius, nOta-
bly, the lack of nails. So, when he
stood beside a whole keg of these
most desirable little articles, the
temptation to put a few in his peck.
ct proved too strong for his con
science. But when, soon after, he
rode iott toward home, it was with
Il load tar heavier than the good
old horse knew anything about.
Five ten penny nails! His trea-
sure brought. to him no content or
happiness, however, and after sup
per he wandered about, following
his mother from table to pantry,
til at last, as he washed the dishes,
he leaned up by the kitchen sink
and coniided to her his trouble.
She wisely forebore amy severe
reproof, but showed him how surely
that transaction was a beginning
of evil, which, if allowed to grow,
would make of her boy "a bad man.
At the same time she made no
question of what was to be done
about it, but told him, as "a matter
of plainest practical honesty, i'll
which there could be but one course
OF action, that he must go back
with the nails and tell the store
keeper in the morning.
But when Johnny rose, in the
gray winter daylight, he found that
his father had already been gone
with the horse for some hours, to IA
distant wood-lot and would not re-
turn till night. However, in those
New England families,
where one was hedged up another
found, or made, and neither in
.Johnny's mind nor in his mothers
was there a thought of avoiding or
delaying the days duty. So John
ny trudged of on foot down the
hill with the nails in his pocket
told the man his fault, and
received a severe lecture from him
the sin of stealing. This he ac-
copied meekly as Gully his due, and
then walked home a happier boy.
IS And this laid a foundation OF
honesty for my whole lite," said he,
when forty years after, he narrated
the incident in a sermOn upon
parental influence.