WORTH LEARNING

New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1910, Page 597

WORTH LEARNING

‘ I was only a little child,’ said a lady, speaking of the lessons we learn and the way in which we learn them, ‘ and some trifling illness or discomfort kept me wakeful for a little while one night. I was not suffering much, but keeping vigil while others slept, or tried to, was not to my taste, and I reported upon it every few minutes by callin'' from my little room to the one adjoining: n ‘“Mother, I can’t sleep.” g . With a mother’s tireless patience, she answered and soothed, but presently another —that of the father worn by a weary day at the officereplied: ’ ’ . ‘ “ Well, child, if you can’t sleep yourself, you might keep still and let other people sleep.” ‘Notwithstanding my childish indignation, augmented by my mother’s low ripple of laughter, my father’s suggestion had its effect, and has never been forgotten. I have always thought since that it was a very sensible one, and I have met many children of a larger growth to whom I have longed to repeat itthose who will let no one else rest when they are themselves restless, and who insist on bringing all their petty frets and ailments into notice and keeping them there. The next best thing to being at ease is surely to keep one’s discomforts from making others uncomfortable.’