One day, John Manly and I were out on some business for our master. We were returning slowly on a long, straight road. At a distance, we saw a boy. The boy tried to make a pony jump over a gate.
The pony did not want to jump. The boy hit the pony with a whip (a long piece of leather used to hit animals). The pony turned to one side. The boy hit the pony again. Then, the pony turned to the other side.
The boy got off the pony. He gave the pony a hard thrashing (hitting an animal many times). He hit the pony on the head. Then, the boy got on the pony again. He kicked the pony many times, but the pony refused to jump.
We came near the pony and the boy. Suddenly, the pony put his head down and threw his back legs up. The boy flew through the air. He fell into a large hedge (a thick fence made of bushes with sharp thorns). The pony ran home very fast.
John Manly laughed loudly. "The boy deserved that," John Manly said. The boy cried out from the bushes. "Help me! Please help me get out!" the boy shouted.
"No, thank you," John Manly said. "I think you are in the right place. Maybe the thorns will teach you a lesson." John Manly did not help the boy. We rode away.
John Manly thought the boy was a liar and a cruel person. We went to the farm of Mr. Bushby. Mr. Bushby was the boy's father. Mr. Bushby looked very worried.
"Have you seen my boy, Bill Bushby?" the farmer asked. "The pony came home without a rider." John Manly told Mr. Bushby the truth. John Manly told him about the whipping and the kicking.
"The pony was good," John Manly said. "The boy was cruel. The pony threw the boy into the thorns." Mrs. Bushby began to cry. She wanted to help her son, Bill Bushby.
Mr. Bushby told his wife to go inside. "Bill Bushby needs a lesson," Mr. Bushby said. "He is often cruel to that pony. I will stop him. Thank you, John Manly."
Later, John Manly told James Howard about the boy. James Howard remembered Bill Bushby from school. Bill Bushby was always a bully (a person who is mean to weaker people). James Howard told a story about Bill Bushby.
One day, James Howard saw Bill Bushby at school. Bill Bushby was catching flies. He pulled the wings off the flies. James Howard was very angry. James Howard hit Bill Bushby on the ear.
The schoolmaster came to see the trouble. James Howard showed the master the flies without wings. The master was very angry with Bill Bushby. The master told the boys a lesson about cruelty (the act of being mean or causing pain).
The master said that cruelty is the devil’s mark. He said that kind people have God’s mark. John Manly agreed. John Manly said that religion is nothing without love and kindness.