I am aware that this plan of punishment may appear ridiculous, and perhaps it would be so to use it for older children; but with such young children I have found it to answer well, and therefore I have no wish to dispense with it.

I would, however, have care taken not to encourage the children to ridicule each other while undergoing this or any other punishment, except in extraordinary cases, such as the one I have mentioned; on the contrary, we should encourage them to sympathize with and comfort a child, as soon as the punishment is over, and I can truly add, that I do not recollect a single instance when any child has been undergoing the broom punishment, but some of the others have come, and attempted to beg him off, with "Please, sir, may he sit down now ?" and when asked the reason why they wished the little delinquent to be forgiven, they have answered, "May be, sir, he will be a good boy." Their request has been complied with, and the culprit forgiven; and what have I seen follow?
Why, that which has taught me an important lesson, and convinced me that _children can operate on each other's minds, and be the means of producing very often better effects than adult people can_.

I have seen them clasp the child round the neck, take him by the hand, lead him about the play-ground, comfort him in every possible way, wipe his eyes with their pinafores, and ask him if he was not sorry for what he had done.

The answer has been, "Yes;" and they have flown to me with, "Master, he says he is sorry for it, and that he will not do it again." In short, they have done that which I could not do--they have so won the child over by kindness, that it has caused the offender not only to be fond of them, but equally as fond of his master and the school.

To these things I attribute the reclaiming of the children I have mentioned, and so far from punishment being productive of the "_worst effects_," I have found it productive of the best.
The ill effects of expelling children as incorrigible may be seen in the case of Hartley, who was executed some years back.