ADVICE FOR GOOD LITTLE GIRLS.
GOOD little girls ought not to make
mouths at their teachers for every
trifling offense. This kind of retaliation
should only be resorted to under peculiarly
aggravating circumstances.
If you have nothing but a rag doll stuffed
with saw-dust, while one of your more fortunate
little playmates has a costly china one,
you should treat her with a show of kindness,
nevertheless. And you ought not to attempt to
make a forcible swap with her unless your conscience
would justify you in it, and you know
you are able to do it.
You ought never to take your little brother's
“chawing-gum” away from him by main
force; it is better to rope him in with the promise
of the first two dollars and a half you
find floating down the river on a grindstone.
In the artless simplicity natural to his time
of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair
transaction. In all ages of the world this
eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse
infant to financial ruin and disaster.
If at any time you find it necessary to correct
your brother, do not correct him with mud—
never on any account throw mud at him, because
it will soil his clothes. It is better to
scald him a little; for then you attain two desirable
results—you secure his immediate attention
to the lesson you are inculcating, and,
at the same time, your hot water will have
a tendency to remove impurities from his person—and
possibly the skin also, in spots.
If your mother tells you to do a thing, it
is wrong to reply that you won't. It is better
and more becoming to intimate that you will
do as she bids you, and then afterward act
quietly in the matter according to the dictates
of your better judgment.
You should ever bear in mind that it is to
your kind parents that you are indebted for
your food and your nice bed and your beautiful
clothes, and for the privilege of staying
home from school when you let on that you are
sick. Therefore you ought to respect their
little prejudices and humor their little whims
and put up with their little foibles, until they
get to crowding you too much.
Good little girls should always show marked
deference for the aged. You ought never to
“sass” old people—unless they “sass” you
first.
