A BAD HABIT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 4, 24 January 1907, Page 37

A BAD HABIT

Johnny was a great brag. A "brag Hs a boaster. If he heard a playmsate tell of something he had done, no matter what it was, Johnny would give a ''snort and exclaim : ' Pooh ! That's nothing ! Who couldn't do' that ? '

One evening the family sat around the fire in the sitting-room. Papa ...was reading, grandma and mamma were sewings, Alices and Joe were studying their ,lessons, when Johnny came strutting in.' He took a chair by the table, and began reading '' Robinson Crusoe. '

Presently Joe, who was younger than Johnny, went up to his brother, saying : ' Look at my drawing. I did it to-day in school. Isn't it, good ? '

' Pooh ! Call that gocd ! You ought to see the one I drew.. It beats yours all hollow.'

Joe was rather crestfallen-, and little Alice, who had a sympathetic heart, pitied her br6ther,, and, going to Joe, asked him to let her see his drawing.

' I wish I could do as well as" you do, Joe,' she said, hopingi to revive her brother's drooping spirits.

1 Pooh : ' sneered Johnny, ' you needn't try to draw, for girls can't make even a straight line.'

It was not long before Mr. Boaster teft the room for a few moments. When he came back" everything .seemed to be going on as when he left. Papa was' reading,, grandma and 1 mamma were sewing, and Joe and Alice were busy "with their lessons. 'At last I have finished my hem,' remarked grandma, folding the napkiif^he had been hemming so industriously. ' Pooh ! ' said mamma, contemptuously ; ' that is nothing. I have done two while you are doing one!' v

The children looked up quickly, for who would have believed she would have spoken so ? It was not likelier to do .so.

Grandma picked up another napkin and began hemming it, but said nothing.

' Papa, look at my examples," please. ' I have don<cevery one of them, and haven't made a single mistake,' said Alice, crossing the room to where; her father was sitting before the open grate fire. *\

' Pooh ! That's nothing,' replied her father, not even taking her paper to look at it. 'You ought to- sec the way I used to tio examples when I was your irge.' Poor little Alice was greatly astonished to * hear such a discouraging and boastful remark from her generally; kind father ; and 'she was about to ■ turn away when he drew her near to him and whispered something in her ear -which brought the smiles to her face.

For a few minutes ~ no one said anything,- and work went on as before. Johnny was deeply engrossed in the history of Crusoe's adven.tur.es, and - the other children continued their studies. ~

'My flowers look so well." I believe the -geraniums are going- to bloom again,' remarked mamma.

' Pooh ! They are not half so thrifty as those' I used to raise. Why, , I had flowers all winter long, and you have only had a few blossoms in the whole winter,' said grandma, contemptuously. ' What was the matter" with everybody ? ' thought Johnny. He .had never 1 known them to be in such a humor as they were that evening.' When papa remarks presently that? he had stepped into the~"grocer's and been weighed that afternoon, and that he • tipped the beam ' sit one hundred and sixty--♦c'ight pounds, and that was doing ' pretty wall ' for him, mamma said, crossly: "Pooh ! You .call that do-

ing pretty well? Old JMr. Denson weighs- two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and no one' ever heard him bragging of it. ' - Everybody laughed ;- papa shouted, it was such a surprise ; and grandma got up and left the room to keep from choking with laughter. _ Johnny - saw them all look at him, and after a minute or two began to „' smell a mouse,' as the spying 'goesr -• ' P^pa,' said' he, 'what are you aIL laughing about ? Is it at me ? ' -'Well, we are not exactly laughing at you. We thought we would try your way of boasting on our accomplishments, and see how you thought it sounded ; but mamjma " spoiled our game before we had finished it.' -Johnny looked rather- sheepish the rest of the evening. -He wondered whether he was as disagreeable as the other folks that evening when he boasted of what he could do or had done. He was forced -to admit that boasting sounded very unpleasant, and he resolved to break himself of the habit. How muc& better it would have been -if he had never learned to boast, hut had always been deferential and' courteous to his associates. - .