a book as this.

"But sometimes boys are mistaken in thinking they have been good boys. I
should want to ask Raymond."

"He would say so, I know," said Caleb; "for I certainly did not trouble
him at all, all the day."

"Suppose you run and ask him."

"Well," said Caleb; and away he ran.

"But stop," said Mary Anna; "you must not ask him by a leading
question."

"What is that?" said Caleb.

"Don't you know?" said Mary Anna.

"No," said Caleb.

"O, that is very important for boys to know; for they very often ask
leading questions, when they ought not to. Now, if you go and say,
'Raymond, haven't I been a good boy to-day?' that way of asking the
question shews that you want him to say, 'Yes, you have.' It is called a
leading question, because it leads Raymond to answer in a particular
way. Now, if I should go and ask him thus, '_Has_ Caleb been a good boy
to-day?' with the emphasis on _has_, it would be a leading question the
other way. It would sound as if I wanted him to say you had not been a
good boy."

"How must I ask him, then?" said Caleb.

"Why you can say, 'Raymond, Aunt Marianne wants to know what sort of a
boy I have been to-day,' that way of putting the question would not lead
him one way or the other."

"Why, he might know," said Caleb, "that I should want him to say I have
been good."

"Yes, but not from the form of the question. The _question_ would not
lead him."

While Mary Anna was saying this, Caleb was standing with his hand upon
the latch of the door, ready to go; and when she had finished what she
was saying, he started off to find Raymond.

As he passed across the yard, he heard the sound of voices before the
house. It was Dwight and David coming home from school. In a minute they
appeared in view, by the great elm. Dwight had a long slender pole in
his hands, which he was waving in the air, and David had a small piece
of wood, and a knife. He sat down under the elm, and began to shave the
wood with the knife.

Caleb ran to tell them about his squirrel; but before he got there,
Dwight, seeing him, began to wave his pole in the air, and shout, and
then said, "See what a noble flag-staff we have got."

"Is that your flag-staff?" said Caleb.

"Yes. John Davis gave it to us. He got it out of his father's shop. We
are going to set it up out at the end of our mole."

"Yes," said David, "and I am going to make a truck on the top, to haul
up the flag by. Marianne is going to make u