II.
Tommy Woggs learned to obey while he was in school. That little stick produced a great change in him; but after the first week, Miss Dale did not have occasion to use it again.
He found that he must mind, and he had sense sufficient to see that it was just as easy to obey before he was whipped, or even scolded, as it was afterwards.
It was the next year after Tommy began to go to school that he went to New York. It was a great thing for a little boy like him to go away so far, and see so many wonderful things; and his companions, for a time, thought he was a real hero.
When he came back he told ever so many stories of what he had seen—of the fine buildings in New York, of the great crowds of people in Broadway, and the sights he saw at the Museum.
But the children soon grew tired of it, and did not want to hear any more of Tommy's stories. I think it quite likely that, if Tommy had not been so smart about it, they would have been glad to hear a great deal more about New York.
But I have another story to tell about Tommy; and I hope it will convince all my young readers that it is better to obey their parents, even if they are not punished, than it is to disregard what they tell them.
I have said that Tommy was proud and lazy. He was so proud he did not like to mind; and so lazy that he did not like to go to school, because he had to study there, and learn his lessons.
One fine morning in June, when the birds were singing on all the trees, and the grass looked bright and green on the hills, Tommy left his father's house to go to school.
He did not want to go to school that day. He told his mother it was too pleasant to be shut up in a school room all day, and he begged that he might be permitted to stay at home.