A little later, the school closed and, the children on their way home, the visitor chanced to pass by the child in the red cloak, just in time to hear her say angrily to her nurse, who had called for her: 

“I don’t want to go this way—­I want to go through the park.  I won’t!  I won’t go through that horrid old street!”

“But, Miss Mazie, your mamma said we were to go straight home and not stay in the park to-day.”

Upon this, the little lady marched away, with pouting lips and injured mien.

“Ah,” thought the lady, “what a difference it makes in the voice when one speaks angrily!  No matter how sweet it may be, how harsh and unloving angry words make it!”

What a pity that Mazie did not keep her voice as musical and birdlike as it was when she was singing her morning song of praise!  Think of this, little readers, and when you are tempted to be angry and speak in cross tones, instead of making your voice unpleasant to hear, endeavor to make it sweet and loving.

* * * * *

Thoughts for Mothers

The Earnest Mother.

Mothers seldom realize the influence they exert in molding the lives of their children.  It is the faithful teaching, as well as the consistent practicing of an earnest mother which results in forming characters of nobility and uprightness in the sons and daughters.  The work cannot be begun too early.  From their very birth, our children receive impressions.  What the character of these impressions is depends upon surrounding influences.  A true mother’s influence should last long after she is at rest.  Said Thomas H. Benton:  “My mother asked me never to use tobacco; I have never touched it from that time to the present day.  She asked me not to gamble, and I have never gambled, and I cannot tell who is losing in games that are being played.  She admonished me, too, against hard drinking, and whatever capacity for endurance I have at present, and whatever usefulness I may have attained in life, I have attributed to having complied with her pious and correct wishes.  When I was seven years of age she asked me not to drink, and then I made a resolution of total abstinence; and that I have adhered to it through all time, I owe to my mother.”

Mothers, do not think your little ones are too young to receive advice; it is true they may not act upon it for many years, but they will remember it and follow it sometime.

* * * * *

HURRAH FOR THE BOY THAT WHISTLES.

    Hurrah for the boy that whistles! 
      Just now he passed by here. 
    The rain dripped down from his sodden crown,
      But his whistle sounded clear;
    And it made my task seem easier,
      And my heart grew brave and strong,
    Hurrah for the boy that whistles! 
      He helps the world along.
    —­Written for Dew Drops by Bertha E. Bush.