[Illustration: The P.S. CORNER]
MY Blossoms all, I wish you a sunshiny April. I know she is apt to shed
many tears, but for that very reason we must try to keep our faces
unusually bright, for contrast.
I have given you this month several letters from our Blossoms. This, in
the future, will be a special feature for our P. S. Corner. I have been
selfish in keeping all the sweet bright little letters to myself. There
is room for only a very few out of the hundreds which come each month,
but you may take them as specimens of the rest. I wish we had room to
print them all, for your enjoyment. Meantime, send them on for me to
read, that I may keep posted as to what you are doing, and discover in
what ways I can best help you.
Lovingly, PANSY.
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_Mary Louise_ from Florida. How glad it makes me to hear that the
Whisper Motto helps you! It is sure to help every one who is faithful
to it. That is a sweet thought of yours, to lend your PANSIES to
others. I wonder how many of our Blossoms think to do a little good
in that way? It would be so easy, and might help somebody very much.
Do you like the "land of flowers?" I spent a month there last winter,
and had a very happy time. I go to de Funiak Springs, where the
Sabbath-school Assembly holds its meetings. Perhaps you will go, and I
shall meet you there. Would not that be pleasant? If you do, you must
surely come to me and say: "I am Mary Louise," then I shall know you at
once.
_Lizzie_ from Connecticut. My dear, I pray for every name enrolled
on our P. S. book. That God will make each Blossom fragrant for him,
and take it some day to his heavenly garden, is my constant hope and
prayer. Perhaps you need to use the prayer which I find very necessary
for me every day: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my tongue. Keep the door
of my lips."
_Emma_ from Massachusetts. My dear, THE PANSY is just twelve years old.
Doesn't it travel over a large part of the world for one so young?
_Lena_ from Massachusetts. We should be glad to hear about the
entertainment. I hope you had a good time. Suppose you see how good a
description you can write of it, and of your Sabbath-school?
_Annie_ from Georgia. But I do not know that you are in Georgia now, my
Blossom. Perhaps you have already moved to that "New home." If so, you
will be able to write and tell me how you like it. I was glad to get
your full name for enrollment.
_Emma_ from Illinois. What success do you have with "impatience?" He
is a very trying enemy; you certainly do well to rid yourself of him.
But did you find it easy work? A little friend of mine said she could
be just as patient as anybody when things went as she wanted them to;
it was when nothing behaved right that she got impatient. I have known
older people than she who might have said the same.
_Alice_ from Vermont. My dear Blossom, I hope the badge reached you in
safety and is helping you about taking care of those "things." Such
little habits are great trials to "mamma," and I am sure our little
Alice wants to be all the comfort she can to mother, especially now
that God has taken the dear father and the sister home. I know how
lonely you must be without them; but I hope you are trying every day to
live so that when He calls you, it will be a joy for you to go and join
your dear ones in their bright home.
_Andrew_ from Dakota. Here comes another "impatient" boy! So they
cannot be patient out in Dakota any better than they can farther East?
Well, Satan seems to be busy bothering people all the world over. The
Whisper Motto is just these three words: "For Jesus' Sake." We call it
the Whisper Motto, not because we want to hide it, but because we want
to have it about with us all the time, speaking softly to our hearts
when others cannot hear, perhaps when others are in the midst of talk
which makes us feel cross, and we want to remember to give a "soft"
answer because that is the only one which will please Jesus. There is
no "charge" for membership in the P. S. There is a pledge to try to
overcome some bad habit, and to adopt the Whisper Motto as one's own.
We welcome you to our ranks, and have enrolled your name.
_Helen_ from New Jersey. Oh, yes; we will try as hard as we can to help
you. Whenever you see the meek little blossom on your badge, I hope
it will put this verse into your mind: "For even Christ pleased not
himself." If you think of this and try every time to do the thing you
did not want to, so your life will be pleasing to Jesus, by and by it
will grow so pleasant to you to think of what others want, that you
will forget it was ever a trouble. I am glad you are going to try it.
