“That is the reason, I suspect, that Crusoe thinks so much of America. I doubt, however, if he would find the children of Yankees more passive under his rhabdomancy than those of us Britishers. For my part, I wish all the boys in the universe would follow the example of the Woodburn lads. There would then soon be an end of the villanous practice of a big fellow with a big stick seizing a little, tender, shrinking boy, who is but a linnet in the claws of an eagle, and misusing his brute strength to torture the poor little fellow.” Thorsby said, “But what of Solomon’s wisdom on the subject?” “What of Solomon?” said Mr. Woodburn. “Why, that was wisdom enough for the Jews of those semi-barbarous ages, who massacred all the nations round, and stoned to death any old woman who gathered a few sticks on a Sabbath; but it is not wisdom enough for Christians who are to do as they would be done by. Would any of these great, cowardly schoolmasters, who clutch little, shrinking children, and flog them brutally, like some one twice or three times their own size and strength to treat them so? Certainly not. Of all the contemptible examples of cowardice, this is the most contemptible. A big overpowering fellow thus to mishandle a child, who would learn both manners and letters ten times better by gentleness and persuasion; he is a monster, sir, and no man! Violence and injustice, and this is the worst of injustice, excite only the worst passions in a child’s heart, and lay the sure foundation of violence and tyranny in those who are embittered by it. “I only hope,” added Mr. Woodburn, “that King Solomon has been set upon by exasperated schoolboys in the other world, and treated as the brave Woodburn lads treated Crusoe; and I hope that till this odious custom is abolished, the boys everywhere will match their strength, by union, with that of their masters, and let them see how they like a good cottoning.” “Well,” said Thorsby, “but the custom has been made venerable by time, and sanctioned by all our great schools, and if we may judge from effects, has answered well, for no country has produced greater scholars.”