Yorkville Enquirer

EVIL ASSOCIATES.

Did you ever think that you are doing good or evil to those about you all the time, even when you think nothing about it? The very smiles or frowns on your face; the very tones of your voice; much more, the words you speak, and the acts you do, exert an influence, good or bad, on all your associates. How a fretful child in the morning jars the whole family. It is a terrible thing for a boy to have a bad associate. Besides his bad words, he will exert an influence every hour and moment he is with you, even when he least designs to do so.

Harry Clyke used frequently to call for Ben Smith to go on errands with him. Ben was not a good boy, but he always had the best whistles of any boy about, so Harry liked to be with him. He always had a pocketful of marbles, too, which he had won from poorer players, and that should have been enough to make Harry shun him. A boy who plays marbles 'for keeps,' is in a fair way to become a gambler when he grows up. Ben was sharp enough to know that if he swore and stole before Harry he would leave his company at once. So he behaved pretty well for him. Still, his unconscious influence was all evil. He could not see a dear little bird on the fence without aiming a stone at it, and I am sorry to say he sometimes hit it. By and by Harry would also pick up a stone and try his skill. Little by little he learned to pursue the poor toads that crossed his path, and hunt them to death with sticks and stones. It was very easy after he had seen his companion do it a dozen times, to put his hand through the fence, and pick a handful of berries in a neighbor's garden.

So he went on from bad to worse, until it was no longer necessary to disguise himself any longer. He was fast becoming as bad a boy as himself.

...from it. If you see a boy do what your mother has taught you it is wrong to do, anything.—Presbyterian.