When the morning breaks, may we,
Better, wiser children be.
STRETCHING THE TRUTH.
It is a very bad habit, this stretching the truth, as one does a piece of
India rubber; and the worst of it is, that when any body forms the habit,
there is no telling how much it will grow upon him.
There is Jack Weaver, for instance. He is a sailor all over, to be sure--an
"old salt," as he would call himself. But that does not confer upon him any
license to spin such yarns as he does, to his young shipmates on the
forward deck. He has cruised half a dozen years after whales, in the
Pacific ocean, and, of course, has seen some sights that are worth speaking
of. But that is no reason why he should fill the head of that young fellow
sitting on a coil of rope with a hundred cock-and-bull stories, that have
scarcely a word of truth in them, from beginning to end. Why, he don't
pretend to tell stories without stretching the truth.
I know some boys, too, who seem to find it very difficult to relate any
incident as it took place.
Pages:
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58