Mr. Random then ordered the servant to go for a coach, in which Dicky most certainly would have been sent off had not word been brought back that there was not a coach on the stand.  During this time Dicky had fallen on his knees, entreating that he might remain at home, and offering promises to be less heedless in future; nay, he was willing to yield up all his toys to the maimed little gardener.

The boy’s father, though but a laboring man, had a generous mind; he wanted nothing of this kind, but only wished him to be more cautious in future, as the same stones, thrown at random, might have either blinded his son or fractured his skull, instead of merely hurting his leg.  Mr. Random then insisted on Richard’s giving him half-a-crown, and asking pardon for the misfortune occasioned by his carelessness.

This heavy sum was directly taken out of the hoard which had been laid by for the purchase of a set of drawing instruments, but he had a yet heavier account to settle with his father for damaging the cucumber-frame.  He had broken as much of it as would come to fifteen shillings to mend, and as payment was insisted on, or close confinement until the whole was settled, he was compelled to transfer to his father all his receipts for the ensuing five months before he could again resume his scheme of laying by an adequate sum to purchase the drawing utensils.  Independently of which he always carried a strong memorial of his folly on his nose, which was so scarred that he endured many a joke, as it were, to keep alive in his memory the effect of his folly.  Indeed, he never looked in the glass without seeing his reproach in his face, and thus at length learned never to play without first thinking if it were at a proper time and in a proper place.

EMBELLISHMENT

By JACOB ABBOTT

One day Beechnut, who had been ill, was taken by Phonny and Madeline for a drive.  When Phonny and Madeline found themselves riding quietly along in the wagon in Beechnut’s company, the first thought which occurred to them, after the interest and excitement awakened by the setting out had passed in some measure away, was that they would ask him to tell them a story.  This was a request which they almost always made in similar circumstances.  In all their rides and rambles Beechnut’s stories were an unfailing resource, furnishing them with an inexhaustible fund of amusement sometimes, and sometimes of instruction.

“Well,” said Beechnut, in answer to their request, “I will tell you now about my voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.”

“Yes,” exclaimed Madeline, “I should like to hear about that very much indeed.”

“Shall I tell the story to you just as it was,” asked Beechnut, “as a sober matter of fact, or shall I embellish it a little?”

“I don’t know what you mean by embellishing it,” said Madeline.

“Why, not telling exactly what is true,” said Beechnut, “but inventing something to add to it, to make it interesting.”