Elsie Hayden would have been a charming little maiden but for her
besetting fault--talebearing. She was always running in to tell her
mother or governess the faults of the others. All day long it was,
"Mamma, Rex took some currants," "Mamma, Minnie blotted her copy this
morning," "Mamma, the boys have been quarrelling," or some other
complaint concerning her companions. Before long Elsie was to go to
school, and her mother knew what troubles lay before her if she
persisted in looking out for motes in the eyes of others, and forgetting
all about the beams in her own. She got Elsie to work a text in silks,
"Speak not evil one of _another_," and she told the child that if we
feel it is our duty to complain of somebody else, we should be very
careful to speak only the _truth_, and in _love_.
One day Elsie came to her mother in great distress.
"Mamma," she sobbed, "they won't play with me; the others have all sent
me to Coventry. They whisper 'tell-tale-tit' when I go near them; please
make them play with me, mamma. It is so horrid to be left all alone."
"But Elsie," said Mrs. Hayden, "you have brought this trouble on
yourself. When you play with the others you seem always on the lookout
to find fault with them; how can you suppose they will enjoy a game with
a little tale-bearer? Miss Clifford and nurse and I have kept an account
of the tales you have carried to us, complaining of the others, and our
lists added together make 352 complaints in one week!"
"Oh, mamma--I _haven't_ been a tale-bearer 352 times in a week!"
"It is so indeed, my poor little Elsie. I am sadly afraid you will grow
up a scandal-monger, one of those people who go from house to house
spreading tales and making mischief. You must try hard, my darling, to
cure this fault; remember your _own_ failings, and let the faults of
your playmates alone. Poor little Minnie came crying this morning to
confess to me she had called you by an unkind name which I had
forbidden; but she found you already complaining about her, and trying
to get her punished. It was not kind or sisterly, Elsie! Let _love_ rule
that little tongue, and be silent when those impatient complaints come
into your mind."
"I will try, mamma--I will indeed. Will you keep another list for _next_
week, and see if I am any better?"
Mrs. Hayden promised to do so, and the result showed that Elsie had been
a tale-bearer ten times only during the week. The child tried very hard
to cure herself of fault-finding, and she was soon "out of Coventry,"
and as time went on nobody on seeing her sang the rhyme about
"tell-tale-tit."
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