_Obstinacy._--LESSONS WITHOUT BOOKS.
1. There is a certain fault which almost all children have in a greater
or less degree. It is called by different names; sometimes it is termed
wilfulness, sometimes pertinacity, and sometimes it receives the still
harsher name of obstinacy.
2. Almost all our faults are owing to the perversion or abuse of
propensities originally good; and perseverance, when carried too far, or
expended upon unworthy objects, becomes a troublesome infirmity.
3. Louisa and Emily had both something of this infirmity, but differing
both in degree and in its mode of operation.
4. What are called _little things_ did not trouble Emily at all; and, on
the contrary, they troubled Louisa very much.
5. But, when anything did seem peculiarly desirable to Emily,--when she
set her heart upon having her own way,--she carried her perseverance to
a degree which deserved to be called obstinacy.
6. She could _give up_, as children term it, with less effort, and more
grace, than most others; but if anything determined her not to give up,
she was immovable.
7. "You are almost always in the right," my daughter, her father once
said to her, "and Heaven preserve you from error; for when you once fall
into it, you will be too apt to persevere."
8. It happened, at one time, that she and Louisa were having some nice
sun-bonnets made. Emily went for them at the time when they were to be
finished, and finding only one completed, immediately appropriated it to
herself, because she was really in greater need of it than Louisa, who
had one that answered her purpose very well.
9. Louisa resented this, because that, being the eldest, she considered
herself as having the first right; but Emily could not be persuaded to
give up, although Louisa's equanimity was very much disturbed on that
account.
10. If it had been proposed to her beforehand to let Louisa have the
bonnet voluntarily, she would not have hesitated, for she was not
selfish; but when Louisa claimed it as a right, she resisted.
11. Her mother afterwards told her that she should always avoid
irritating the peculiar humors of her companions. "You," said she,
"would not have minded waiting for the other bonnet a day or two, but to
Louisa it was quite a serious evil."
12. And here let me remark upon the proneness which all children have to
magnify the importance of little things. A strife often arises among
them, about just nothing at all, from a mere spirit of competition.
[Illustration]
13. One says, "This is my seat." Another, who would not else have
thought of desiring that particular seat, immediately regards it in the
light of a prize, and exclaims, "No, I meant to have that seat; and I
had it just before you took it."
14. Half a dozen claimants will appear directly, and perhaps get into a
serious quarrel; whereas, had the reply been, in the first instance,
"Very well, let it be your seat," there would have been an end to the
matter.
15. But to return to Louisa. She magnified a thousand little things, of
every day occurrence, in such a manner as proved a very serious
inconvenience to herself.
16. She wished to have her potato sliced, but never mashed. She could
not bear to see a door open a single moment; and, even if she were at
her meals, and the closet door happened to stand ajar, she would jump up
and fly to shut it, with the speed of lightning.
17. She could not _endure_ the feeling of gloves; nor could she any
better endure to have her hat tied. Her aunt bore with all these follies
a while, and then deliberately resolved to counteract them.
18. Louisa at first thought this was very hard and unreasonable. "Why
can't I have my potato sliced, Aunt Cleaveland?" said she; "what hurt
can it do? And why can't I shut the door when it is open? is there any
harm in that?"
19. "Not at all, my dear, in the thing itself," Mrs. Cleaveland replied;
"but there is a great deal of evil in having your tranquillity disturbed
by things of such small moment.
20. "If you allow yourself to be distressed by trifles now, how will you
bear the real trials of life, which you must inevitably sustain, sooner
or later?
21. "By and by, you will find out that your suffering from these sources
is all imaginary, and then you will thank me for having restrained you.
22. "Now, here is this nice dish of mashed potatoes, which we have every
day. If such a little hungry girl as you are, since you have breathed
our healthy mountain air, cannot eat it, and with relish too, I am
greatly mistaken; and, in process of time, I have no doubt you will
cease to observe whether the door is open or shut."
23. On the first day of trial, Louisa just tasted the potato, and left
the whole of it upon her plate. Her aunt took no notice of this. The
next day, Louisa came in to dinner after a long walk, and was very
hungry.
24. There was but one dish of meat upon the table, and it was of a kind
which she did not much like; so, forgetting all her repugnance to mashed
potato, she ate it very heartily.
25. Mrs. Cleaveland, however, forbore to take any notice of this change;
and it was not until after several weeks had elapsed, and Louisa had
ceased to think of the distinction between sliced potato and mashed
potato, that her aunt reminded her of the importance which she had
formerly attached to the former.
26. "Now, my dear Louisa," said Mrs. Cleaveland, "since you find the
task is not so very difficult as you apprehended, promise me that you
will try to cure yourself of all these little infirmities; for such I
must term them.
27. "There is so much real suffering in life, that it is a pity to have
any which is merely imaginary; and though, while you are a little girl,
living with indulgent friends, your whims might all be gratified, a
constant and uniform regard to them will be impossible by and by, when
you are old enough to mingle with the world."