CRIBBING

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue XVI, 14 October 1899, Page 702

CRIBBING

Do you know anyone who cribs at lessons? I used to know a little boy who did, and his name was Eddy. Eddy was rather a pretty little boy, and very charming. People who saw him for the first time always liked him very much. When they had known him for a week opinions began to alter, and Eddy's duller and uglier brothers and sisters were preferred. Eddy was always trying to shirk. If by any means he could make someone else do his work he would. Oft-n it seemed that if he had taken as much trouble to work as he did to avoid working he would have done a great deal more than ordinary people in a day. But that did not occur to Eddv.

One of his great faults was cribbing nt lessons. He would do anything to escape learning them properly, and I am sorry to say that he did not stop at the very meanest acts.

He looked over the other boys' shoulders, and copied their exercises. He bribed the big boys, and bullied the little ones, into doing his sums for him. He made the most elaborate calculations as to which question would fall to his lot in the class—that showed he could do sums if he liked. And if he could get hold of a book of answers to sums, or a translation, he would learn it with such diligence that there was no doubt that he could work if he tried. The last time I saw Eddy he was grown up, and I heard him complaining bitterly that they ought to have made him work at school: and I found that he wanted to go into the Army, but couldn’t, because he did not know enough to pass the examinations.

Of course, according to Eddy, it was everybody’s fault but his own; and. of course, really it was nobody’s fault but his own. for no one can make a boy work who doesn’t want to. You may cane him and box his ears, and put him in a corner, but you ean't make him work.

The strange part of the story is that Eddy thought that boys who don’t work have a better time, and enjoy themselves more than boys who do. He never made a greater mistake. Boys who work well enjoy playtimes ten times more than the boys who don't, and they get to enjoy the working times, too. so that all along the line they are better off than the shirker. Here is a verse you may learn if you don’t want to get like Eddy: This you may learn for your comfort. It’s never worth while to shirk; Blow east, blow west, the world wags best For the man who does his work. I hope no readers of the “Graphic" ever crib at lessons. If you ever have, don’t do it again. It is very mean, for one thing—quite as mean, when you come to think it out. as telling lies, and quite as ungentlemanly. You may be able to do it for a long time without being found out by your teacher; but your better self knows all about it, and if you go on cribbing that poor better self' - will begin to shrivel up. until you won’t have any more left than Eddy had. And it is never worth while to shirk. It always means trouble and disappointment in the end. So work away, vour own work, and the world will wag well for you.