My dear children, I am happy to say that all boys who are called bad boys are not bad boys. There is quite a difference between a bad boy and a merely mischievous boy. A boy is not necessarily bad because he makes unearthly noises about the house, or now and then twists the cat’s tail just to hear her mew, or muddies his clothes in an effort to catch crawfish. He is not bad just because he likes to “play fantastic” on the fourth day of July. So many people complain of their boys being bad when they are only mischievous--that is to say, when they are only full of life. Some people think that a good boy is one that has a pale face and looks sickly; one that wears a sanctimonious look and moves along through the world as though he were afraid to put one foot in front of the other. That isn’t my kind of a boy. I do not think that kind of a fellow is a boy at all--he is ’most a girl! A boy who never enjoys a romp in the woods, who never climbs the apple tree before or after the apples are ripe, who never plays ball, who will not shoot marbles, etc.--this sort of a boy usually dies young, or he grows up to be a “male woman.” I mean by that, that he grows up to be a man who acts like a woman; and that kind of man is hardly fit for anything. [Illustration: “PLAY FANTASTIC” ON THE FOURTH OF JULY.] But there are some bad boys, I am sorry to say--really bad boys, bad in heart and in deed. I have seen some on the chain gangs; I have seen some hanging around the street corners--especially on Sundays, with no clean clothes on; I have seen them smoking cigarettes--and a cigarette is something which no manly boy will use; I have seen them in saloons, drinking, playing pool and playing cards; I have sometimes seen them shooting dice in the street for money. There are probably one thousand boys in the jails, reformatories and in the penitentiaries in the single state of Georgia. To form anything like an adequate estimate of the total number of bad boys in the South we must add to the above number the boys imprisoned in the other states; and, also, that much larger number who have never been imprisoned because they happen never to have been arrested, or who have been arrested and have had their fines paid in money; and, finally, we must add those who have already served their time and are again at large. So, you see, there are many thousands and thousands of bad boys in the world, and they are very easily found. Are you a bad boy or a good boy? Isn’t it better to be a good boy than to be a bad boy? THE BAD BOY--HOW TO HELP HIM. [Illustration: THE BAD BOY]