WHO ARE HAPPIEST.
Do you know, dear children, that as soon as people have grown up they
begin to wish they were young again, and had not troublesome servants to
manage, and great houses to take care of, and purses full of money to
spend or to save, and, worst of all, whole troops of wicked fairies?
_They_ call them habits; but fairies they are, for all that.
These spirits lead into so much mischief that there are very few men and
women who don't sometimes fold their hands and say, "O, dear! if I could
go back and be a little child once more!"
Ask your mother if she wouldn't give all her jewels away in exchange for
as pure a heart as children have. Ask your father whether he wouldn't
give all his bonds and railroad stocks if that would make him as merry
and free from care as you are when you climb upon his knee to ask the
question.
And if they say "No," ask them which fairy they would rather _you_ took
for a friend--Pride or Truth.
Now, here you are, children still; and if I were you, I'd enjoy being
young while it lasts. I'd make friends with as many good fairies, and
scare away as many bad ones, as I could find. Scare them away! I
wouldn't wait to look at them or hear them talk; for some have pretty
faces and sweet words, but they are dreadful cheats.
I would find out ever so many things,--and there's no end to the number
there _are_,--ever so many things which are right, and good, and
beautiful. I wouldn't look for any thing else, but would be so happy
among these that other people would notice it, and look after them too;
and then I would give them as many as they wanted of my treasures, and
teach them where to find more; for fairy Love takes care that the more
we give the more we shall have; and even if we didn't, who wants to be a
miser?
Think how much God has given us!--this whole great world, all the sky
over your head, and the air, and sunshine, and woods, and gardens full
of flowers, and fathers and mothers to love and take care of us, and a
million other things.
And what do we give God? Every thing that we give away at all we give to
him just as much as if we laid it in his hand.
Don't you know that Christ called the poor and ignorant God's little
children, and declared he loved them all _better_ than your mother and
father love you?
And not only this, God cares when even a bird falls to the ground with
his wing broken, and is watching to see how much you are willing to do
for his creature.