`` 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 Geordie . `` Indeed , then you can explain this manoeuvre to me , of course , '' and Mrs. Jessie read from another page the following nautical paragraph , `` The wind is south-south-west , and we can have her up four points closer to the wind , and still be six points off the wind . As she luffs up we shall man the fore and main sheets , slack on the weather , and haul on the lee braces . '' `` I guess I could , if I was n't afraid of uncle . He knows so much more than I do , he 'd laugh , '' began Geordie , evidently puzzled by the question . `` Ho , you know you ca n't , so why make believe ?
We do n't understand half of the sea lingo , Mum , and I dare say it 's all wrong , '' cried Will , suddenly going over to the enemy , to XXXXX 's great disgust .
Baptist Ben Brown Geordie Ho Jessie Soaker Sunday-school bar-room tooth-pick