The New McGuffey Fourth Reader | Page 6

think it is the hardest of all words.
It may seem easy enough to you to-night, but perhaps you cannot
pronounce it to-morrow."
"I can always say it, I know I can;" said George with much
confidence--"NO! Why, it is as easy to say it as to breathe."
"Well, George, I hope you will always find it as easy to pronounce as
you think it is now, and that you will be able to speak it when you
ought to."
In the morning George went bravely to school, a little proud that he
could pronounce so hard a word as "Popocatepetl." Not far frown the
schoolhouse was a large pond of very deep water, where the boys used
to skate and slide when it was frozen over.
Now, the night before, Jack Frost had been busy changing the surface
of the pond into beautiful crystals of ice; and when the boys went to
school in the morning they found the pond as smooth and clear as glass.
The day was cold, and they thought that by noon the ice would be
strong enough to skate upon.
As soon as school was dismissed the boys all ran to the pond,--some to
try the ice, and others merely to see it.
"Come, George," said William Green; "now we shall have a glorious
time sliding."
George hesitated, and said he did not believe it was strong enough, for

it had been frozen over only one night.
"Oh, come on!" said another boy: "I know it is strong enough. I have
known it to freeze over in one night, many a time, so it would bear:
haven't you, John?"
"Yes," answered John Brown: "it did so one night last winter; and it
wasn't so cold as it was last night, either."
But George still hesitated, for his father had forbidden him to go on the
ice without special permission.
"I know why George won't go," said John; "he's afraid he might fall
down and hurt himself."
"Or the ice might crack," said another; "and the noise would frighten
him. Perhaps his mother might not like it."
"He's a coward, that's the reason he won't come."
George could stand this no longer, for he was rather proud of his
courage. "I am not afraid," said he; and he ran to the pond, and was the
first one on the ice. The boys enjoyed the sport very much, running and
sliding, and trying to catch one another on its smooth surface.
More boys kept coming on as they saw the sport, and soon all thought
of danger was forgotten. Then suddenly there was a loud cry, "The ice
has broken! the ice has broken!" And sure enough, three of the boys
had broken through, and were struggling in the water; and one of them
was George.
The teacher had heard the noise, and was coming to call the boys from
the ice just as they broke through. He tore some boards from a fence
close by, and shoved them out on the ice until they came within reach
of the boys in the water. After a while he succeeded in getting the three
boys out of the water, but not until they were almost frozen.
George's father and mother were very much troubled when he was
brought home, and they learned how narrowly he had escaped
drowning. But they were so glad to know that. he was safe that they did
not ask him any questions until he was warm and comfortable again.
But in the evening, when they were all gathered together about the
cheerful fire, his father asked him how he came to disobey his positive
command.
George answered that he did not want to go on the ice, but the boys
made him.
"How did they make you? Did they take hold of you, and drag you on?"

asked his father.
"No," said George, "but they all wanted me to go."
"When they asked you, why didn't you say 'No'?"
"I was going to do so: but they called me a coward, and said I was
afraid to go; and I couldn't stand that."
"And so," said his father, "you found it easier to disobey me, and run
the risk of losing your life, than to say that little word you thought so
easy last night. You could not say 'No.'"
George now began to see why this little word"No" was so hard to
pronounce. It was not because it was so long, or composed of such
difficult sounds; but because it often requires so much real courage to
say it,--to say "No" when one is tempted to do wrong.
After that, whenever George was tempted to do wrong, he remembered
his narrow escape from drowning, and the importance of the little word
"No." The