STOP-A-WHILE.
Reading edition
There is growing in Africa a thorn called “Stop-a-while.” If a person once gets caught in it, it is with difficulty he escapes with his clothes on his back, and without being greatly torn, for every attempt to loosen one part of his dress only hooks more firmly another part. The man who gets caught by this thorn is in a pitiable plight ere he gets loose. You would not like—would you, boys? to be caught in this thorn. And yet many, I fear, are being caught in a worse thorn than “Stop-a-while.” Where do you spend your evenings? At home, I do hope, studying your lessons, and attending to mother’s words; for if you have formed a habit of spending them on the streets with bad boys, you are caught in a thorn far worse.
