1. HATS AND BONNETS.--The master of a district school was accidentally
looking out of the window one day, and he saw one of the boys throwing
stones at a hat, which was put up for that purpose upon the fence. He
said nothing about it at the time, but made a memorandum of the
occurrence, that he might bring it before the school at the proper time.
When the hour set apart for attending to the general business of the
school had arrived, and all were still, he said,

"I saw one of the boys throwing stones at a hat to-day: did he do right
or wrong?"

There were one or two faint murmurs which sounded like "_Wrong_" but the
boys generally made no answer.

"Perhaps it depends a little upon the question whose hat it was. Do you
think it does depend upon that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, suppose then it was not his own hat, and he was throwing stones
at it without the owner's consent, would it be plain in that case
whether he was doing right or wrong?"

"Yes, sir; wrong," was the universal reply.

"Suppose it was his own hat, would he have been right? Has a boy a right
to do what he pleases with his own hat?"

"Yes, sir," "Yes, sir;" "No, sir," "No, sir," answered the boys,
confusedly.

"I do not know whose hat it was. If the boy who did it is willing to
rise and tell me, it will help us to decide this question."

The boy, knowing that a severe punishment was not in such a case to be
anticipated, and, in fact, apparently pleased with the idea of
exonerating himself from the blame of willfully injuring the property of
another, rose and said,

"I suppose it was I, sir, who did it, and it was my own hat."

"Well," said the master, "I am glad that you are willing to tell frankly
how it was; but let us look at this case. There are two senses in which
a hat may be said to belong to any person. It may belong to him because
he bought it and paid for it, or it may belong to him because it fits
him and he wears it. In other words, a person may have a hat as his
property, or he may have it only as a part of his dress. Now you see
that, according to the first of these senses, all the hats in this
school belong to your fathers. There is not, in fact, a single boy in
this school who has a hat of his own."

The boys laughed.

"Is not this the fact?"

"Yes, sir."

It certainly is so, though I suppose James did not consider it. Your
fathers bought your hats. They worked for them and paid for them. You
are only the wearers, and