Newspaper Page Text
12
For tl
Habit at first is but a s
Fine as the light-winged
Ir. the warm sunbeams <
A shallow streamlet, rip
A tiny sapling, ere its r;
A yet unhardened thorn
A lien's whelp that hath
A little smi.ing child ob
Peware! that thread ms
T bat streamlet gather tt
Thai sapling spread intc
That thorn, grown hard,
That playful whelp his i
That child, a giant, crus
THE TWEN
By Mary
Elsie Darwin came
Mother always said tl
down the street, she kn<
pened to her. Somethir
it had madeVElsie feel v
as she skipped she sang
It was an old, old tt
else "had ever heard the
up herself. She humrr
breath:
"I got a hundrec
I eot a hundrei
It was not the first d
in spelling. Not at all.
dred just seventeen tin
were only three more d
one hundred three mor
the honor roll. Then tJ
er her report card !
So Elsie skipped and
hundred, I got a hundi
could tell mother. Of c
surprise mother, too, b
one to talk things over
The next day was
home from school that
Thursday, and again El
"Now, there is only o
"and I can surely get jt
be surprised? And woj
Every one in school
noon. The girls talked
three girls in the class a
die Clark, Mabel Delan
"You girls needn't be
may make mistakes tod;
fifteen hundreds. I tho
I made a mistake that a
"Oh, but we won't ma
we, Elsie?"
"We will study just a
won t we, Sadie?
L
y
THE PRESBYTERIAl
ne Children
HABIT.
silken thread,
gossamers that sway
of a summer's day;
pling o'er its bed;
?ots are spread;
unon the snrnv
not scented prey;
edient led.
iy bind thee as a chain;
> a fatal sea;
> a gnarled tree;
may wound and give thee pain;
nurderous fangs reveal;
h thee 'neath his heel.
?-Selected.
TIETH HUNDRED.
Katherine Reely.
skipping home from school,
hat when Elsie came skipping
:w that something nice had hapig
nice had happened today, and
ery happy. So she skipped, and
[ a little song.
ine which she sang, but no one
words, for she had made them
led them very softly under her
1, I got a hundred,
d in spelling today."
ay Elsie had stood one hundred
Indeed, she had had one hunnes
that month, and now there
ays to spell. If she could have
e times, her name would go on
[link of the joy of showing fathl
sang her little song, "I got a
red," till she reached home and
ourse it would have been nice to
ut a little girl must have some
with.
Wednesday, and Elsie skipped
afternoon. The next day was
sie skipped.
>ne more day, mother," she said,
ist one more. And won't father
I't he be proud of me?"
was excited that Friday afterit
over at recess. There w*?re
vho had nineteen hundreds: Said
and Elsie.
so sure," Lucy Case said. "You
ay. I was sure, too. when I had
ught I could get five more, but
/erv dav "
' " J J '
ike mistakes." said Sadie. "Will
s hard till we know every word,
N OF THE SOUTH.
"Of course we will," said Sa<
Spelling class came just be!
could hardly sit still in her sc
running through her head. S
would sing it aloud.
"I'll get a hundred, I'll
I'll get my twentieth h
This is what she sang to hei
"Only three more words to 1
feet were tapping up and dowi
time to the song.
Miss Morris pronounced th
ceive."
"Oh, dear!" thought Elsie,
words that I could never spel
today." She wrote it down.
Then there were two words
change papers. Elsie smile<
changed, and Sadie smiled ba
meant that each little girl wa
Mabel Deland was asked to
Elsie gave a quick glance t
words.
Yes, they were "just like hers
all? Elsie was looking at the
not look right.
"Deceh?decie"?chp
?M
had "ei." Can she be right?'
And then the awful' trut
was right. She was wrong!
Elsie must try to follow her.
did she must not cry!
Elsie marked 100 at the top <
it back to her. She tried to be
but it was hard to make the si
back at her, however, as if ev<
Elsie took her paper. She
eenth word. What had happer
now!
Then she understood. Sadie h
with her pencil, so that the i w
dot was just half way betwe<
no one need ever know. Anc
paper was the big one hundrec
"It is what I have worked f<
thought. "And I can't bear to
So when Sadie and the other
them. But when Miss Morri:
good work, Elsie did not feel
had expected to.
She didn't feel like singing h
stead she kept thinking the wc
"Deceive, deceive"; she could
"Is there a commandment tl
deceive?" she wondered. She
but it sounded like one.
Elsie slipped away from the
A * * -
was out, ana siarted home alor
tonight. ,
"I don't care," she said to hei
the month, and now my name
and I can tell father."
This is what Elsie tried ver
June 16, 1909.
Jie.
ore school closed. Elsie
at. Her little song kept
lie was almost afraid she
get a hundred,
undred today."
rself now.
write," she thought. Her
i under her seat, keeping
e.eighteenth word, "De"One
of those horrid 'ie'
II. But I know this one
more and it was time to
1 at Sadie as they exck
at Elsie. The smilea
ls sure. ,
spell. Just as she began
lown Sadie's column of
?
?. Nol Were they, after
eignieentn word. It diJ
uickly to herself. Sadie
' she thought,
h came to her. Sadie
Mabel was spelling and
And, oh, whatever she
of Sadie's paper and gave
brave and smile at Sadie,
mile come. Sadie smiled
;rything were all right. .
looked first at the eightled
to it? It looked right
ad made the littlest mark
as turned into an e. The
;n the two letters. And
I there at the top of her
1 mark.
Or a whnlp mnntli " T71-J
, _ ? N/tivtif JJ191C
' fail at the very end."
s stood, Elsie stood with
s praised them for their
as glad about it as she
er little song, either. In>rd
she had mis-spelled?
think of nothing else,
lat says, 'Thou shalt not
didn't believe there was,
other girls when school
le. She didn't skip at al!
rself. "I worked hard all
's on the roll, anyway,
y hard to say to herself.