I thought it best to see his mother, and therefore sent the boy to tell her that I wished her to come.

The boy soon returned, saying his mother was not at home.
The following morning he was absent again, and I sent another boy to know the reason, when the mother waited on me immediately, and assured me that she had sent the child to school.

I then produced the slate which I kept for that purpose, and informed her how many days and half-days her child had been absent during the last month, when she again assured me that she had never kept the child at home for a single half-day, nor had he ever told her that I wanted to see her; at the same time observing that be must have been decoyed away by some of the children in the neighbourhood.

She regretted that she could not afford to send him to school before, adding, _that the Infant School was a blessed institution, and one, she thought, much wanted in the neighbourhood_.

I need scarcely add, that both the father and mother lost no time in searching for their child, and after several hours, they found him in the nearest fruit-market with several children, pretty well stored with apples, &c., which they had, no doubt, stolen from the fruit-baskets continually placed there.