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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.