How Tom Was Managed

Torn is a trial. Tom at school gets thro' the geography by boring a hole through the middle. That is bis roya rnad to learning, or rather past it. He holds the smaller boys up by the heels and stands them on their heads. He mclts up the ink stands into bullets. He plays truaut, gets into trouble, and, when he can, lies his way out. When the teacher tries to correct him, he kicks her and bites her alternately. ïhis is Tom at school. He lounges on the streets, iusults passengers, and gocs down anc stones the school house windows. This is Tom in vacation. Ho tukes other boys on pleasure excursions, such as stealing pears, peaches, applcs, and meions. This is Tom on a farm. 2. The other day Tom's father callcd upon the school committoc, looking like an injurcd aud persecuted man. Mark this: If a boy lies vvorse tlian Anauiis and Sapphira, especially if it is about school his mothcr will believe every word of it. And if his mother belicves it, of eourse his father will. So iu comes Mr. Skinner, the iiijured father. 3. ' My sou has been turncd out of school, sir." 4. "Forwhat?" 5. " Nothing iu the world but missing a word." 6. " Indeed ! How did you ascertain tha. ? " 7. " He says so, and all the other children say so." 8. " All the other children " were two or threo smaller ones, who had to be Tom's echoes uudcr penalty of standing inverted. 9. " Now, Skinucr, I know a little of Tom's antecedent probabüiües. I was in the school two or three days ago, and he didn't spt-U but one word right, and that one he guessed at. He won't study, and he seldom answers a question rightly, except by accident." 10. " Why, sir, he says he's got thro' most of 1Ú9 books." 11. " Ycs, sir, he gets through his books as a worm gets through au apple, or a rat gets tlirough a rneal chest. He digs through with his jack-knife." 12. " Well, I'ni not unreasonable. - I'm williug Tom should bepunished, but bis mother don't want him turned out of the school. We want him to have a ?ood education. The teacher carnvhip iiim if it is necessary. 13. " You stem to think, sir, it is a great privilege to whip your boy. It strikes me that is asking a great deal of a young lady, and that such Jittle jobs as tboso you ought to do yourself. lJarents are bound to send their children to the school room in such a eondition that they will neither kiek nor bite ; and if they negleet this duty they ought to forfeit privileges " 14. Mr. Skinner went lióme with new views. But for Tom's sake I did not let the matter rest there. I gave a presctiption which I thought suited exactly to Tom's case, and which I havo never known to f'ail ; and as it works with boys of the Torn Skinner stripe as chariuingly as Rarey's does with wild horses, I give it for the benefit of all parents and school eommittees, thus : " Take Tom out of school for one week ; don't leave him any leisure wherein to torment the cat, or stone the neighbor's hens ; tuke him out iuto the field, make him work at your side from rnorning till evening, so that ho will be sure to sloep o' nights; never strike him ; work him six days in uocession, at the end of which you may reasonably expect all the bad spirits will ïave worked out of him at the rate of one per day. Then let him go back to he school, aud if the ovil possession comes back again, repeat the esercise ill it is effectual and complete," Tom is uow uudt'r this régimen. It vorks beautifully, and I ara persuaded ve shall have a new and better edition olh of Toni at school and Tom on a