_Lanetta_ from New Hampshire. Not at all too late for good wishes, my
friend; nine months of the year left to improve. Shall you and I try
hard to make it the happiest year of our lives? What a quiet, pleasant
Christmas you told me of! It rests me to think of your happy home.
_Mildred_ from New York. Yes, I know, the little baby brother needs a
great deal of patience. Sometimes it helps us to sit down in a corner
by ourselves, and try to imagine how desolate the house would be
without him. I know of a woman who sometimes sheds bitter tears, even
now, because the last words she spoke to her little baby brother more
than fifty years ago, were cross ones! Glad to receive your pledge.
Here is a lovely bouquet of Blossoms from Massachusetts: _Cora_, _Ida_,
_Bessie_, _Lizzie_, _Louise_, _Margaret_. Just a sweet half-dozen. I
hardly know a bouquet of which I think with so much pleasure as this
one. Something whispers to me that some of them are trying hard to help
the others. Perhaps all are trying. Like the rest of us, these Blossoms
have work to do; weeds will grow in flower gardens, if not carefully
watched. Here is the weed of "Carelessness" popping up its naughty head
to trouble Louise; it is so much easier to leave the books or the
playthings just where they happen to drop; at least it seems easier at
the time. Try the other way, Louise, and see how much comfort you will
get from it.
Margaret's sweet little tongue wants to speak, sometimes, when it would
better keep silence; so many tongues attempt that! Margaret is going to
teach hers that while "Speech is silver, silence is golden."
Cora's tongue, too, is sometimes tempted to speak naughty words; watch
it, my child. Do you know the verse--
This one little tongue that God has given
Must always speak for him.
If we make our words always such as He will love to hear, we shall be
safe.
Ida's tongue is tempted to whisper when it should be silent. Isn't it
astonishing how many wrong things there are for tongues to do, and how
sure they are to go wrong if they can! Ida, as well as the rest of us,
needs this prayer: "Keep the door of my lips, that I sin not with my
tongue."
Bessie is evidently tempted to move slowly, either with hands or feet,
or both, when she should make all speed. I am glad indeed to hear that
you are going to try to teach these members better.
And here is little Lizzie, the last of the group, who has a hard task
indeed before her; she is going to try not to "do anything wrong." That
sounds like a very large pledge; but after all, if we are soldiers of
Jesus, it is no more than he asks: "Whether therefore ye eat or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
Dear Blossoms, I hope I shall hear often from you, that you are
growing, and blooming, and spreading your fragrance for Jesus' sake.
_George_ from Illinois. Welcome, my boy, to our roll. I am an excellent
hand to read writing; just try me and see if I don't make yours out,
without any trouble. Meantime, we, you and I, are very grateful to
mamma for writing for you, and for all the kind words she speaks.
_Anne_ from Washington. Your threefold pledge is very important;
especially that one about "reading the Bible every day." If all the
young people of this generation, or even if all those who belong to
the P. S., would make and keep that resolution through life, I am
certain we should have a different world to live in, by the time they
were old enough to help manage it. Dear me! What am I talking about?
Not one of you but is old enough this minute to help manage the world,
your little piece of it, and I haven't the least doubt but that you are
doing it; the question is, How?
_Ollie_ from Texas. Your first letter! Good! How glad I am you
wrote the first one to me. But really I don't understand about the
"squirrel." Didn't you find him on some other page? Think it up, my
boy, and let us know. Meantime, I have enjoyed your letter.
_Walter_ from Dakota. I acknowledge that it is very sad to think of one
of my Blossoms as being "mad." But since it is only when you "get out
of patience," and you have taken a pledge to keep yourself supplied
with that article, we shall hope to hear better things of you very
soon. We gladly welcome you.
_Netta_ from Missouri. What a busy little woman you must be in school!
Your studies are all important, and I hope I may think of you as one of
the most faithful scholars in the room. Can I?
