I know if
there were half a dozen boys here, it would be different. I suppose it is
all right for girls and women, but, bah! I can't be a goody-goody. I am
only a boy. I guess it won't pay to bother about good manners, like a girl.
I am too busy these days, when there is no school, to learn manners or
anything else, anyway," and he went off with his goat, to forget everything
else.
Time after time Nick failed to heed what he had been told, and each time he
had to suffer a just penalty; but it seemed as if he never could learn
manners. The real reason was that he had no desire to have good manners.
One morning Mrs. Hammond said: "Now, Nick, I am expecting your Aunt Ella
and Uncle Alfred today, and I want you to be on your guard while they are
here, and not act as if you were a backwoods boy who does not know
anything. I especially want you to be gentlemanly; for Uncle Alfred is such
a stranger to us yet that he will not understand you, and will think less
of your papa and myself for seeing you rude and ill-mannered. You see, you
owe it to yourself to make every one like you as much as possible.
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