GOODNESS AND SMARTNESS.
By J. E. M'C.
"How is my boy getting on, Mr. Carter?" asked a father of his son's teacher. "He is one of the best boys in my school," said the teacher, emphatically. "A very conscientious, truthful lad, and one whom I can always trust as pure-hearted and generous." "Glad to hear it," said the father, indifferently. "I always knew he was a pretty good boy about home, but what I wish to ask particularly is, how is he getting along in his studies. I want him to be sharp and smart for business when he is through school." "Well as to that," said the teacher, hesitatingly, "he is a very industrious boy, but he is not very quick to learn, especially in mathematics. He likes rhetoric and moral science better, and always has good lessons in geology." "Oh, fiddlesticks," said the father, impatiently. "If he isn't good at cyphering, he isn't for anything. Drop off the other things and put him through on arithmetic. I always knew he had too soft a head for business. I brought him here to be made something of, and not to fool away his time over moral science and all that. I am afraid you make quite too much of these things and don't toughen up the boys for every-day work. If a boy isn't smart, of what advantage is his goodness to him, I should like to know. Might almost as well send him to a girls' school," he added, with a half sneer, as he rose to leave. He could not hide his dissatisfaction at having his boy commended chiefly for his good moral qualities. These, he took for granted, could be taken up and developed at any odd leisure hour or two. Had the teacher been able to say, "Your boy is at the head of his classes in almost everything. He will win the first prize," there would have been no bounds to his delight and satisfaction. If he had been compelled to add, "I wish I could speak as confidently about his purity of character and the good influence he exerts over the other boys," the father would have been very ready with his excuse. "We must not think too hardly of a boy who is just sowing his wild oats. No doubt you and I did the same, but we forget these things as we grow old. The boy will come out all right, never fear. Watch him closely that he does not get into mischief that will bring trouble on him and me; and don't be too hard on small offenses. It sours a boy's disposition." And so the "wild oats" are allowed to be sowed plentifully; the result is the same that it was when those terrible words were first spoken: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."—J. E. M'C.