_George_ from Illinois. I am sorry, my dear friend, that I have not a
photograph for you. I have often thought what a pleasant thing it would
be if I could afford to send a photograph of myself as a birthday gift
to each of my Pansies! But alas, alas! my pocket book will not let me.
No! I remember you did not ask me to give it; you were very polite. I
will answer your question, however, as to where you can find it. L. E.
Walker of Warsaw, New York, is authorized to furnish a good picture
of me, and will reply promptly to your question as to price. I have
forgotten what they cost; they are cabinet size. D. Lothrop & Co.,
Publishers of THE PANSY, have also an engraving of me, which they will
furnish for twenty-five cents on application.
_Frank_ from Massachusetts. Dear little Blossom, I am glad to put your
name on my roll. It isn't an easy matter to mind "just as quick!" It
takes a boy with a good deal of strength of purpose to accomplish it.
I am so glad you have decided to learn the lesson early. Did you ever
hear of the great general who said no man was fit to command until he
had learned to obey? It is true.
_Paul_ from Maine. My boy, I like your rules very much; and your
letter. I have just been writing to a dear little fellow who has the
same fault to overcome; he will be glad to see you have joined his
company. Are you acquainted with a namesake of yours, the grand old
"Paul" of the Bible? He is a favorite character of mine. If you have
not carefully studied his life, suppose you do it, and write out what
you think of him, for me. Will you?
_Marguerite_ from New York. Yes indeed, my little Daisy, you may join
our society. We are glad for all the flowers we can get, and we hope
they will bloom summer and winter, and be so sweet that all who come
near them will feel their influence. I am glad you like "Reaching Out."
It is to be continued through the year.
_Harold_ from Boston. I hope the badge reached you safely. At first I
was in great doubt, having received a nice letter from you, with no
address, so the badge could be sent; but as soon as the second letter
came, I attended to it. To "mind mother" is one of the very important
duties in life. So important that God made a special command about it.
I think you write an excellent letter for a boy of your age.
_Lucy_ from Michigan. Thank you, my dear, for your interesting letter.
I think your Band must be a very helpful one. One needs to do something
of that sort, in order to realize how rapidly the pennies count up.
_Jessie_ from Nebraska. So you are just a little inclined to "fret."
Well, that is a very easy thing to do, and rather a hard thing to stop
doing. I hope the badge will do its share in the work. I suspect the
motto, however, will be more helpful than anything else. I enjoyed your
letter very much.
_Maud_ from Montana. Oh, yes, my dear, far-away Pansy, there are other
Blossoms just as far; but if somebody should ask us what we were
talking about--how far from where?--what should we tell them? This
is such a big world, and the people who live in California think the
people who live in Maine are very far away from them, but when I get a
letter from a little missionary girl in China, she says, "I wish you
did not live so far away from _us_!" so how shall we count? The truth
is, we are all away from home, on a journey; by and by, if we keep the
right road, we shall all get home to our Father's house; then no one
will be far away.
_Horace_ from New Jersey. My boy, I know all about that habit of yours,
what a temptation it is. I am rejoiced to think you are going to
conquer it while you are young. One day I went to call on two ladies,
sisters, who were both over fifty years old, and don't you think the
younger one contradicted the elder in almost every statement she made!
If we could have gotten hold of her when she was a little girl, and
coaxed her to take a pledge to overcome the habit, she would not be
such an ill-bred woman now.
_Cora_ from New Hampshire. We welcome you and "sister Mabel" with great
pleasure. There are a great many "hasty tempers" among our Blossoms.
The world will certainly be the sweeter because of all the flowers that
have decided to speak gentle words instead of hasty ones.
_Rose_ from Pennsylvania. Did the badge help? I wonder what sort of
things you "forgot" so much? Poor gold thimble! I wonder where it is
hiding? I heard of a boy who forget to mail a letter for his father,
and so was the means of his losing ten thousand dollars!
_Rodney_ from Philadelphia. Another "quick" temper! All right, my boy;
we have many to keep you company. We welcome "sister Clara" also. An
"answer back" is almost certain not to be a "soft" answer; did you ever
notice it?
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