"It gives me trouble and pain. Should you not suppose it would?"
"Yes, sir."
"Have I ever treated any boy or girl in this school unjustly or unkindly?"
"No, sir;" "No, sir."
"Then why should any boy or girl wish to give me trouble or pain?"
There was a pause. The guilty individual expected that the next thing would be to call him out for punishment.
"Now what do you think I ought to do with such a boy?"
No answer.
"Perhaps I ought to punish him, but I am very unwilling to do that. I concluded to try another plan—to treat him with kindness and forbearance. So I called your attention to it this afternoon, to let him know that I was observing it, and to give him an opportunity to remove the string. And he did. He went, in the recess, and cut off the string. I shall not tell you his name, for I do not wish to injure his character. All I want is to have him a good boy."
A pause.