in large letters, on a piece of pasteboard, "STUDY HOURS," and making a
hole over the centre of it, I hung it upon a nail over my desk. At the
close of each half hour a little bell was to be struck, and this card
was to be taken down. When it was up, they were, on no occasion whatever
(except some such extraordinary occurrence as sickness, or my sending
one of them on a message to another, or something clearly out of the
common course) to speak to each other; but were to wait, whatever they
wanted, until the _Study Card_, as they called it, was taken down.

"Suppose now," said I, "that a young lady has come into school, and has
accidentally left her book in the entry--the book from which she is to
study during the first half hour of the school. She sits near the door,
and she might, in a moment, slip out and obtain it. If she does not, she
must spend the half hour in idleness, and be unprepared in her lesson.
What is it her duty to do?"

"To go," "Not to go," answered the scholars, simultaneously.

"It would be her duty _not_ to go; but I suppose it will be very
difficult for me to convince you of it.

"The reason is this," I continued; "if the one case I have supposed were
the _only_ one which would be likely to occur, it would undoubtedly be
better for her to go; but if it is understood that in such cases the
rule may be dispensed with, that understanding will tend very much to
cause such cases to occur. Scholars will differ in regard to the degree
of inconvenience which they must submit to rather than break the rule.
They will gradually do it on slighter and slighter occasions, until at
last the rule will be disregarded entirely. We must therefore draw a
_precise line_, and individuals must submit to a little inconvenience