to make a good boy of him, if she could, and
above all things to make him obey her. So Tommy got the worst of
it, after all.

[Illustration: Tommy and his Father.]

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.

"No, Tommy, you must go to school. Your father says that you must
not stay at home a single day, unless you are sick."

This was about an hour before school time, and the lazy boy sat on
the door stone, for a while, and then came back and told his mother
he did not feel very well.

"What ails you, Tommy?" asked his mother.

"I'm sick."

"Not very sick, I think."

"Yes, I am; real sick."

Just then his father came in, and heard his complaint.

"How long have you felt sick, Tommy?" asked his father.

"