"A show at night is no place for a kid like you. You should be at home in bed."
"But I peddled bills and have two tickets," said the kid, as he began to sniffle.
"All right then," answered dad. "I will go with you to see that you don"t get into trouble."
Johnnie Jones was doing penance in the corner. Presently he thought aloud pensively:
"I can"t help it if I am not perfect," he sighed. "I have only heard of one perfect boy in my whole life."
"Who was that?" his father asked, thinking to point out a moral.
"You," came the reply, plaintively, "when you were little."
_His Example_
There are little eyes upon you, and they"re watching night and day; There are little ears that quickly take in every word you say; There are little hands all eager to do everything you do, And a little boy that"s dreaming of the day he"ll be like you.
You"re the little fellow"s idol, you"re the wisest of the wise; In his little mind about you no suspicions ever rise; He believes in you devoutly, holds that all you say and do He will say and do in your way when he"s grown up just like you.
Oh, it sometimes makes me shudder when I hear my boy repeat Some careless phrase I"ve uttered in the language of the street; And it sets my heart to grieving when some little fault I see And I know beyond all doubting that he picked it up from me.
There"s a wide-eyed little fellow who believes you"re always right, And his ears are always open and he watches day and night.
You are setting an example every day in all you do For the little boy who"s waiting to grow up to be like you.
"Now, there"s some talk of a Father"s Day."
"Oh, father doesn"t want a day. Give him a night off."
"I was never so tired in my life. I"ve had a perfectly awful day. But I got Father home safely, and that"s something. It was his annual day to be a boy again, to be a regular pal to me, as he likes to express it. So I have been out in the woods with him.
"I inferred from his remarks when he invited me to go that he intended to win my confidence and help me in my troubles. But by noon he had broken his gla.s.ses, worn blisters on both heels, sc.r.a.ped his shins, lost his new fishing reel, sunk a rowboat, scalded his mouth, burned his bald spot in the sun and torn the seat out of his trousers, so I think he must have postponed whatever he had to say of an intimate nature.
"If writers and lecturers only knew the suffering they bring to impressionable parents by goading them into trying to be their boys"
chums they certainly would cease their efforts out of sheer pity."
FAULTS
"Everybody has his faults," said Uncle Eben. "De princ.i.p.al difference in folks is whether dey"s sorry for "em or proud of "em."
It is so easy to find fault that self-respecting persons ought to be ashamed to waste their energies in that way.
It only takes a few minutes to find in others the faults we can"t discover in ourselves in a lifetime.
A widely known Highland drover sold a horse to an Englishman.
A few days afterward the buyer returned to him.
"You said that horse had no faults."
"Well, no mair had he."
"He"s nearly blind!" said the indignant Englishman.
"Why, mon, that"s no" his fau"t--that"s his misfortune."
FEES
_See_ Tips.
FICTION
The husband was seeing his beloved wife off for a holiday. "Maggie, dear," he said, "hadn"t you better take some fiction with you to while away the time?"
"Oh, no, George," she said, "you"ll be sending me some letters."
FIGHTING
"Brudder Perkins, yo" been fightin", I heah," said the colored minister.
"Yaas, Ah wuz."
"Doan yo" "membeh whut de good book sez "bout turnin" de odder cheek?"
"Yaas, pahson, but he hit me on mah nose, an" I"se only got one."