"ElizaLeeFollen-Conscience" - читать интересную книгу автора (Follen Eliza Lee)

and kept pointing at us. At last, I saw Frank's mark, and he saw mine. I can
tell you we were both angry enough. Now we want to be revenged on John Green,
and have a capital plan. You see he will be on his guard, and we must be very
cunning. To-morrow is exhibition day, and he will have on his best dark-green
jacket, and Frank and I are to sit one on each side of him. You see he is really
a dunce about every thing but playing tricks; and, when he is asked a question,
he will be scared out of his senses, and not know what to say. Now Frank is
going to pretend to help him, while I write Dunce in large letters on the stupid
fellow's back. John will not know what I am doing, I am sure; and, as he is a
real dunce, it will make a good laugh; every one will think he is well served,
and the whole school will make fun of him."
"So," said Mrs. Chilton, "you acknowledge that you are planning a piece of
revenge."
"Why, yes, Mother," replied Frank; "I suppose you would think it ought to be
called revenge, but I don't see any great harm in it. Schoolboys always play
such tricks, and no boy thinks the worse of another for such a thing."
"You think," said Mrs. Chilton, "that this schoolmate of yours will be so
embarrassed at answering the questions that he will not know what he is about;
you mean, one of you, to pretend to be his friend and help him, while the other
makes him appear like a fool to the rest of the boys."
Frank and Harry looked a little troubled, and were silent a while. Then Frank
said, "It is no more than what John would do; 'tis what he deserves, and it is
true enough that he is a dunce."
"I will tell you, Frank, a better way of being revenged," replied his mother.
"What is it, Mother?"
"Sit by him, as you intended, and when he is troubled and perplexed, help him as
well as you can, and be particularly kind to him."
"And so reward him for making fools of us," said Prank, pettishly. "No, Mother,
what you say may be very good, but I don't want to do such a thing as that."
"If you were to treat him in the way I propose, do you think he would ever treat
you unkindly again? Would he not feel deeply ashamed of his conduct if you thus
returned him good for evil?"
The boys were silent, but it was evident that they did not quite relish their
mother's advice, nor feel at all disposed to help John Green say his lessons.
"I will tell you a story," said Mrs. Chilton, of a man who overcame evil with
good. A gentleman was once travelling alone in a gig through a very unfrequented
road. There was no house, no sign of human existence there. It was so still that
the hills and rocks and deep woods gave back the echo of his horse's hoofs; the
song of a bird or the chirping of a cricket seemed to fill a great space, and
fell on the ear with a strange and almost startling effect. He was observing or
rather feeling this extreme solitude and stillness, when suddenly at a turn in
the road he came upon a man who placed himself directly before the horse's head.
The man had a dark, bad expression in his face, and fixed his eye upon the
traveller in such a way as to convince him that the man meant to stop and rob
him.
The gentleman immediately drew up his reins, and said kindly, "Friend, if you
are going my way, step into my gig, and let me take you on."
The man hesitated, and then got in. My friend, who was a clergyman, began
immediately to talk earnestly about many interesting things, and kept up a
lively conversation. At last, he mentioned the uncommon loneliness of the road,