The Teacher's Mistake

by Henry Lawson

Bill stayed away from school that hot day and went swimming. The teacher wrote a note to Bill's father, and gave it to his brother, Joe, to take home.

"Give that to your father tonight, Joe."

"Yes, sir."

Bill waited for Joe after school and walked home with him.

"I suppose you've got a note for father."

"Yes," said Joe.

"I suppose you know what's in it?"

"Yes. Oh, why did you go swimming, Bill?"

"You don't mean that you're going to give it to father? Hey?"

"I must, Bill. I promised the teacher."

"He never needs to know."

"Oh, yes, he will. He's coming to our place on Saturday and he's sure to ask me tomorrow."

"Look here, Joe!" said Bill, "I don't want father to beat me and have no dinner tonight. I promised to go hunting with Johnny early tomorrow morning, and he's going to let me shoot his gun. You can come, too. I don't want to miss tonight – if I do, I'll run away from home again."

The boys walked for a bit in troubled silence.

Bill tried again. He begged, but Joe always said: "The teacher trusted me, Will.”

"Joe," said Bill at last, after a long pause, "I couldn't do that to you."

Joe was upset.

"I couldn't do it to you, Joe."

Joe thought how Bill fought for him only last week.

"I could tell a hundred lies and Father could beat me a hundred times first, Joe."

Joe was so unhappy that he started to cry.

They were crossing the old goldfield now. There was a large hole next to the path with some wood across it about two metres down. Joe suddenly took the note from his pocket and threw it in. The wind blew it to the other side and it rested on a piece of the old wood. Bill saw it, but said nothing. The boys hurried on, as their father was coming towards them.

Joe was in trouble now. Bill tried to comfort him, but it was no good. Bill promised never to run away from home again, to go to school every day and never to fight, or steal, or tell lies. But Joe had broken his trust for the first time in his life.

Some time in the night Bill woke and found Joe sitting up in bed crying.

"Why, what's the matter, Joe?"

"I’ve never done anything wrong like that before," cried Joe. "I wish I'd thrown myself down the hole. The teacher trusted me, Bill, and now, if he asks me tomorrow, I must tell a lie."

"Then tell the truth, Joe, and let him hit you. It’s soon finished – just a couple of hits and it'll be all over."

"Oh, no, it won't. He won't trust me again. The teacher never hit me before, Bill, and if he does, I'll never go to school again. Oh! Why do you run away from home, Bill, and steal, and get me in trouble? You don't know how angry mother gets about it – you don't know how it hurts father! I lied to the teacher and mother and father today, just because you're so, so selfish," and he cried himself to sleep.

Bill stayed awake and thought till daylight; then he got up quietly, put on his clothes, and walked away from the house, followed by the dog, who thought it was a hunting trip. Bill wished the dog would not be quite so loud until they got away from the house. He went straight to the hole, climbed down carefully on to the old wood, and tried to pick up the note, white in the summer daylight. Then the wood broke suddenly, without a moment's warning.

They found him that morning at about nine o'clock. The letter was in Bill's right hand when they brought him up. They took him home and his father went for a doctor. Bill woke up just a little bit before he died, and said: "Mother! I wasn't running away, mother. Tell father that I wanted to go hunting. Where's Joe? I want Joe. Go out a minute, mother, and send Joe."

"Here I am, Bill," said Joe, in a terrified voice.

"Is the teacher here yet?"

"No."

"Joe, I went for the note and the wood broke. I wanted to get back before Mother and Father got up. I put it in the bed – here, take it and say you forgot it last night, say you didn't like to give it to them. That isn’t a lie. Tell the teacher I'm sorry but tell him never to send any notes with boys again. That's all."

And Bill died.