_We should make every effort to overcome in childhood any habit,
which if allowed to grow, will exert a bad influence on our later
life._
There was once a little girl, named Gretchen, who was a very nice
little girl most of the time. When she smiled everybody thought she
was pretty. But she often lost her temper, and when she was angry
her face was so ugly that it scared people to look at her.
She was no longer pretty little Gretchen, but her face was all
covered with wrinkles and frowns, and her eyes turned green. All
the children were afraid of her, and even the animals ran away when
she came near. “You can never tell when Gretchen is going to be
angry,” they would say. Her mother grieved over her, but it did no
good. She wondered what she could do to cure this bad habit of her
little daughter.
One day as her mother was slowly walking along wondering how to
help her little daughter she heard a soft voice say: “I will help
you.”
Looking down on the side of the path she saw a tiny old woman
following her as she walked along. She wondered what the old woman
was going to do, but she could get no answers to her questions
except: “Wait and see.”
“What kind of an old woman are you?” asked Gretchen’s mother.
“I am called the looking-glass witch,” answered the old woman. “I
make people see themselves as others see them. Sometimes they look
very pretty, and sometimes they look very ugly.”
Gretchen met her mother at the gate. She was dressed ready for a
party, and with a basket of roses in her hand. She looked very
pretty indeed. The mother stooped to kiss her little girl. The
basket fell and all the roses spilled out on the ground. Quicker
than thought Gretchen’s face began to change. She became very
angry. She no longer smiled, but began to frown and wrinkle her
face with rage. Her eyes turned green instead of blue, and her face
was red and spotted. Then the old woman stepped out from behind
Gretchen’s mother and faced the angry child.
“Oh, Gretchen, Gretchen, look!” cried the mother.
There upon the lawn stood the ugliest old woman that Gretchen had
ever seen. Her eyes were large mirrors, and in each one Gretchen
saw herself, only she was very ugly. Her hair was stiff and black,
and on each strand danced a horrid imp. They each held a mirror in
which seemed to be an ugly Gretchen mocking her.
“Oh, mother!” cried the little girl, as she hid behind her mother’s
skirt, “I am not so ugly as that, am I?”
“Yes, you are,” cried the old woman, “and you will grow uglier and
uglier if you do not stop losing your temper.” With this the old
woman vanished.
But the lesson was learned, and ever after when Gretchen began to
be angry she thought of the looking-glass witch and changed her
mind.