Oscar Part 11

"I shan't do any such thing," said Oscar, and he refused to take the ring, and turned upon his heel, leaving the other boy in no very pleasant state of mind.

"Then you 're a great cheat and a swindler," cried the victim, gathering courage as Oscar retreated.

"And you 're a little greeny," replied Oscar, with a loud laugh.

Oscar had prepared his mind for this explosion of indignation, and though he did not care much about it, he was glad it was over with. He regarded the transaction which led to it as a shrewd business operation, to be chuckled over, rather than repented of; and he had no idea of spoiling it all, by undoing the bargain.

In Oscar's school, it was customary for the first cla.s.s (of which he was a member) to devote the first half hour of every Monday morning to a lesson in morals. In these lessons, the duties which we owe to G.o.d, to ourselves, and to one another, were explained and enforced.

Although a text-book was used, the teacher did not confine himself to it, in the recitations, but mingled oral instruction with that contained in the printed lessons, often taking up incidents that occurred in school, to ill.u.s.trate the principle he wished to establish.

It so happened that on the Monday morning after the occurrence just related, the subject of the moral lesson was dishonesty. The various forms of dishonesty,--theft, robbery, fraud, &c.,--were explained, and the distinction between them pointed out. The teacher then proceeded as follows:

"A gentleman was riding in the cars, one evening, when a newsboy pa.s.sed through the train, and he purchased a paper, giving the boy by mistake a gold eagle instead of a cent. The boy noticed the mistake, but said nothing about it. Albert, you may tell me what you think of that boy's conduct."

"It was dishonest," replied Albert; "because he knew that the money did not belong to him, and yet he kept it."

"But did not a part of the blame belong to the man who made the mistake?" inquired the teacher.

Albert, after thinking a moment, replied:

"He was to blame for his carelessness, but not for the boy's dishonesty."

"You are right," said the teacher. "The boy was guilty of stealing, just as much as if he had picked the man's pocket, or broken into his house. But suppose, instead of the mistake being to the amount of ten dollars, it had only been a few cents,--how then?"

"It would have been just the same," replied the boy.

"But what if the man was very rich, and would never feel the loss, while the boy was poor, and needed the money?"

"That would have made no difference," replied Albert.

"Very good," continued the teacher; "when an honest man discovers a mistake in his own favor, he always hastens to rectify it. He will receive only what he is ent.i.tled to. Robert," he added, addressing an other pupil, "how is it with regard to lost articles?"

"When we find anything that has been lost," replied the boy addressed, "we should try to ascertain the owner, and return the article to him."

"Is there any guilt in neglecting to do this?"

"Yes, sir, it is a kind of dishonesty."

"You are right," added the teacher; "the courts often punish men for this very offence, for it is a species of theft. And how of borrowing articles, and neglecting to return them,--is that honest?"

"It is not," replied Robert.

"Oscar," continued the teacher, "you may give your opinion of this case: suppose one of your acquaintances wants a certain article belonging to you, and by way of barter, offers you a finger-ring for it. You take it for granted that the ring is gold, but a week or two after the bargain is concluded, you discover that it is of bra.s.s, and of no value what ever. The other boy knew all the while it was bra.s.s, and also knew you supposed it was gold. What should you say of such a transaction? Was it honest?"

Oscar turned red, and looked confused, as this question was put to him.

It was a minute or two before he made any reply, and then he said, in a hesitating manner:

"If the other boy did n't _tell_ me it was gold, I don't see as he was to blame."

"But we will suppose there was no need of his telling you so," added the master; "we will suppose he managed the bargain so adroitly, that you never suspected he was not dealing fairly with you. In that case, should you think he had acted honestly towards you?"

"No, sir," replied Oscar, but it came out with the utmost reluctance.

"Certainly not," said the teacher; "it is dishonest to take advantage of another's ignorance, or simplicity, or necessity, in a bargain.

Overreaching in trade is often dignified with the name of shrewdness, but, for all that, it is contrary to the rule of honesty. And now I have one more question to ask you: After you have discovered how your comrade has imposed upon you, what should you expect of him?"

