croquet or riding if they were not with her.  Now and then she invites some poor neighbor, she takes some young sempstress or worsted-worker to town to do her shopping, she carries the tired housewife to see her mother, she asks three little girls—­somewhat crowded but rapturously happy—­three miles to see the balloon that has alighted on the hill; she drives a widowed old mother-in-Israel to a tea-drinking of which she would otherwise be deprived.  These are not charities.  They are courtesies, and this bright-faced girl is sunshine in her village home and, by and by, when her box of finery is by some mistake left at the station, a stalwart youngster, unbidden, shoulders it and bears it, panting and perspiring, to her door-step, declaring that he would not do it for another person in town but Miss Fanny!  And perhaps he does not even say Miss Fanny—­only Fanny.  Now she could get on very well without the villager’s admiring affection, and even without her box of finery; yet the goodwill of your neighbors is exceeding pleasant.

Another thing Fanny excels in is the acknowledgment of courtesy, which is itself as great a courtesy as the performance of kindness.  If she is invited to a lawn party or a boating picnic, whether she accept or not, she pays a visit to her hostess afterward and expresses her pleasure or her regrets; and she pays it with promptness, and not with tardy reluctance, as if it were a burden.  If she has been making a week’s visit away from home, she notifies her hostess of her safe return and her enjoyment of the visit, as soon as she is back again.  If a bouquet is sent her,—­too informal for a note,—­she remembers to speak of it afterward.  You never can remember?  No; but Fanny does.  That is why I admire her.  If she has borrowed a book, she has an appreciative word to say when she returns it; and if she has dropped it in the mud, she does not apologize and offer to replace it.  She replaces it first and apologizes afterward, though she has to sacrifice a much-needed pair of four-button gloves to do it!  Indeed, no person has as little apologizing to do as Fanny, because she does everything promptly; and you may notice that what we apologize for chiefly is delay.  We perform our little social duties, only not in good season, and so rob them of half their grace.  It takes no longer to answer a letter to-day than it will take to-morrow.  But if the letter requires an answer instantly, and you put it off day after day, your correspondent is vexed, and your tardy answer will never be quite a reparation.  Remember that no explanation, no apology, is quite as good as to have done the thing exactly as it should be in the first place.

JACK’S CHRISTMAS

BY EMMA K. PARRISH.

Jack had just heard of Christmas for the first time!  Ten years old, and never knew about Christmas before!  Jack’s mother was a weary, overworked woman, and had no heart to tell the children about merry times and beautiful things in which they could have no share.