in himself. He longs to unite his
voice in the shout, and try his feet in the chase. He nestles upon
his chair, and walks across the room, and peeps through the curtains.
As he sees the dark forms of the boys clustered together in merry
groups, or scattered in their plays, he feels as though, he were a
prisoner. And even though he be a good boy, and obedient to his
parents, he can hardly understand why it is that they deprive him of
this pleasure. I used to feel so when I was a boy, and I suppose
other boys feel so. But now I see the reason. Those night plays led
the boys into bad habits. All kinds of boys met together, and some
would use indecent and profane language, which depraved the hearts
and corrupted the morals of the rest. The boys who were thus spending
their evenings, were misimproving their time, and acquiring a
disrelish for the purifying and peaceful enjoyments of home. You
sometimes see men who appear to care nothing about their families.
They spend their evenings away from home with the idle and the
dissolute. Such men are miserable and despised. Their families are
forsaken and unhappy. Why do these men do so? Because, when they were
boys, they spent their evenings away from home, playing in the
streets. Thus home lost all its charms, virtue was banished from,
their bosoms, and life was robbed of its joy. I wish every boy who
reads this would think of these reasons, and see if they are not
sufficient. Your kind parents do not allow you to go out in the
evenings and play in the streets--

I. Because you will acquire bad habits. You will grow rude and
vulgar in manners, and acquire a relish for pleasures which will
destroy your usefulness and your happiness.

II. You will always find in such scenes bad boys, and must hear much
indecent and profane language, which will corrupt your heart.

III. You will lose all fondness for the enjoyment of home, and will be
in great danger of growing up a dissipated and a worthless man.

Now, are not these reasons sufficient to induce your parents to guard
you against such temptations? But perhaps you say, Other parents let
their children go out and play as much as they please every evening.
How grateful, then, ought you to be, that you have parents who are so
kind and faithful that they will preserve you from these occasions of
sin and sorrow! They love you too well to be willing to see you
preparing for an unhappy and profitless life.

It not unfrequently is t