ating the State is as bad as cheating
another person. But it is."

Willis climbed upon the wharf again. He saw when the men who had
been eating crabs came back to work. He noticed they did not work
very heartily.

"My father doesn't work that way," thought the boy.

"An honest day's work." The words followed Willis as he went away
from the wharf. The next week Willis was going to begin work for a
large dry-goods store.

"I'll do honest day's work, too," resolved Willis.

He did not put it into words, but he thought that the One who saw
whether a man under the wharves did an honest day's work would see
whether a boy working for a store did the same. Willis was trying to
be a Christian.

Busy days Willis had after that. The large dry-goods store had many
customers who often did not wish to carry bundles home. The store
had two pretty, white-covered, small carts for the delivering of
packages. Willis drove one cart and a boy named August drove the
other.

One afternoon Willis, out delivering dry-goods, drove by the house
where August lived, and saw the store's other cart standing there.

"August is home," thought Willis. Just then, August came out.

"Don't tell," called August, laughing.

Willis, hardly comprehending, drove on about his business.

That evening at store-closing time, both boys were back with their
receipt books, signed by customers who had received their packages.
The boys went out of the store together.

"Saw me coming out of our house today, didn't you?" said August to
Willis.

"Don't you ever stop off half an hour or so, when you're on your
rounds?"

"Why, no!" answered Willis. "What would they say at the store, if
they knew?"

"They can't know," asserted August. "I often stop, that way.
Yesterday I went to see my aunt. How can the store tell? They don't
know just how long it will take to deliver all the parcels. Some
folks live farther off than others. Who's going to know?"

Willis hesitated. He remembered that the thought of the men at the
wharves had been: "Who would know?" Willis had never heard that
anybody had lost his place at the wharves on account of dawdling.
What if August never was found out? Was it right to steal an hour,
or half an hour, of his employer's time?

"No," thought Willis. "I'm going to be honest."

Late one afternoon August came into the store. Willis was later
still, because he had had more parcels to deliver. Both boys'
receipt books showed the custom