Tommy Green was a little boy only eight years old when his parents sent
him to "boarding school," where he was thrown into the company of boys
older than himself. It is strange how most all boys enjoy teasing those
who are younger than themselves.
At Tommy's boarding school all the boys slept in one large room, on cots
conveniently arranged. Tommy was a heavy sleeper. One morning he awoke
with a strange feeling of stiffness about his face, and no sooner did he
sit up in bed than a laugh rang around the whole room.
"What are you laughing at?", he asked, but the boys only laughed the
harder at his confusion. At last one little boy named Frankie Jones
cried out "Tommy, it's your face."
Tommy rushed to a looking-glass, and found on his forehead and on each
cheek an enormous dab of red paint.
"Halloo, Green?" shouted one of the boys, "You're red now, ain't you?"
Tommy was greatly teased for a while, but kept his temper, and it was
not very long before he was joining with his school-mates to tease some
other small boy in a similar manner.
Such things are provoking, but it is best to treat them good-naturedly,
as Tommy did, and not lose one's temper.
[Illustration: PAINTING TOMMY'S FACE.]