Clinton

by Walter Aimwell

Clinton soon found that he had made a great mistake, in aiding Jerry to escape the consequences of his truancy. True, the deception was not discovered; but the very success of the plan encouraged Jerry to repeat the experiment, and Clinton now found it less easy to refuse to write an excuse than at first. His sin was, therefore, repeated again and again, until Jerry felt at perfect liberty to absent himself as often as he pleased, knowing that Clinton would furnish him with the written excuse, which the teacher now required in all cases of absence. To be sure, Clinton objected, and scolded, and threatened; but Jerry cared little for this, so long as he was sure to yield to his desires in the end. If ever a more convincing argument than usual was needed, the hard-hearted boy would secure his end by hinting at an exposure of Clinton’s-share in his past truancies. Thus did Clinton find himself fast in the net of this bad associate; and thus, through the influence of one false step, did he continue to do wrong, against his conscience, and even against his own wishes.

The people of Brookdale frequently held social parties, at their houses, in the long winter evenings, which were usually attended by all the neighborhood. They were not favorably situated for maintaining the lectures and other entertainments which are common in large towns, and these social gatherings were a substitute for them. At one of these parties, Mrs. Preston happened to meet Master Eaton, and after a few words on unimportant matters, she inquired how Jerry got along at school. Mr. Eaton could not give a very favorable report either of Jerry’s behavior or scholarship. He did not wish to pain Mrs. Preston, at such a time, by telling her exactly how things stood; and so he thought he would evade a direct reply to her question, by turning her attention to a point where he supposed she herself was at fault.

“Why,” he remarked, “he is absent so often that it is hard to tell whether he really does make any progress. I find that scholars never get along very well unless they are pretty regular in their attendance.”

“But what do you mean?” inquired Mrs. Preston; “I thought he attended school regularly.”

“O,” replied Mr. Eaton, “parents are hardly ever conscious of the bad effects of absences upon the scholar. They think it of little consequence if their children are kept at home two or three times a week, but it is just this little irregularity in attendance that often prevents their learning anything.”

“But you are mistaken, Mr. Eaton,” said Mrs. Preston; “I have not kept Jerry at home half a day this winter.”

“He always brings an excuse from you, when absent,” added Mr. Eaton.

“An excuse from me!” said Mrs. Preston, with an air of astonishment; “why, I have not written an excuse for him this term, and I did not know that he had ever been absent.”

Master Eaton was now as much astonished as was Mrs. Preston. Both had made an unpleasant discovery. It was evident that Jerry was a worse boy than either of them had supposed. He had played the rogue with a high hand. After some further conversation, it was agreed that Mrs. Preston should say nothing at present respecting Jerry’s misconduct, but leave the teacher to investigate the affair.

The next morning, on searching his desk, Master Eaton found several of Jerry’s old notes of excuse, which had been accepted, and thrown aside. His first object was to find out who wrote them, for he knew that Jerry could not have done it. At first, he thought the writing was the work of a female hand; but among the girls who attended school, there was not one whom he could suspect of such conduct. Besides, he knew that Jerry was not very popular, with the girls, who regarded him as a rude, rough boy, and shunned his company as much as possible. He then took the writing-books of the male scholars, and examined each one carefully, by itself, comparing the penmanship with that of the notes. The conclusion to which he came was, that there were only three male scholars who could possibly have written the notes. Two of these were young men, nearly grown up, who apparently held very little intercourse with Jerry; the other was Clinton, an intimate acquaintance of Jerry, but a boy whose conduct at school had always been unexceptionable. Surely, none of these could have had a hand in the mischief. At least, so thought Master Eaton.