One day, however, Cecil came to the cage alone, and while he watched the canary, a little voice said, "Open the door and take him out; father will never know". That was a =wrong= voice, and Cecil tried not to listen. It would have been better if he had gone away from the cage, but he did not; and the voice came again, "Open the door and let him out". And another little voice said, "No, don't; your father said you must not". But Cecil listened to the =wrong= voice; he opened the door gently, and out flew the pretty bird. First it perched on his finger, then it flew about the room, and then--Cecil had not noticed that the window was open--then, before he knew, out of the window flew the canary, and poor Cecil burst into tears. "Oh! if I had listened to the =good= voice, the =right= voice, and not opened the door! Father will be so angry." Then the =bad= voice came again and said, "Don't tell your father; say you know nothing about it ". But Cecil did not listen this time; he was too brave a boy to tell his father a lie, and he determined to tell the truth and be punished, if necessary.
Of course his father was very sorry to lose his beautiful canary, and more sorry still that his little son had been disobedient, but he was glad that Cecil told him the truth.
Now do you know the two things that the =wrong= voice told Cecil to do? It told him (1) Not to obey; (2) Not to tell the truth. I think we have all heard those two voices, not with our ears, but =within= us. Let us always listen to the =good= voice--the =right= voice.
Two voices:-- 1st. Good, says, "Obey," "Speak the truth". 2nd. Bad, says, "Disobey," "Tell untruth".
You know that the country in which you live is an island? That means there is water all round it, and that water is the sea.
England and Scotland are joined together in one large island; and if you want to go to any other country, you must sail in a ship. A great many ships come to England, bringing us tea, coffee, sugar, oranges and many other things, and the towns they come to are called =ports=. London is a port, so is Liverpool; and in the North of England is another port called Hull. To get to Hull from the sea we have to sail up a wide river called the Humber for more than twenty miles. This river has a great many sandbanks in it, and there are men called =pilots= who know just where these sandbanks lie, and they are the ones who can guide the ships safely into port.