Bad Money

WILLIAM Dow was showing his playfellows a counterfeit quarter. "O, you don't know it is counterfeit!" said James Drew. "Yes, I do; father said it was," said William. "Well, you needn't know it," said James. "Your father may be mistaken. I should go to that old woman at the corner stall, and spend it. Treat us, old fellow. She's half blind, and will never be the wiser for it." "What an honorable fellow you are, James," cried little George Clicker. "That you call doing as you would be done by, do you?" "Well, somebody passed it on him, and he does no more than keep it going," cried James. "Come, William, give us some chestnuts." 'No, sir," said William, "I don't do that mean thing, I tell you. I do not intend to be dishonest in little things, then I never shall be caught being dishonest in great ones. Father says half the frauds, embezzlements, and bank robberies, began in little dishonesties. They tunnel the way for a rush at last." "Good for you, William," cried George. "I believe in you. As for James, he may come to a bad end yet." William Dow tossed the counterfeit into the river, and the boys stood on the bridge watching the eddies it made in the water. "Thus let all bad money be sunk before it sinks us," said George. 

The Youth's Instructor