Oscar made no reply.

"Should you not expect him to make full rest.i.tution?"

"Yes, sir," he replied, in a scarcely audible voice.

"Of course you would," continued the master; "and if he refused, he would deserve double punishment."

Several other forms of dishonesty were then considered, such as the following;--withholding from another his just dues; contracting debts which we know we cannot pay, or making promises we know we cannot fulfil; wasting or injuring the property of others, &c. In concluding, the teacher remarked, that it was not very pleasant to feel that we had been wronged and cheated; but there was another feeling, a thousand-fold more to be dreaded--the feeling that we have wronged and cheated others. And so ended the moral lesson for that morning.

The particular bearing of this lesson upon Oscar, and the pertinency of the "case" he was called to decide upon, were not generally known to the cla.s.s, though their suspicions might have been somewhat excited by his confusion, and his reluctance to answer the questions put to him.

The teacher had been informed of Oscar's dishonest bargain by the boy who suffered from it, and he chose this way to impress upon him the immorality of the transaction. He concluded, however, to give him an opportunity to make a voluntary rest.i.tution, and so no further reference was made to the matter.

Oscar was wise enough to heed the warning. Before night, the bra.s.s dog-collar and the ivory pocket-comb were returned to their rightful owner.

CHAPTER XII.

SICKNESS.

"You have got a bad cold, Oscar," said Mrs. Preston one evening towards the close of winter, as Oscar came in from his play, and was seized with a coughing spell. "And no wonder," she added, on glancing at his feet; "why, do you see how wet the bottoms of your pantaloons are? I should like to know where you have been, to get so wet--it is strange that you will not keep out of the water."

"I should like to know how anybody could help getting wet feet this weather, with the slosh up to your knees," said Oscar.

"I could walk about the streets all day without going over my shoes,"

replied his mother, "and so could you, if you tried to. I believe you go through all the mud-puddles you can find, just to see how wet you can get. But it won't do for you to sit down in this condition. Take off your wet boots, and run up stairs and put on a pair of dry pantaloons and some dry stockings, and then you may sit down to the fire and warm yourself."

"I don't want to change my pantaloons and stockings," said Oscar; "I 'll take off my boots and dry myself--that will do just as well."

"No it won't," replied his mother; "you had better change your clothes, for you've got a real bad cold now, and I don't want you to get any more. Come, do you hear me? Run up to your chamber and put on some dry clothes."

Oscar paid no attention to the command, but after removing his wet boots, sat down before the range to dry his feet and legs. Such instances of disobedience were too common in the family to attract any special notice, and Mrs. Preston said nothing more about the matter.

Oscar, that afternoon, had been down to the sh.o.r.es of Charles River, near Cambridge Bridge, with Alfred Walton and several other boys. They had been amusing themselves upon the ice that had formed along the edge of the river, and which was now breaking up. They loosened some of the large cakes, and set them floating off upon the current towards the ocean. It was in this way that Oscar got his feet so wet.

The next afternoon, when school was dismissed, Oscar, forgetting his wet feet and his cold, went again to the same place, with several of his cronies. Tiger also accompanied the party, for his master seldom went anywhere without him, except to school. The boys amused themselves, as on the previous day, with shoving off large blocks of ice into the stream, and with running rapidly over floating pieces that were not large enough to bear them up. Sometimes they narrowly escaped a ducking, so venturesome were they; and all of them got their feet pretty thoroughly soaked.

It happened, after awhile, that a cake of ice upon which the boys were all standing, got disengaged from the sh.o.r.e, unperceived by them, and commenced floating into the river. They were all at work upon another ice-block, trying to push it off, and did not notice that they were going off themselves, until they were several feet from the sh.o.r.e. The distance was too great to leap, and the water was so deep that none of them dared to jump off from their precarious footing.

"Well, this is a pretty joke," said one of the boys, with some appearance of alarm. "I should like to know how we are going to get out of this sc.r.a.pe?"