let you snip my tongue," said Nat, heroically, for he dreaded pain, yet
did wish to stop fibbing.

Mr. Bhaer smiled, but shook his head.

"I have a better way than that, I tried it once before and it worked
well. See now, when you tell a lie I will not punish you, but you shall
punish me."

"How?" asked Nat, startled at the idea.

"You shall ferule me in the good old-fashioned way; I seldom do it
myself, but it may make you remember better to give me pain than to feel
it yourself."

"Strike you? Oh, I couldn't!" cried Nat.

"Then mind that tripping tongue of thine. I have no wish to be hurt, but
I would gladly bear much pain to cure this fault."

This suggestion made such an impression on Nat, that for a long time he
set a watch upon his lips, and was desperately accurate, for Mr. Bhaer
judged rightly, that love of him would be more powerful with Nat that
fear for himself. But alas! one sad day Nat was off his guard, and when
peppery Emil threatened to thrash him, if it was he who had run over his
garden and broken down his best hills of corn, Nat declared he didn't,
and then was ashamed to own up that he did do it, when Jack was chasing
him the night before.

He thought no one would find it out, but Tommy happened to see him, and
when Emil spoke of it a day or two later, Tommy gave his evidence, and
Mr. Bhaer heard it. School was over, and they were all standing about in
the hall, and Mr. Bhaer had just set down on the straw settee to enjoy
his frolic with Teddy; but when he heard Tommy and saw Nat turn scarlet,
and look at him with a frightened face, he put the little boy down,
saying, "Go to thy mother, bubchen, I will come soon," and taking Nat by
the hand led him into the school and shut the door.

The boys looked at one another in silence for a minute, then Tommy
slipped out and peeping in at the half-closed blinds, beheld a sight
that quite bewildered him. Mr. Bhaer had just taken down the long rule
that hung over his desk, so seldom used that it was covered with dust.

"My eye! He's going to come down heavy on Nat this time. Wish I hadn't
told," thought good-natured Tommy, for to be feruled was the deepest
disgrace at this school.

"You remember what I told you last time?" said Mr. Bhaer, sorrowfully,
not angrily.

"Yes; but please don't make me, I can't bear it," cried Nat, backing
up against the door with both hands behind him, and a face full of
distress.

"Why don't he up and take it like a