all.

"The Story of the Good Little Boy" focuses on Jacob Blivens, who wants to be just like the good boys in his Sunday school books. In fact, he prides himself in imitating these boys, but nothing ever seems to go right for Jacob like things do in his books. He has one problem after another, and he can't figure out why his goodness isn't rewarded. Eventually, Jacob dies in quite a dramatic way without even the pleasure of dying like the boys in his books. Indeed, we learn that those Sunday school books just don't reflect reality and that goodness isn't always rewarded. What's more, Twain leads us to reflect on whether or not Jacob, with all his pride, is really a very good little boy at all.

In "The Story of the Bad Little Boy," we hear the tale of Jim, who is quite a bad little boy indeed. There seems to be a reason for this, though, because Jim is never really taught how to be good. He mother doesn't care much about him. She spanks him and boxes his ears, but she never really bothers to talk to him about his behavior. So Jim never learns. Yet he is not punished enough to make him stop being bad. Nothing especially horrible ever happens to him either unlike what happens in those Sunday school books. Instead, Jim never seems to be hurt by anything no matter what he does, and he grows up to be quite a scoundrel. Indeed, in real life, wickedness is not punished like it is in the Sunday school books.