that happened when I was a
school-boy, two or three years younger than you are even now. Our Master
was a very good teacher and a very good man, and he liked to have his
scholars go on learning and improving out of school, as well as in, and
to behave well also. So he told all the boys and girls, except the
little ones, to do, every week, two things, and let him see, each
Monday, which had done them best.

"One of these was to keep a diary. Do you know, Charley, what a Diary
is?"

"I believe, uncle, I have seen the word somewhere, but I do not know
what it means."

"Well, the Master meant this, that each scholar should have a blank
book, and every evening should write down what they had seen and heard,
and done and thought and felt during the day, at least as much as they
could remember, that was of any consequence. He said, that by doing this
carefully, they would improve the memory, and also learn to express
their thoughts well, either by writing or in speaking.

"So we did what he told us as well as we could, and used to carry what
we had put down, through the week, for the master to examine, on Monday
morning. Some of the scholars didn't write much or write it very well,
but, I am pretty sure even that little was a benefit to them. I know,
that it did me a great deal of good, which I found the advantage of, all
my life. The President, John Quincy Adams, kept one of these Diaries,
from the time he was a boy, till he died, over eighty years old, and
you have read what a wise and good man he was. Now I want you, Charley,
to begin now and keep a Diary. Will you?"

"As I told you before, uncle, I'll try."

"Well, my dear boy, if you will try in real earnest, you will do well
enough, I am very sure. And, to help you start, I will bring you out the
very first pages I wrote, when I was only ten years old."

"Do, uncle, I shall be very glad to read what you wrote, when you were a
little boy."

"Well, Charley, I told you there was one more thing the master told us
to do, out of school. This was, when we went to church, on Sunday, to
listen very carefully to the minister's sermons, and when we got home,
to put down the text and all the rest we could remember, and bring to
him, on Monday morning, to be examined. He said this would improve us in
the same ways, as keeping diaries would. We obeyed him, and some of the
scholars became so skilful, that they could remember and write down more
than half of both sermons. I th