2. Littlejohn could detect and put down lies
because he kept his head clear and told the truth
to himself. What lines tell you this? Who is the
person most likely to deceive you about right and
wrong?

3. Explain: spurious, mazes, logic, despite,
quacks, rote, policy, rectitude, cant, bigotry,
specious.

THE DISCONTENTED PENDULUM

An old clock that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's
kitchen without giving its owner any cause of complaint,
early one summer's morning, before the family was
stirring, suddenly stopped. Upon this, the dial plate (if
we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm; 5
the hands made a vain effort to continue their course;
the wheels remained motionless with surprise; the weights
hung speechless; and each member felt disposed to lay the
blame on the others. At length the dial instituted a formal
inquiry into the cause of the stoppage; when hands, wheels, 10
weights, with one voice, protested their innocence. But
now a faint tick was heard below from the pendulum, who
thus spoke:

"I confess myself to be the sole cause of the stoppage;
and I am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my 15
reasons. The truth is, that I am tired of ticking." Upon
hearing this the old clock became so enraged that it was on
the very point of striking.

"Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial plate, holding up its
hands. 20

"Very good!" replied the pendulum. "It is vastly
easy for you, Mistress Dial, who have always, as everybody
knows, set yourself up above me--it is vastly easy for
_you_, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! You, who
have had nothing to do all your life but to stare people in 25
the face and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes
on in the kitchen! Think how you would like to be shut
up for life in this dark closet and wag backward and forward,
year after year, as I do."

"As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in
your house on purpose for you to look through?"

"For all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark 5
here; and although there is a window, I dare not stop, even
for an instant, to look out. Besides I am really tired of my
way of life; and if you wish, I'll tell you how I took thi