It was the Christmas examination at school, and the boys were all at
their desks ready for the questions in arithmetic. Will Jones's desk was
next Tom Hardy's, and everybody thought that =one= of these two boys
would win the prize.
As soon as the questions had been given out, the boys set to work. Tom
did all his sums on a scrap of paper first, then he copied them out
carefully, and, after handing his paper to the master, left the room.
Unfortunately he left the scrap of paper on which he had worked his sums
lying on the desk. Will snatched it up, and looked to see if his answers
were the same. No! two were different. Tom's would be sure to be right;
so he copied the sums from Tom's scrap of paper. It was stealing, of
course; just as much stealing as if he had taken Tom's pen or knife.
Besides, it is so mean to let some one else do the work and then steal
it from them--even the =birds= know that.
Some little birds were building themselves a nest, and to save the
trouble of gathering materials, they went and took some twigs and other
things from =another bird's nest= that was being built. But when the old
birds saw what the little ones had done, they set to work and pulled the
nest all to pieces. That was to teach them to go and find their =own=
twigs and sticks, and not to steal from others.
Of course Will was not happy. There was a little Voice within that would
not let him rest, and when the boys kept talking about the arithmetic
prize, and wondering who would get it, he felt as though he would like
to go and hide somewhere, he was so ashamed. That is one of the results
of wrong-doing, as we said before--it always makes us ashamed.
At last the day came when the master would tell who were the
prize-winners. The boys were all sitting at their desks listening as the
master read out these words:--
"Tom Hardy and Will Jones have all their sums right, but as Will's paper
is the neater of the two, =he= will take the first prize".
The boys clapped their hands, but Will was not glad. The Voice within
spoke louder and louder, so loudly that Will was almost afraid some of
the other boys would hear it, and his face grew red and hot. At last he
determined to obey the Good Voice and tell the truth, so he rose from
his seat, walked up to the master, and said: "Please, sir, the prize
does not belong to me, for I stole two of my answers from Tom Hardy. I
am very sorry."
The master was greatly surprised, but he could see that Will was very
sorry and unhappy. He held out his hand to him, and said: "I am glad,
Will, that you have been brave enough to confess this. It will make you
far happier than the prize would have done, seeing that you had not
honestly won it." So the prize went to Tom, and Will was never guilty
of copying again; he remembered too well the unhappiness that followed
it.
(Blackboard.)
Copying is Stealing.