The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 8 January 1914, Page 61

The Family Circle

LET IT PASS

Be not swift to take offence. ■ ; Let it pass ! Anger is a foe to sense, Let it pass! Think not on the seeming wrong Which will disappear ere long, Rather sing this cheery song. Let it pass! Bid your anger, then, depart, "Let it pass! Lay these homely words to heart, Let it pass! Follow not the giddy throng. Better to be wronged than wrong, Therefore sing this cheery song. Let it pass! Strife corrodes the purest mind, Let it pass! As the unregarded wind, Let it pass ! Any vulgar souls that live. May condemn without reprieve, ’Tis the noble who forgive, •Let it pass! 1 If for good you’re given ill, ' Let it pass ! Oh ! be kind and gentle still, Let it pass! Time at last makes all things straight. Let - us not resent— wait, And our triumph will be great, Let pass!

THE TIMELY THOUGHT

‘Oh, mamma! I do believe we have used every drop of cream, and never left a drop for your and Aunt .Lil’s coffee. Isn’t that a shame? I never once thought to save out enough for you two until just as I had poured the last over my strawberries. _ I am as sorry as I can be.’ Bess threw her arms about her mother in real contrition as she. spoke. . . Bess and her sister, with a girl friend, had been having luncheon while the mother and aunt were out, and the two coming in after a morning’s shopping, found the remains of the girls’ luncheon still on the table, with the empty cream pitcher testifying to Bess’ confession. Bess was considered an unselfish girl, in the main, and was truly thoughtful for her mother in a loving way, only— thought so often came, as on this occasion, -too late for fulfilment. Her mother looked at her earnestly as she unclasped the arms from her neck. For the absence of -cream in her coffee the mother did not care particularly least * that was of minor > importance compared with the significant fact, the realisation of which brought the grave look into her eyes. ‘ How was it, dear,’ she .asked, „‘ that you thought of us just as you reached the bottom of the pitcher ?’ * Why, I haidly know, mother; but I always do think of you sooner or later, you know, and want you to have the best of everything. . You dear, unselfish mother,! ;- If someone didn’t take thought for you, you wouldn’t fare very well.’ - ■>... * Just as well as I do when the thought comes too late, my ; dear,’ the mother answered with a smile that took the keen edge from the words. ‘ The thought that too late to , accomplish, what | our love I prompts, fails in its real mission, Bess,’ she continued;' some ,■ times it . fails so utterly that it might ■ as ■ well not have been at all. We all value a generous, loving thought; but ; if it remains a mere thought when • there is oppor-

tunity for action, it is often worthless; and when the rthought comes- too late to be enforced ’by the action,, it is a mere ? matter of having to take one’s - work for the thought.’ > j Bess flushed.-. ‘ I know I deserve this, mother,* she said, ‘ but honestly I didn’t think in time, and'..how v could I •help 1 it?’ ' <• f There is only one way to think in time, dear, and that is to be really unselfish; if we are that, it is very easy to take thought for others, and to do it in time.’ /’ / m' Bess is only one of the many girls who so often exclaim with real regret, ‘ Oh, I didn’t think I’ or, ‘ If only I had thought a moment sooner!’— whose intentions are of the best, who are loving and'loyal; andl had almost saidunselfish. But is it possible:for a really unselfish girl to fall into a habit of thinking her best thoughts for others, too late? - Isn’t it, nine times out of ten, because she is absorbed in self-interest- to the extent that thought for others is a secondary matter ? , • Selfishness is responsible for more apparently independent faults than many of us realise; its tributaries are'so many and varied that we do not always recognise them, and often try earnestly, but with little success, to overcome each one singly, when by on© swift blow at the selfishness—we should be victors. With this eliminated, to be thoughtful would become second nature; and the beauty of being thoughtful is intensified a hundredfold by being, thoughtful in time. It is the thought in time that counts —not the one that comes after the possibility of fulfilment is passed. u ' A MODEST REQUEST When Andrew D. White was United States Minister to Germany, he received a mandatory epistle from an old lady in the West, , who enclosed in her letter four pieces of white linen, each some six inches square. We are,going to have a fair in our church,’ she wrote, and I am making an autograph quilt. I want you to get me the autographs of the emperor, the empress, the crown prince, - and Bismarck, and, tell them to be careful not to write too near the edge of the squares, as a seam has to be allowed for putting them together.’ . c-C.. ■ . ‘ . A TRIUMPHANT REJOINDER A schoolboy home for the holidays, wishing to inspire bis little brother-, with awe for his learning, pointed to a star, and said. •'Do you see that little luminary ? It’s bigger than this wide world.’ ‘No, 'tain’t!’ said his brother. ‘Yes, it is,’ returned the youthful scholar. ‘Then why is it that it don’t keep off the rain?’ •was the ‘ triumphant V rejoinder. > ■f > 4 NOT A FRIEND OF THE COOK . Mrs. McCoble rebuked her colored cook, Matilda Snowball, in the following words; —‘When I : hired: you, you said you didn’t have any' male friends, and now I find a man in the kitchen half the time.’ / ‘ Lor’ bless your soul,’ returned Matilda, ‘he ain’t : no male . friend of mine • ■ c, ‘ Who .is ■ he, then ?’ . ... v _ . v . r Se sam only my husband.' . ' '• % MAKING AN EXAMPLE ' ■ V Y . : ; ' ~ ""' ■- ", ; 3 ■j • ’ You. admit, then,’ inquired . the magistrate severely, ‘ that you stole the pig?’ r . . ; ' *1 suppose I must,’ ; said the,' prisoner,: ■• <, •;/. -. ' ‘Very ; well,’ returned the with deci- , sion, ‘ there has been a lot of pig stealing going - on % around here lately, and I am going to make an example of you, .or none of us will be safe; * y ';■ i