HOW MINNIE WAS CURED

New Zealand Tablet, 15 July 1909, Page 1117

HOW MINNIE WAS CURED

Minnie Grey was a very nice little girl, and she would have been perfectly charming, but for one great fault. She aeemed to be entirely oblivious of the rule which teaches that children should be obedient to their parents and elders. Minnie was obedient to no one, and was always so ready with excuses to palliate her fault that her mother sometimes despaired of ever curing her. It would be impossible to tell you one quarter of the mischief and annoyance she caused by this failing, and although she was punished over and over again neither punishments nor persuasions seemed to have any effect. ' Minnie,' said her mother one day, ' run into the garden and mind Harry for a little while; he is playing with a big stick, and may hurt himself.' Yes, mamma,' answered Minnie, readily enough, but she did not attempt to move. ' Did you hear me, Minnie ?' asked her mother a few minutes later. ' Oh, yes, mother, dear,' replied the disobedient one, ' but I 'really forgot. I will go in one minute. I just want to finish this doll's dress I am making; it will not take me long.' ' You can finish it in the garden,' said Mrs. Grey. 'Go at once and look after the baby.' ' But I have so many things on my lap, and I shall have to upset them all,' grumbled Minnie in injured tone 3. ' Gather them all up and take them with you,' answered her mother, beginning to lose patience. ' Here is a little cardboard box I will lend you to put them in.' Minnie began very slowly and deliberately to arrange her scissors, cottons, pins, etc., in the little box, and after dawdling over it for fully ten minutes, her mother urging her all the time to ' hurry up,' she at last rose unwillingly, and was about to leave the room leisurely, when a scream from the garden caused Mrs. Grey to throw down hei sewing in alarm and rush out quickly. She found baby Harry with blood streaming from his forehead; he had stumbled over the stick which he had been using as a horse, and had struck his head on one of the rough stones that bordered the path. Minnie was very much distressed when she saw what her disobedience had caused, for she loved her baby brother dearly, and when she saw that he had quite a deep cut very close to one of his eyes, and - that the blood would not stop flowing, she became very frightened indeed, and begged her mother to allow her to go for the doctor. When the doctor came he looked very serious, and said that if the cut had been the least bit' nearer the eye poor Harry would never have had the use of it again, and would have probably lost it altogether. He wore a bandage round his head for a long time, and Minnie felt so ashamed of herself every time she looked at it, and was so penitent, that her mother did not scold her, for she felt that the suffering of her little brother was punishment enough. And so it proved, for, although she often felt tempted to find an excuse for not doing immediately what she was told, the sight of a little scar over Harry's left eye, which

never" entirely disappeared, was a constant reminder which finally made her one of the most obedient girls that ever lived.