The Story of the Good Little Boy by Mark Twain. Short summary

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Jacob believed in the Sunday school books, and he acted about it. He followed his peers and exhorted them to reform. But Providence was hard on Jacob. He foolishly died without ever making a speech.

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The boy Jacob believed sacredly in everything written in the Sunday school books. In the last chapter, such children die, mourned by all the people of the town. This fact depressed Jacob, but he resigned himself to it and prepared a suicide speech.

The other boys decided that Jacob was not himself, and took the fool under their patronage. But the model boy followed them with exhortations. After all, he knew what the Sunday school books say about bad children — they will be punished in their lifetime.

When Jacob saw the boy climb into someone else’s apple tree, he said he was sure he would break his arm. But he was wrong: the boy fell on Jacob, breaking his arm. The children went on the boat on Sunday. Jacob wanted to warn them that they would drown, swam after them in a raft. He nearly drowned himself, sick for two months, and the children came home alive and well.

Eventually Jacob took it upon himself to exhort the children to experiment with nitroglycerin. He blew himself up and didn’t have time to make a speech.