Tampering With Temptation

By Dennis Gundersen

A collection of short stories to show the sad results that come our way when we do not resist temptation:

In the first story, "Young Martin and the Silver Sixpence", Bernard Martin's carelessness with his employer's money gets him in trouble, and then he is tempted to conceal something in his possession which is not his. The second story, the famous and much-published "Farmer Goodwin's Rule" (never do during the day that which will worry you at night), Randy is ashamed of being the one who stands for what is right, and learns the hard lessons that come when we compromise our principles; and in the third story, "Albert and Herbert: Who is the Coward?", Herbert fails to muster up the courage to say "No."

These stories will ring true in children's hearts and consciences as they remember similar situations that revealed their true character!

This volume is one of the eleven titles in the “Children’s Character-Building Collection”, our popular reprints of 19th-century Christian books for young children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grace & Truth Books
• Release date: Nov 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781930133532

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ISBN # 9781-930133-532

Published by Grace & Truth Books, 2004, 2013

e-Book conversion by Digital Puritan Press

This Grace & Truth reprint, in which grammar, spelling, and minor formatting changes have been made, is copyright © 2013 by Grace & Truth Books. All rights reserved, with the exception of brief quotations. For consent to reproduce these materials, please contact the publisher.

Cover art by Caffy Whitney

Cover design by Ben Gundersen

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Table of Contents

1. Young Martin and the Silver Sixpence

2. Farmer Goodwin’s Rule

3. Alfred and Herbert - Who is a Coward?

Chapter 1 - The Challenge

Chapter 2 - The Fall

Young Martin and the Silver Sixpence

I can do it tomorrow as well as today, said young Martin to himself.

He had found a silver sixpence on the playground. He did not know who had lost it. He only knew that it did not belong to him, and he had no intention of keeping it.

Bernard Martin’s parents had brought him up strictly. One time they severely punished him for an act that many called trifling dishonesty. He had gathered and eaten some fruit in his father’s garden. His father had forbidden him to touch this fruit. His actions displayed both dishonesty and disobedience, and his parents made him pay the penalty he had brought upon himself. His up-bringing had made a strong impression on Bernard’s mind. He was never dishonest on purpose until he picked up the sixpence.

No one saw Bernard Martin pick up the sixpence. Some boys probably wouldn’t have thought it wrong to keep the money. They would reason that lost money lying on the ground lawfully belongs to the finder. Bernard, however, knew better. He knew that common honesty required him to try to find the loser, and he meant to do this.

Bernard’s first impulse told him to begin looking at once. Then the thought struck him that the loser had a duty to report his loss as much as he did his find. At any rate, Bernard thought, I can do it tomorrow as well as today.

Then Bernard began to reason with himself, The loser most likely is a boy with plenty of loose coins in his pocket. He will say, ‘Why fuss over a sixpence!’ If it was a boy who thinks he can afford to lose or throw away a sixpence, he would say, ‘If a sixpence fell out of my pocket, I would never know it. The finder is welcome to it.’

And I agree, answered Bernard to himself, even though a sixpence was rare to him. I won’t make a fool of myself by telling everyone what I find when I do have the opportunity to pick it up! Other people should not handle their sixpences so carelessly. Besides, if I say that I found a sixpence, others will say that they lost one whether they did or not.

Now, Satan had entered into a talk with Bernard and the seeds of dishonesty were being sown. Bernard Martin would have felt happy if anyone had given him a sixpence. Money of any amount was not very plentiful with him. As I have said, however, at first he didn’t think about keeping his find.

I’ll worry about it tomorrow, he thought. Then he slipped the sixpence into his pocket.

Tomorrow came, and Bernard’s pocket still held the sixpence. The seeds of dishonesty began to grow; the old thought had gained strength in his mind.

Whoever lost the sixpence, he said to himself, will surely miss it and speak about it. I shall hear something about it before night, no doubt.

He heard nothing. Whoever lost the money remained quiet about it. Meanwhile, Bernard began to think that he needed the money. If the sixpence belonged to him, it would become a welcome addition to the few pence his pocket held. He wished it really belonged to him.

On the previous day, Bernard had thought that without fail he would look for the sixpence’s owner. Twenty-four hours had passed, and