ate, add have then in formed me that
they have been absent all day. Thus the whole plot has been developed;
it has been found that the children were sent to school at eight
o'clock in the morning, and had their dinners given them to eat at
school, but instead of coming they have got into company with their
older companions, who, in many cases, I have found were training them
up for every species of vice. Some of them have been cured of truant
playing by corporal punishment, when all other means I could devise
have failed, others by means the most simple, such as causing the
child to hold a broom for a given time.

The most powerful punishment I have yet discovered is to insist on the
child sitting still, without moving hand or foot for a given time,
say half an hour at most. Long punishment always has the tendency to
harden the child; he soon gets contented in his situation, and you
defeat your own object.

By keeping a strict eye upon them it will be remarked, they soon begin
to form an attachment with some of their own school-fellows, and
ultimately become as fond of their new companions, their books, and
their school, as they were before of their old companions and the
streets. I need scarcely observe, how strong our attachments, formed
in early years at school, are, and I doubt not but many who read this
have found a valuable and real friend in a school-fellow for whom they
would do any thing within their power.

There were several children in the school who had contracted some
very bad habits, entirely by their being accustomed to run about the
streets; and one boy in particular, only five years of age, was so
frequently absent, and brought such reasonable excuses for his being
so, that it was some time before I detected him. I thought it best to
see his mother, and therefore sent the boy to tell her that I wished
her to come. The boy soon returned, saying his mother was not at home.

The following morning he was absent again, and I sent another boy to
know the reason, when the mother waited on me immediately, and assured
me that she had sent the child to school. I then produced the slate
which I kept for that purpose, and informed her how many days and
half-days her child had been absent during the last month, when she
again assured me that she had never kept the child at home for a
single half-day, nor had he ever told her that I wanted to see her; at
the same time observing that be must have been decoyed awa