`` Some of them are about first-rate boys , mother ; and they go to sea and study , and sail round the world , having great larks all the way . '' `` I have read about them , Geordie , and though they are better than the others , I am not satisfied with these optical delusions , as I call them . Now , I put it to you , boys , is it natural for lads from fifteen to eighteen to command ships , defeat pirates , outwit smugglers , and so cover themselves with glory , that Admiral Farragut invites them to dinner , saying , ` Noble boy , you are an honour to your country ! ' Or , if the hero is in the army , he has hair-breadth escapes and adventures enough in one small volume to turn his hair white , and in the end he goes to Washington at the express desire of the President or Commander-in-chief to be promoted to no end of stars and bars . Even if the hero is merely an honest boy trying to get his living , he is not permitted to do so in a natural way , by hard work and years of patient effort , but is suddenly adopted by a millionaire whose pocket-book he has returned ; or a rich uncle appears from sea just in the nick of time ; or the remarkable boy earns a few dollars , speculates in pea-nuts or neckties , and grows rich so rapidly that Sinbad in the diamond valley is a pauper compared to him . Is n't it so , boys ? '' `` Well , the fellows in these books are mighty lucky , and very smart , I must say , '' answered Will , surveying an illustration on the open page before him , where a small but virtuous youth is upsetting a tipsy giant in a bar-room , and under it the elegant inscription , `` Dick Dauntless punches the head of Sam Soaker . '' `` It gives boys such wrong ideas of life and business ; shows them so much evil and vulgarity that they need not know about , and makes the one success worth having a fortune , a lord 's daughter , or some worldly honour , often not worth the time it takes to win . It does seem to me that some one might write stories that should be lively , natural and helpful tales in which the English should be good , the morals pure , and the characters such as we can love in spite of the faults that all may have . I ca n't bear to see such crowds of eager little fellows at the libraries reading such trash ; weak , when it is not wicked , and totally unfit to feed the hungry minds that feast on it for want of something better . There ! my lecture is done ; now I should like to hear what you gentlemen have to say , '' and Aunt Jessie subsided with a pretty flush on the face that was full of motherly anxiety for her boys . `` Tom Brown just suits mother , and me too , so I wish Mr. Hughes would write another story as good , '' said Archie . `` You do n't find things of this sort in Tom Brown ; yet these books are all in the Sunday-school libraries '' and Mrs. Jessie read the following paragraph from the book she had taken from Will 's hand , '' ` In this place we saw a tooth of John the Baptist . Ben said he could see locust and wild honey sticking to it . I could n't . Perhaps John used a piece of the true cross for a tooth-pick . ' '' `` A larky sort of a boy says that , Mum , and we skip the parts where they describe what they saw in the different countries , '' cried Will . `` And those descriptions , taken mostly from guidebooks , I fancy , are the only parts of any real worth . The scrapes of the bad boys make up the rest of the story , and it is for those you read these books , I think , '' answered his mother , stroking back the hair off the honest little face that looked rather abashed at this true statement of the case .
`` Anyway , mother , the ship part is useful , for we learn how to sail her , and by and by that will all come handy when we go to sea , '' put in XXXXX .
Archie Ben Brown Dauntless Geordie Jessie Soaker Washington bar-room tooth-pick