It is, however, possible to bring forward individual cases in such a way as to produce a very strong moral effect of the right kind.  This is to be done by seizing upon those peculiar emergencies which will arise in the course of the administration of a school, and which each teacher must watch for and discover himself.  They can not be pointed out.  I may, however, give a clearer idea of what is meant by such emergencies by an example.  It is a case which actually occurred as here narrated.

In a school where nearly all the pupils were faithful and docile, there were one or two boys who were determined to find amusement in those mischievous tricks so common in schools and colleges.  There was one boy, in particular, who was the life and soul of all these plans.  Devoid of principle, idle as a scholar, morose and sullen in his manners, he was, in every respect, a true specimen of the whole class of mischief-makers, wherever they are to be found.  His mischief consisted, as usual, in such exploits as stopping up the keyhole of the door, upsetting the teacher’s inkstand, or fixing something to his desk to make a noise and interrupt the school.

It so happened that there was a standing feud between the boys of his neighborhood and those of another situated a mile or two from it.  By his malicious activity he had stimulated this quarrel to a high pitch, and was very obnoxious to the boys of the other party.  One day, when taking a walk, the teacher observed a number of boys with excited looks, and armed with sticks and stones, standing around a shoemaker’s shop, to which his poor pupil had gone for refuge from them.  They had got him completely within their power, and were going to wait until he should be wearied with his confinement and come out, when they were going to inflict upon him the punishment they thought he deserved.

The teacher interfered, and by the united influence of authority, management, and persuasion, succeeded in effecting a rescue.  The boy would probably have preferred to owe his safety to any one else than to the teacher whom he had so often tried to tease, but he was glad to escape in any way.  The teacher said nothing about the subject, and the boy soon supposed it was entirely forgotten.

But it was not forgotten.  The teacher knew perfectly well that the boy would before long be at his old tricks again, and was reserving this story as the means of turning the whole current of public opinion against such tricks, should they again occur.

One day he came to school in the afternoon, and found the room filled with smoke; the doors and windows were all closed, though, as soon as he came in, some of the boys opened them.  He knew by this circumstance that it was roguery, not accident, which caused the smoke.  He appeared not to notice it, however, said he was sorry it smoked, and asked the mischievous boy—­for he was sure to be always near in such a case—­to assist him in putting up the wood of the fire more compactly.  The boy supposed that the smoke was understood to be accidental, and perhaps secretly laughed at the dullness of his master.