In both Truant Boy stories, Abbott main message that came across was that every actions has a consequences in which you cannot escape. In the case of Henry, he faced the ultimate price for such a simple action that could have been avoided if he just did what he was supposed to do. In a way, I feel as though that these stories were a tad bit over the top since Henry’s ultimate fate was dying from his actions. This story was probably written in a way to scare children to do the right thing straight from the beginning so they do not follow the same path as Henry.

Abbott was probably trying to catch the children’s attention by making sure they do not use a little lie because the consequences of that little lie will only have a bad ending. Abbott wants to show a great moral but it felt a bit over the top. Since Henry lied and played truancy, he ended up skipping school, lying to his teacher, hanging out with the wrong type of friends, and even disappointing his parents. One sign of disobedience can lead to a lifetime of sadness and regret.

The one thing in the story that stuck out most to me, was the fact that Henry knew deep down that he wanted to change and he wanted to do something better, but in the end, he never truly fell through with his mind. Even though he knew he was wrong, he kept repeating the same problem. It seemed as though Henry thought he was too far gone to make any change. Henry didn’t seem to understand that he did in fact had many chances to come clean and to step up to make a change in his life. His life could’ve been a better life if only he didn’t live life fearing his regrets and simply make a change in his actions.