# A Kind Brother

- Source: McGuffey's Second Reader (second-reader.gutenberg.org), Public domain, William Holmes McGuffey, 1879, via Project Gutenberg
- Reading level: Grades 1 and 2
- Subjects: Stories
- Topics: basket, brother, pole, heavy, carry, felt
- Length: 199 words, about 1 min
- Original: <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14668>
- Page: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/r/mcguffey-second/second-16-lesson-16>
- Open in Sprouts: <https://sprout.rootsofreason.org/?read=mcguffey-second/second-16-lesson-16>

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A KIND BROTHER.

- A boy was once sent from home to take a basket of things to his grandmother.
- The basket was so full that it was very heavy. So his little brother went with him, to help carry the load.
- They put a pole under the handle of the basket, and each then took hold of an end of the pole. In this way they could carry the basket very nicely.
- Now the older boy thought, "My brother Tom does not know about this pole.
- "If I slip the basket near him, his side will be heavy, and mine light; but if the basket is in the middle of the pole, it will be as heavy for me as it is for him.
- "Tom does not know this as I do. But I will not do it. It would be wrong, and I will not do what is wrong."
- Then he slipped the basket quite near his own end of the pole. His load was now heavier than that of his little brother.
- Yet he was happy; for he felt that he had done right. Had he deceived his brother, he would not have felt at all happy.

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## Picture credits

- illustrator not named in this edition, Public domain (<https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14668>)
- illustrator not named in this edition, Public domain (<https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14668>)