A NOBLE SCHOOL SCENE.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1591, 13 May 1887, Page 4

A NOBLE SCHOOL SCENE.

Two boys were in a school-room together, and exploded some fireworks, contrary to the master's express prohibition. The one boy denied it. The other, Ben Christie, would neither admit nor deny it, and was severely flogged for his obstinacy. When the boys got alone again—- " Why didn't you deny it?" asked the real offender. " Because there were only we two, and one of us must have lied," said Ben. " Then why not say I did it ?" " Because you said you didn't, and I would spare the liar." The boy's heart was melted. Ben's moral gallantry subdued him. When school re-assembled, the young culprit marched up to the master's desk, and said — " Please, sir, I can't bear to be a liar, I let off the squibs," And he burst into tears. The master's eye glistened on the self-accuser, and the undeserved punishment he had inflicted on the other boy smote his conscience. Before the whole school, hand in hand with the culprit, as if he and the other boy were joined in the confession, the master marched down to where young Christie sat, and said aloud—- " Ben, Ben, lad, he and I beg your pardon. We are both to blame." The school was hushed and still as other schools are spt to be when something true and noble is being done —so still that they might also have heard Ben's big boy-tears dropping on his book as he sat enjoying the moral triumph which subdued himself as well as the rest. And when, from want of something else to say, he gently cried, " Master for ever!" the loud shout of the scholars filled the old man's eyes with something behind his spectacles which made him wipe them before he sat down.