The little children who went to school long years ago did not have
pretty things to play with as you have--no kindergarten balls with
bright colours, nor nice bricks with which to build houses and churches!
There was a little girl named Lulu who went to a dame's school in those
far-off days, and most of the time she had to sit knitting a long, grey
stocking, though she was only six years old.
Some of the older girls were sewing on canvas with pretty coloured
wools, and making (what appeared to little Lulu) most beautiful
pictures. How she longed for a length of the pink or blue wool to have
for her very own!
The school was in a room upstairs, and at the head of the stair there
was a window, with a deep window-sill in front of it. As Lulu came out
of the schoolroom one day to take a message for the teacher, and turned
to close the door after her, she saw (oh, lovely sight!) that the
window-sill was piled up with bundles of the pretty coloured wool that
she liked so much. Oh! how she wished for a little of it! And, see,
there is some rose-pink wool on the top, cut into lengths ready for the
girls to sew with! It is too much for poor little Lulu; she draws out
one! two! three lengths of the wool, folds it up hastily, puts it in her
pocket, and runs down the stair on the errand she has been sent.
But is she happy? Oh, no! for a little Voice says: "Lulu, you are
stealing; the wool is not yours!" For a few minutes the wool rests in
her pocket, and then she runs back up the stair; the schoolroom door is
still closed as Lulu draws the wool from her pocket, and gently puts it
back on the window-sill. Then she takes the message and returns to her
place in the schoolroom, and to the knitting of her long stocking, hot
and ashamed at the thought of what she has done, but glad in her heart
that she listened to the Good Voice, and did not keep the wool.
Had any one seen her? Did any one know about it? Yes, there were loving
Eyes watching little Lulu, and the One who looked down was very glad
when she listened to the Good Voice. Do you know who it was?
God our Father sees us all,
Boys and girls, and children small;
When we listen to His voice,
Angels in their songs rejoice.
Have _you_ heard that voice, dear child,
Speaking in you, gentle, mild?
Always listen and obey,
For it leads you the right way.
(Blackboard.)
Do not Take what is not Yours.
_Note._--To the mother or teacher who can read
between the lines, this little story (which is not
imaginary, but a true record of fact) bears
another meaning. It shows the child's passionate
love for objects that are pretty, especially
coloured objects, and how the withholding of these
may open the way to temptation. Let the child's
natural desire be gratified, and supply to it
freely coloured wools, beads, etc., at the same
time teaching the right use of them, according to
kindergarten[3] principles.
(TAKING LITTLE THINGS.)