"Why, because the master that's got to see my home-work won't be at school to-morrow, so it would have been all a waste. The other boys said they weren't going to do theirs." "And what difference does it make to you whether they do theirs or not? How does it alter your duty? Why should you cheat yourself because they are silly enough to cheat themselves?" The big brown eyes looked at me blankly. I went on: "Don't you see, Little Yeogh Wough, that it's only yourself that you cheat when you don't do your work? It's not your master. It doesn't matter to him. He doesn't lose anything. It's you who lose. You've cheated yourself this evening of something that you might have had. And you haven't been thorough. If you neglect your work often like this, you'll get to slurring it over when you do it, so long as you think nobody will notice the slurring; and that won't do. That will make you grow up just like most of the other men you see around you, and not the great, strong, wonderful man that I want you to be." He patted my face and neck with the hand that I had left free, as I knelt by the bedside. "You funny Big Yeogh Wough! Nobody would expect anyone who looks like you to talk like that," he said mischievously. "You wise little boy!" I laughed. "No, I suppose they wouldn't. People always make mistakes like that, you know. One day the world will come to see that preachers may look very bright and easy-going--just as motherly women with mob caps and three chins are not necessarily the best persons to trust to for seeing that sheets are properly aired. Now, good night. You must go to sleep." I went to the window and opened it, placed the screen by his bed just where it would shield him from the draught and from the light, and went towards the door. As I reached it, he called me back. "Mother, do you think we shall ever have a war with Germany?" "A war with Germany? Why, yes, I suppose we are pretty sure to have one some day. But whatever makes you ask that now?" "Oh, it was only because I heard one of the masters talking about it!" "Well, I don't think you need trouble about it just yet, anyhow. The best thing you can do is to sleep well and eat well and work well, so as to grow up a fine man and be able to do something worth doing in that war when it comes--if it ever does come." When I had left him I stood for some minutes shaking the door gently to make sure that it was properly shut and that he would not be in a draught all night.