[Sidenote: Play and Truancy]
Darrow King deliberately planned the truancy of his classmates one
bright May day, although he did not actually suggest it to them. He had
been good a long time, nothing exciting had happened since cold weather,
and he wanted to get out-of-doors and away from the stuffy school-room.
There was no fun in playing truant alone, or he might have done that; he
had no grudge against Miss Haynes except as she represented an irksome
educational system of which he did not approve. When he grew eloquent of
fishing lines and a warm sunny swimming hole out by Pike’s Mill, every
boy within sound of his voice felt the primal impulse to take to the
fields. So they did, leaving seventeen girls and three righteous
quitters to take care of Miss Haynes and Grade Seven.
“This is Darrow King’s work,” said Miss Haynes to herself. “If I don’t
conquer that boy he’ll be running the school before long. I’m fearing
he’s on the downward path.” So Darrow King was called before the bar and
arraigned. It was a private session after school.
“Darrow, I believe you planned that truancy, and I want you to tell me
the truth about it. Didn’t you tell the other boys to skip school last
Friday afternoon?”
“No, ma’am, I didn’t. I just said there was a good place to fish out
there, and that Mr. Pike would let us swim below the dam, and all the
fellows said they wanted to go. I didn’t say they should, they just
wanted to.”
“Perhaps that’s true, but it was you who planned it, wasn’t it?”
“No’m, I didn’t plan it. I just remarked how nice it would be for us all
to go together if it wasn’t a school day, and Bob Darcy he said let’s go
anyway, and I guess they all wanted to, for they did—except the two
Jones boys and the Righter kid.”
“Nevertheless it was you that started it, wasn’t it? Tell the truth,
Darrow.”
“Well, yes, I s’pose I started it. I guess it was me, all right.”
“Oh, Darrow, don’t you realize what an influence you have over the other
boys? There is nothing so great as the power of influence. I remember I
wrote my graduating theme upon The Power of Influence, and I’ve noticed
it ever since. You knew that playing truant is one of the worst things
you can do, and yet you led those boys into temptation. What do you
think will be the end of a boy who enters into such sin? You know that
when we begin to sin we go from bad to worse, and I hate to think of
your going on the downward path, Darrow.”
By this time Miss Haynes had reduced herself to tears at the image she
was conjuring up of Darrow sliding down the moral toboggan. Darrow,
catching his cue from her, began to look contrite and sorrowful.
“Darrow, think of the power for good you might be, if only you’d use
your influence rightly. Instead of teaching the boys to do wicked
things, why not become a great uplift in their lives? Had you ever
thought of that?”
“No, ma’am. But I’ll try to do better, Miss Haynes.”
This rapid conversion to righteous resolutions completely melted Miss
Haynes. “I’m sure you will, Darrow. That is all—I won’t punish you this
time, for I expect you to use your personal influence to bring these
thoughtless and perverse boys into better ways of thinking and doing.
Only think of the power for good that you have!”
Darrow left the room with a step that fairly sang of a chastened soul
resolved to bring all its erring kind into the fold of holy endeavor. He
kept this up until he was well away from the schoolhouse, when he broke
into a mad run and was soon with the other boys in Farrell’s pasture,
where they were playing ball. Here he recounted his interview with Miss
Haynes, not omitting the pathetic passages, amid shouts of laughter.
Needless to say, his “great influence over the boys” was not exerted in
the interests of good order that year. The boys continued to do what
they had done before, and Darrow led them as of old.