Did you ever go to Put-Off town,
Where the houses are old and tumble-down,
And everything tarries and everything drags,
With dirty streets and people in rags?
On the street of Slow lives Old Man Wait,
And his two little boys named Linger and Late;
With unclean hands and tousled hair,
And a naughty little sister named Don't Care.
Grandmother Growl lives in this town,
With her two little daughters called Fret and Frown;
And Old Man Lazy lives all alone
Around the corner on Street Postpone.
Did you ever go to Put-Off town
To play with the little girls, Fret and Frown,
Or to the home of Old Man Wait,
And whistle for his boys to come to the gate?
To play all day in Tarry Street,
Leaving your errands for other feet?
To stop or shirk, or linger, or frown,
Is the nearest way to this old town.
*X*
*BOLDNESS*
There is a splendid kind of boldness.
One day, years ago, sometime after the death of Jesus, two of His
disciples, Peter and John, were arrested and brought before their bitter
enemies who were ready and able to kill them. And Peter, the noble
soul, stood up without a pang of fear and just told them face to face
what he thought; and then the New Testament story says: "When they saw
the boldness of Peter and John they marvelled."
It is a fine thing to see men and women and girls and boys who are not
afraid to do and stand for the right.
Listen to this story which I will give you just as I got it:
He was small for his age, worked in a signal box, and booked the trains.
One day the men were chaffing him about being so small. One of them
said:
"You will never amount to much. You will never be able to pull these
levers; you are too small."
The little fellow looked at them.
"Well," said he, "as small as I am, I can do something which none of you
can do."
"Ah! what is that?" they all said.
"I don't know that I ought to tell you," he replied.
But they were anxious to know, and urged him to tell what he could do
that none of them were able to do. Said one of the men:
"What is it, boy?"
"I can keep from swearing and drinking!" replied the little fellow.
There were blushes on the men's faces, and they didn't seem anxious for
any further information on the subject.
Was not he the right kind of a bold boy?
Or what do you think of a lot of officers at a dinner, drinking and
telling unclean tales.
Everybody had to tell a story or sing a song.
One young, shy fellow said, "I cannot sing but I will give a toast in
water." And the toast he gave was "Our Mothers."
The rest were so touched by his splendid courage that they shook his
hand and thanked him, and the Colonel said it was one of the bravest
acts he ever saw.
A great Scotch preacher was so brave that it was said, "he never feared
the face of man."
Every girl and boy should be bold in that way--fearless, heroic, full of
courage and with a stiff, brave heart.
Some day you will read and study Shakespeare, and he will give you this
message:
"What's brave, what's noble, let's do it, and
make death proud to take us."
Another writer, whose name I do not know, is quoted as saying:
"We make way for the man who boldly pushes past us."
Dear girls and boys, was it not a great moment for Canada when a little
handful of Canadians stood at Ypres, in the first poison gas attack and
dare to face it, and stand fast? Their boldness helped to stem the
tide, and that first stand was the beginning of the events that won the
war for the Allies.
That sort of a bold person makes history, and makes the history of their
country.
The poet Emerson puts it this way:
"Not gold, but only men can make
A people great and strong.
Men who for truth and honour's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly--
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky."
But there is a boldness that acts on life like foxes in a garden.
It is seen in the rude, rough, saucy, forward girl or boy.
The boy who becomes a "smart Alec." Sometimes other boys call him
"Smarty."
Or the girl who does not know how to blush; with no sense of shame. You
can always tell them. She dresses loud, and laughs loud, and makes a
fool of herself on the street; and he stares at you and acts impudently,
and thinks he is manly.
They like to be looked at, and stare back.
They lack gentle, quiet refinement, and if that spirit grows, it will
ruin the character and make the girl or boy disliked by everybody who
cares for a gentleman or a lady; and in later years they will be
ashamed.
Take a dictionary if you have one, and see the two uses of the word.
Bold--heroic, brave, gallant, courageous, fearless.
