erhaps they would prefer to _belong_ to the lax
ones."

"No, sir;" "No, sir," say the boys.

"Suppose you all had your choice either to belong to a company like the
first one I described, where the captain was strict in all his
requirements, or to one like the latter, where you could do pretty much
as you pleased, which should you prefer?"

Unless I am entirely mistaken in my idea of the inclinations of boys, it
would be very difficult to get a single honest expression of preference
for the latter. They would say with one voice,

"The first."

"I suppose it would be so. You would be put to some inconvenience by the
strict commands of the captain, but then you would be more than paid by
the beauty of regularity and order which you would all witness. There is
nothing so pleasant as regularity, and nobody likes regularity more than
boys do. To show this, I should like to have you now form a line as
exact as you can."

After some unnecessary shoving and pushing, increased by the disorderly
conduct of a few bad boys, a line is formed. Most of the class are
pleased with the experiment, and the teacher takes no notice of the few
exceptions. The time to attend to _them_ will come by-and-by.

"Hands down." The boys obey.

"Shoulders back."

"There; there is a very perfect line."

"Do you stand easily in that position?"

"Yes, sir."

"I believe your position is the military one now, pretty nearly; and
military men study the postures of the human body for the sake of
finding the one most easy; for they wish to preserve as much as possible
of the soldiers' strength for the time of battle. I should like to try
the experiment of your standing thus at the next lesson. It is a very
great improvement upon your common mode. Are you willing to do it?"

"Yes, sir," say the boys.

"You will get tired, I have no doubt; for the military position, though
most convenient and easy in the end, is not to be learned and fixed in
practice without effort. In fact, I do not expect you will succeed the
first day very well. You will probably become restless and uneasy before
the end of the lesson, especially the smaller boys. I must excuse it, I
suppose, if you do, as it will be the first time."

By such methods as these the teacher will certainly secure a majority in
favor of all his plans. But perhaps some experienced teacher, who knows
from his own repeated difficulties with bad boys what sort of spirits
the teacher of district sc