Man sitting reading newspaper with boy standing.
Man sitting reading newspaper with boy standing.
Charles Hart had once the folly to steal his father’s penknife; he had sold it for six cents to one of his schoolfellows; and he had employed the money in purchasing cherries, which he ate with much appetite.
But this little pleasure, which lasted buta few minutes, was followed by sorrow and regret, that continued a long time.
In short, Charles’s theft was not long in being found out. His schoolfellow’s father, having seen the penknife in his son’s hand, and having learned of whom he had bought it, sent it back immediately to Charles’s father, with a polite message to know if he had given his son leave to sell it.
You may easily conjecture that young Charles was severely punished; but the punishment which he received from his father was trifling in comparison with what followed.
All those who lived in the same house with him suspected him the moment that they happened to miss any thing; and each accused him of having taken it. They rummaged his pockets, room, books, and carried their suspicions so far, as to inquire at the school where Charles went, if he had not shown any suspicious thing there.
Judge if this sort of distrust did notcause him uneasiness. He often cried most bitterly at the injustice they did him; though he felt that he had but too well deserved it. Let him say what he would of their wronging him, or let him assert that he was incapable of doing what they accused him of, they did not continue to mistrust him the less; nor was it till after many years, and that he had given strong proofs of his amendment, that the people with whom he lived restored him their confidence.
Lone tree.