HOW PHILIP BADBOY BECAME PHILIP WISEMAN.
Be GOOD if you wish to be HAPPY.
Once upon a time not so very long ago, there lived a stupid, heavy looking boy, named Philip, who bore any thing but an agreeable character; for he was naughty, lazy, greedy, and impudent. His companions all hated him, for when he appeared among them after school hours, he was sure to kick their marbles into the middle of the street, knock the little boys’ caps over their eyes, twitch balls and kites out of their hands, and set them all fighting and quarrelling.
One amusement in particular gave him great delight. This was to tie a knot in the end of his handkerchief and snap with it at the little boys’ legs. I really hope no one reading this has ever made a “snapper.” If he has, and if he has gone round snapping other boys’ legs, I am sure his face has turned as red as a stick of sealing-wax when he reads these lines, and knows that I call him a cowardly tormentor; and no better than Philip.
His whole name was Philip Wiseman, but his companions changed it to Philip Badboy.
His parents tried long and faithfully to improve their wayward child; but nothing altered him for the better—indeed, whippings, and locking him up, only seemed to make him worse.
Do not imagine for a moment that he was happy. No indeed! He was discontented, fretful, forever wishing that dinner was ready, and oftentimes hating the sight of every thing and everybody.
At last, quite wearied out, his father put him at a celebrated boarding-school in Sing Sing; but they might better perhaps have put him in the famous prison at the same place, for not a single button did Philip care for lessons or punishment.