For Our Lady Reader.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 38, 21 January 1898, Page 25

For Our Lady Reader.

TEACH CHHiDKEN TO WAIT OX THEMSELVES. A very profitable lesson for children to learn early in life is lt> be independent enough to wait on themselves. Have nails driven low enough for the little hands to reach and teach them to hang up their own hats and bonnets every time they take them off. Teach them habits of order and neatness just as soon as they are old enough to be taught anything, and many needless steps will be saved. It seems perfectly natural for the average child to toss down combs, books, towels, papers, soiled aprons, and dozens of other articles where they were last used, and then to turn them all over when a needed article is wanted that cannot be found in its place. And the bad habit will develop surprisingly fast, unless checked very early in life. Teach the children to discern right from wrong. Teach them that if anything seems wrong to them they are not to do it. no matter if people do say that it is proper, aiid that if it is right they must go on regardless of what people say. HINTS TO PATIENCE. A woman, whose life has been long and chequered with many reverses, said lately : " Nothing has given me more courage to face every day's duties than a few words spoken to me when I was a child by my old father. He was the village doctor. I came into his office, when he was compounding medicine, one day, looking cross and ready to cry. •' ' What is the matter, Mary V •' ' I'm tired ! I've been making beds and washing dishes all day, and every day, and what good does it do ? To-morrow the beds will have to be made and the dishes to wash over again.' " ' Look, child,' he said, 'do you see those empty vials ? They are insignificant, cheap things, of no value in themselves ; but in one I put a deadly poison, in another a sweet perfume, in a third a healing medicine. '• 'Nobody cures for the vials ; it is that which they carry that kills or cures. Your daily work, the dishes washed or the floors

Bwept are homely things and count for nothing in themselves ; but it is the anger or the sweet patience or zeal or high thoughts that yc^i'put into them that shall last. These make your life. 1 " No strain is harder upon the young than to be forced to do work which they feel is beneath their faculties, yet no discipline is more helpful. " The wise builder watches not the bricks which his journeyman lays, but the manner in which he lays them." '• They also serve," said John Milton, " who only stand and wait." We should remember, above all, that the greatest of all men spent thirty years of His earthly life waiting the appointed time to fulfil His Mi&oiuu. WOMAN'S TRUTH. The woman who holds a man's heart in her hands Need not be pretty nor possessed of rich lands. She needn't wear clothes just teeming with style. She needn't possess the first worldly wile. Her eyes may be brown ; her eyes may be blue, To him she's a beauty away through and through — If she's true. It's her soul that he cares for. her steadfast devotion, Her love as unbounded, as free, as the ocean, The touch of her hands, the glance of her eye, The swift rush of colour that comes when he's nigh, The thousand and one little things she can do That show him so plainly right through and through That she's true. MAKE YOUR MOTHER YOUR CONFIDANT. The moment a girl has a secret from her mother, or has a letter she dare not let her mother read, or has a friend whom her mother does not know, she is in danger. A secret is not a good thing for a girl to have. The fewer secrets that lie in the hearts of women the better. It is almost a test of purity. She who has none of her own is best and happiest. In girlhood hide nothing from your mother. Have no mysteries whatever, The girl who frankly says to her mother : " I have been there ; I met so and so ; such and such remarks were made and this and that were done," will be certain of receiving good advice and nympathy. You may not know, girls, just what is right, just what is wrong yet. You cannot be blamed for making little mistakes ; but you will not be likely to do anything very wrong if, from tne first, you have no secrets from your mother. BUNNY PEOPLE. Sunny people win hearts. No matter where they live or what kind of clothes they wear, if they are " sunny " we like to feel the warmth and brightness which their natures shed about all who come near them. I have heard of a certain old lady who lives in a little old house, with very little in it to make her comfortable. She is rather deaf, and she cannot see very well, either. Her hands and feet are all out of shape and full of pain because of her rheumatism. But in spite of all this you would find her full of sunshine and as cheery as a robin in spring, and it would do you good to see her. I found out one day what keeps her so cheerful, so I will tell it to you. " When I was a child." she said, " my mother taught me every morning, before I got out of bed, to thank God for every good thing that He had tiiven me — for a comfortable bed ; for each article of clothing ; for my breakfast ; for a pleasant home ; for my friends : and for all my blessings, calling each by name : and so I begin every day with a heart full of praise to God for all He has done and is doing for me.'"