When Martin grew older he had some playmates who were not very good, and
his mother said, "Martin, I wish you would not play with those boys; I
fear they will get you into trouble".
"Oh! no, mother," replied Martin, "if they =wanted= me to do anything
wrong I would not; I need not learn their bad ways if I =do= play with
them." But his mother shook her head, for she knew better.
Some time afterwards the boys had a half-holiday, and Martin went with
his friends into the country. Presently they came to a large garden,
with a high wall round it, and the boys began to climb the wall.
"Where are you going?" asked Martin.
"Oh!" said one of the boys, laughing, "a friend of ours owns this
garden, and we are going to help him gather strawberries."
There was a large bed of strawberries on the other side of the wall, and
as soon as the boys were over, they began to pick and eat.
What the boy had told Martin was quite untrue--they were =stealing= the
strawberries; but before very long the gardener spied them, and with one
or two other men came upon them so quietly, that they had no time to get
away, and every boy was made prisoner. The gardener locked them up in
the tool-house until the owner came, and he took their names and
addresses, and said they should be brought before the magistrates, as it
was not the first time they had stolen his fruit. Of course Martin had
not been with them the other times, but he was caught with them now, and
can you imagine how dreadfully ashamed he felt, and how his cheeks
burned when he thought of his dear mother, and the trouble it would be
to her. When he reached home, he told his mother all that had happened,
and begged her forgiveness. His mother was greatly distressed, and said:
"You remember playing with the pitch, Martin, when you were a very
little boy--you thought you could handle it, and still keep clean, but
you could not; so neither can you have bad companions without being
mixed up in wrong-doing".
(Blackboard.)
To mix with Bad Company is like Playing with Pitch.