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IO THE PRESBYTERIA
For the Children
THE TALE OF THE WILFUL FISH.
Did you ever, ever hear
Of anything so queer
As the little fish who couldn't learn to swim?
Through the air above so high,
For he said, "I want to fly
And to be a little bird upon a limb."
Then his good old mother said,
"With such notions in your head
You can never be of any use to me;
So you'd better go away
From home this very day
And try your luck a living in a tree."
Said the foolish little fish,
"1 am sure that if I wish
1 can sing like any bird?very sweetly."
But a man came along
With a line and hook so strong
And caught the little fish?very neatly
?Frances Densmore.
THE LITTLE PIGS THAT PLAYED IN THE
GARDEN.
The garden was a very beautiful spot. There was
grass in the middle, and all around, close to the fence,
grew many kinds of sweet-smelling flowers. The
little pigs that played in the garden did not walk
upon four legs each, but upon two legs each. They
neither grunted nor squeaked, and, strange to say,
the name of one was Lillian, and the name of the
*er Judy. These two thought the garden the
loveliest ?r>ot they had ever seen. Some one else
thoucrlit it wae a lnvolv ennt - ? ' T ?
1>--- ' >?? u j j|<ul anvi mai vvus jaspci,
who was visiting his- grandmother next door There
was a loose board in the fence, and by working it
a little looser, Jasper managed to remove it, and
then he could see very well into the garden. Presently
he said to Judy, who was bending over the
pansy bed near, Lillian being on the other side watering:
"Hello! You've got a fine garden."
"We've got lots and lots of flowers," she replied.
"Please give me a pansy," Jasper begged.
"1 won't," Judy promptly replied. "Aunt Juliet
said Lillian and fr-mild Viowp 'om fr\r ??fool..o3
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single one."
"I should think you'd like to give some away, you've
got so many," Jasper said, longingly.
"We don't," Judy said, firmly. "Go away, boy.
You can't have any."
"Your sister 'if yqu are pigs," Jasper said hastily
and impolitely.
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to declare.
"You are two pigs!" Jasper insisted. "Pigs always
want to keep things to themselves." And he ran
off. crying at the top of his voice: "Pigs! Pigs! Pigs!"
Judy, in turn, ran into the house, crvine. "Aunt
Juliet! Oh, Aunt Juliet, are Lillian and I pigs?"
"Why, of course not, darling," Aunt Juliet answered,
looking up from her desk"The
hoy next door says we are, just because I
wouldn't give him a flower."
"That wasn't very kind of him ; but then it wasn't
N OF THE SOUTH. Sept. 22, 1909.
kind of you, dear, to refuse him a flower," Aunt Juliet
said, taking Judy upon her knee, and wiping the
tears that had gathered in the blue eyes.
"But you said they all belonged to Lillian and
me." Tudv cried.
"So I did, dear. But I did not mean you were
not to give any way. I meant that I would not
claim them," Aunt Juliet explained. "You may give
some to the boy, if you wish."
"I don't," Judy promptly replied. "We want to
keep every one. They're so nice, and you know we
haven't a single flower at home, Aunt Juliet."
"Yes, I know, Judy. I think that is why I gave
all my flowers to you. I wish you would spare a
few for the boy. I've always shared the flowers with
those who cared for them. Last year, when the asters
grew so tall and beautiful, I took some to church and
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, ...? H.V cm.o?. x was very giaa l natl
them to give. I've never thought of keeping them
to myself."
"He called us pigs," Judy murmured. .
"That really wasn't nice of him," Aunt Juliet replied.
"Still, I wouldn't remember it against him,
Judy. Instead, I'd give him a bouquet of pansies.
Why, the nicest thing about having flowers is to
share them with others, I've found."
Judy sat still for a mement, then she said: "Pansies
have such dear, soft little farc? T
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them hetter'n any other kind." Then she slipped
down from her aunt's knee and ran into the garden
to her sister.
"Lillian," she said, "we are going to give some
of our pansies to the boy next door, because he
hasn't any in his garden."
"All wight," answered Lillian. She was always
willing to do whatever Judy did. Their mother
sometimes said that this ought to make Judy careful
of tVir* ovnmrvla
l?V VABIIipit sue SCI.
Judy had just finished picking a nice bouquet when
the boy's voice, right at her elbow, made her jump.
"Mercy! you scared me so!" she cried.
"I didn't mean to; you could not hear me Walking
over the grass," said Jasper. "I came to 'pologize.
I'm sorry I called you pigs."
"But it was unkind of me, too," Judy hastened to
say, looking at the boy with sweet, friendly eyes. Then
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"Not?not?" the boy began doubtingly.
"Yes, for you. Every one. Aunt Juliet says the
nicest thing about having flowers is sharing 'em, -and
I think so, too," Judy explained.
Jasper took the flowers, and with a hurried, "Thank
you," ran to show them to his grandmother. Pretty
soon he returned with a cooky for each girl and one
for himself. And how happily they all played in the
beautiful garden!?Julia Lewis, in The Weekly Welcome
?? ? >
The imputing of wrong motives to another is itself
in many cases, regarded as proof of the same evil in
the accuser. A loving, charitable spirit, on the con
trary, never subjects its possessor to criticism or suspicion.
The man that is blind to others' faults is lovingly
excused for his sweet ignorance.