Bold--rude, without shame, impudent.
Which are you going to be?
*XI*
*REVENGE*
This is a fox whose bite brings blood.
It represents a very bad spirit.
It means, "I am going to pay him back." "I am going to get even." "You
just see, I'll catch him and make him sorry!"
It does make him sorry, not in the sense of being penitent and wishing
he had not done it, or longing to undo it; but sorry because of the blow
he gets in return.
It is a bitter heart that takes revenge. It goes with a hard,
unforgiving spirit.
It is an awful way for girls and boys to act, because they should be so
bright and smiling. They are so fresh and sunny. They are so young they
should not grow hard like an old shell.
They ought to be all mercy, forgiveness, kindness, because they have so
much of it shown to them.
I hate to see a kiddie who is always looking for a chance to hit some
one who happened to hit him.
Johnny Pay-him-back once was hurt when he was playing with a schoolmate,
and instead of turning up a rosy face and laughing it off, the way the
sun does when a piece of mud flies up in the face of the sky, he opened
the door of his heart and this little fox began to chew away all his
finer feelings. As the fox chewed, Johnny chewed on his hurt, just the
way he was chewing a wad of gum in his mouth. The more he chewed the
hotter he grew under his collar.
You see, in your heart there is a cooling plant called Love, but the
pesky little fox chewed it all up, and he got so hot that he paid the
boy back and sent him to bed for a whole month to suffer pain; simply
because he wanted revenge.
I read of a man once who was injured by another man of high rank in
society, and he said to a friend, "Would it not be manly to resent it?"
The friend answered, "Yes, but it would be God-like to forgive!"
It is not easy to forgive. It takes a real man to do it, but it makes
you very much like God, who forgives us so much day after day!
And the gentle, forgiving spirit does so much to make the world bright,
while the revengeful spirit adds so much to its gloom. Put that in a
house or a school, and you pull down all the blinds and stop all the
music of life.
Part of the horrors of the war were bred of revenge.
Germany had piled up all she could on France in 1870. France could not
forget it, and the terrible thing about revenge is it burns so long. It
may be that even now after victory, sparks of that old fire are still
burning in the heart of France. If it should blaze up nobody can tell
how awful the results would be.
Brighten up your hearts by keeping them sweet with mercy.
Instead of making yourself dark with the desire to pay back--just shine
up a little. Keep the air fresh, and polish off your windows and put
the flowers of kindness on the sills and hand out mercy to those who
pass by.
Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." And
if you and I can't forgive, how can we hope to be forgiven?
Oh, there is nothing like the sunny life to cast out the shadows of
hate.
It was the radiant sunshine of Pollyanna that changed a whole community
and brought two people together who had not spoken for years; so
Smile, don't frown. Love, don't hate.
"Are you feeling cross to-day?
Stop and smile.
And of course, if you feel gay,
Why, you'll smile.
You will find that it will pay
If everywhere and every day
At your work or at your play
You will smile. Just smile."
It was a piece of fine advice one gave another. It was this:
"Smile a while,
And while you smile
Another smiles!
And soon there will be miles
And miles
Of smiles.
And life's worth while
Because you smile."
May I add:
Don't frown and groan
Or throw your stone.
But pile up high
Yes, just sky-high
Your joy and love.
Then by-and-by
Down from above
The holy dove
Will come and move
Our world with love.
*XII*
*UNTRUTHFULNESS*
"Oh, what do you want to talk so much about that?" said a boy to his
mother. "It was only a white lie!"
And the poor little silly thought that you got your opinion of a lie by
its colour!
A bad man may be white, or brown, or black, or yellow, but he is a bad
man all the same! The colour does not matter; and so is a lie a bad
thing, whether it is little or big, or white or black. I'll tell you
why, girls and boys!
1. White lies give you a habit of telling lies, and when you get the
habit you become a liar! In fact, white lies are almost the worse of the
two, because a big black lie would scare you, but the little white lie
eats into you without you knowing it.