“In my spare moments I gambled for marbles.”

“In my spare moments I began to smoke and drink.”

“It was in my spare moments that I began to steal chestnuts from the old woman’s stand.”

“It was in my spare moments that I gathered with wicked associates.”

Oh, be very, very careful how you spend your spare moments!  Temptation always hunts you out in small seasons like these when you are not busy; he gets into your hearts, if he possibly can, in just such gaps.  There he hides himself, planning all sorts of mischief.  Take care of your spare moments.  “Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.”

[Illustration]

WILL WINSLOW

Will Winslow was the worst boy in the village; his father’s indulgence had spoiled him.

“Don’t check the boy,” he would say to his mother, “you will crush all the manhood in him.”

And so he grew up the terror of his neighbors.  The old, the infirm, and the crippled were the especial objects of his vicious merriment.

One poor woman, bent by age and infirmities, he assailed with his ridicule, as she daily went out upon her crutch, to draw water from the well near her house, and just within the playground of the schoolhouse.

“Only look at her,” he would say, “isn’t she the letter S now, with an extra crook in it?” and his cruel laugh, as he followed closely behind, mocking and mimicking her, called forth from her no rebuke.

One day, however, she turned, and looking at him reproachfully, said:—­

“Go home, child, and read the story of Elisha and the two bears out of the wood.”

“Shame on you, Will,” said Charles Mansfield, “to laugh at her misfortunes!  I heard my grandmother say that she became a cripple by lifting her invalid son, and tending him night and day.”

“I don’t care what made her so,” said Will, “but I wouldn’t stay among people if I was such a looking thing as that.  Do look!”

“Shame!” said Charles; “shame!” echoed each of the boys present.  And to show their sympathy, several of them sprang forward to aid the poor woman; but Charles Mansfield, the oldest, and always an example of nobleness and generosity, was the first.  “Let me get the water for you, ma’am,” and he gently took the bucket from her hand.

Her voice was tremulous and tearful, as she said, “Thank you, my dear boy.  God grant that you may never suffer from such infirmities.”

“If I should,” said Charles, kindly, “it would be the duty, and ought to be the pleasure of young people to assist me.  One of us will bring you water every day, and so you need not come for it.”

“Yes, so we will,” was echoed from lip to lip.

“God bless you!  God bless you all.”  She exclaimed as she wiped away the tears and entered her poor and lonely home.

Will Winslow was reported to the master, and was sentenced to study during the usual recess for a week to come.  The punishment was hard, for he loved play better than his book; but how slight in comparison with the retribution which awaited him.