"Nothing, father," replied Tommy, faintly.
"You have been smoking. You smell as strong of tobacco smoke as a bar-room loafer."
"Smoking!" exclaimed Mrs. Woggs, with horror.
"Have you been smoking, Tommy?" asked his father sternly.
The poor sufferer felt so bad, he had no courage to tell a lie, and he was obliged to own that he had been smoking.
When he felt a little better, his father questioned him so closely, that in spite of his promise, Tommy had to say he had "hooked jack" that forenoon, and that he had been in the woods with Joe and Ben, where each of them had smoked a cigar.
Dr. Woggs went to the school that afternoon, and told Miss Dale all about it; and then to the parents of Joe and Ben, and told them all about it. The truants were all punished; and as the schoolmistress promised to send word to their homes when either of them was absent again, they had no chance to "hook jack" afterwards.
Tommy was as well as ever the next day; but that red eye became a black eye, and the children laughed at him for a week.
He thought how much trouble he had caused himself by being proud and lazy, and he resolved to be a better boy. He did very well for some time; he went to school without complaining, and didn't talk big; but he was not entirely cured.
It often takes a great while to get rid of bad habits; but we should banish them, even if it takes a whole lifetime to do so.