In the course of the afternoon, the teacher ascertained by private inquiries that his suspicions were correct as to the author of the mischief.  At the close of school, when the studies were ended, and the books laid away, he said to the scholars that he wanted to tell them a story.

He then, with a pleasant tone and manner, gave a very minute, and, to the boys, a very interesting narrative of his adventure two or three weeks before, when he rescued this boy from his danger.  He called him, however, simply a boy, without mentioning his name, or even hinting that he was a member of the school.  No narrative could excite a stronger interest among an audience of school-boys than such a one as this, and no act of kindness from a teacher would make as vivid an impression as interfering to rescue a trembling captive from such a situation as the one this boy had been in.

The scholars listened with profound interest and attention, and though the teacher said little about his share in the affair, and spoke of what he did as if it were a matter of course that he should thus befriend a boy in distress, an impression very favorable to himself must have been made.  After he had finished his narrative, he said,

“Now should you like to know who this boy was?”

“Yes, sir,” “Yes, sir,” said they, eagerly.

“It was a boy that you all know.”

The boys looked around upon one another.  Who could it be?

“He is a member of this school.”

There was an expression of fixed, and eager, and increasing interest on every face in the room.

“He is here now,” said the teacher, winding up the interest and curiosity of the scholars, by these words, to the highest pitch.

“But I can not tell you his name; for what return do you think he made to me?  To be sure it was no very great favor that I did him; I should have been unworthy the name of teacher if I had not done it for him, or for any boy in my school.  But, at any rate, it showed my good wishes for him; it showed that I was his friend; and what return do you think he made me for it?  Why, to-day he spent his time between schools in filling the room with smoke, that he might torment his companions here, and give me trouble, and anxiety, and suffering when I should come.  If I should tell you his name, the whole school would turn against him for his ingratitude.”

The business ended here, and it put a stop, a final stop, to all malicious tricks in the school.  Now it is not very often that so fine an opportunity occurs to kill, by a single blow, the disposition to do willful, wanton injury, as this circumstance afforded; but the principle illustrated by it, bringing forward individual cases of transgression in a public manner, only for the sake of the general effect, and so arranging what is said and done as to produce the desired effect upon the public mind in the highest degree, may very frequently be acted upon.  Cases are continually occurring, and if the teacher will keep it constantly in mind, that when a particular case comes before the whole school, the object is an influence upon the whole, and not the punishment or reform of the guilty individual, he will insensibly so shape his measures as to produce the desired result.