Various

“ It is queer how many boys I know who are like my Pansy Blossoms, scattered all over this big world of ours. A boy friend of mine hates to go to the post-office at just the time when he ought; and he so often says, "Won't it do by and by?" that he has earned the name of "By and by."
Mabel from Pennsylvania. If one only keeps one's eyes wide open, my dear, it is very easy to see things with which to find fault; it is wise to learn to shut one's eyes, on occasion, to the faults of others. I am glad you have taken the pledge. ”

“ And as for you, Helen, I shall expect to hear that you make a great deal of sunshine from this time.
Mary from Minnesota. Dear little Blossom, with "ever so many bad habits," what a work you have before you. But if you will hold your ear close, and not tell anybody, I will whisper a secret to you. Every little girl I know, has ever so many, also. The difference between them is only, that some are trying to overcome, and some are not. Let me tell you that is a very great difference; one that will reach all through life. ”

“ It was nearly twelve o'clock, but her breakfast table still stood in the middle of the floor, black with flies; the little mass of oil in which some of them were drowning, had once been butter; her baby was playing with the coal hod, and his face and clothes were the color of it; and everything about the room was in disorder. The mother sat in the one rocking-chair, wiping her eyes over a story which she was reading. "I ought to a done up my work," she said, "but land, I do love to read. I always was literary!" You will never be such a woman as that! ”

“ THOMAS AND CLARA.
Clara was a very thoughtful girl, and anxious to know all about everything—often trying to do things beyond her power. She was also fond of her needle, and at an early age could use it with remarkable skill and rapidity.
You need not be surprised to learn that her father used tobacco. Most men do. They begin in boyhood. Many boys think it fine to be men, and that one of the quickest ways to be men is to smoke or chew. So they become deathly sick learning to use tobacco. It is strange. It costs a great sum of money in one's life—enough to buy a home. ”

“ I would like a badge. I have no little brothers or sisters, and as none of my little friends take The Pansy, I cannot get up a society.
From a loving and constant reader,
Cora M. Cass.
Dear Pansy:
I am a little girl nine years old. Sometimes I am very thoughtless, and that is what I got my badge in August for. I think it has helped me some. The Whisper Motto, "For Jesus' Sake," has helped me a heap. I think The Pansy is the best magazine I ever saw. "Little Fishers and their Nets" is the nicest story I ever read. I have two little sisters, Daisy, six years old, and Alice, three years old. ”

“ I am in a hospital where are many children; those who are able to be up, go to school in the mornings, and in the afternoon the teacher comes up stairs to give little lessons to those who are in bed.
The children have books, toys, games, and hobby horses. The girls like to play "hospital," with their dollies, and have two or three boys for doctors. The dolls are treated as though they really felt sick; and the young doctors pretend to give them ether, before they perform their surgical operations! It is quite funny to see how the very little boys and girls will imitate doctors and nurses. ”

“ Jerry took great bites of it with a satisfied air, smacking his lips to show how good it was; it must have brought some thought of the very story I was thinking about, for suddenly he spoke out: 'Evermore give us this bread! I say so too!' Then aunt Pat's eyes flashed. 'Jeremiah,' she said, and her voice was very stern, 'you are named after too good a man to be guilty of making fun of Scripture in any such way. Repeating a prayer, too, and not meaning it any more than the heathen do, when they mumble words to their little stone gods. ”

“ That Sabbath day had been a memorable one to the Decker family in some respects; at least to part of it. Nettie had taken the little girls with her to Sabbath-school, and then to church. Mrs. Smith had given her a cordial invitation to sit in their seat, but it was not a very large seat, and when Job and his wife, and Sarah Ann and Jerry were all there, as they were apt to be, there was just room for Nettie without the little girls; so she went with them to the seat directly under the choir gallery where very few sat. ”

“ Dear Pansy:
We have a beautiful Pansy bed. We have about twenty-five Blossoms. Some are big, and some are little; some are golden color, and some are deep purple. When the Pansies meet, the Vice-President takes the P. S. roll book, goes to each Blossom and gets the record for the month. I have promised to be patient, and to speak kindly. Willie's pledge was to try to keep his temper; and his record was: "I forgot a few times, but it helped; and I mean to try harder." One dark Pansy promised to brush her teeth at least once a day, and not to be selfish. ”

“ No sight of her in the aisle, not under the seat, not in the great church anywhere. The door was open into the hall, and poor little tired Sate must have slipped away into the sunshine outside. Well, no harm could come to her there; she would surely wait for them, or, failing in that, the road home was direct enough, and nothing to trouble her; but how strange in little Sate to do it! If it had been Susie, resolute, independent Susie always sufficient to herself and a little more ready to do as she pleased than any other way! But Susie sat up prim and dignified on Nettie's right ”

“ One thing she knew—she never, no, never would marry a man who used tobacco.
Thomas was so much older than herself she was afraid to speak to him as her heart often moved her, about certain habits she feared he was learning.
So the years went by. The great war of the Rebellion came on. Young boys were joining the army. Word came that Thomas had enlisted and with many other young persons was on his way to the front where men of the North and South were shooting each other down by the thousand. ”

“ Sate's heart beat fast, and the color came and went on her baby face in a way which would have startled Nettie had she not been too intent on her own exquisite delight in the music, to remember the motionless little girl at her left. ”

“ I am sorry to hear that you have not kept your pledge very well, but the old motto which my dear mother used to quote to me, when I was a very little girl, is a good one for you: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." ”

“ It may possibly be known among men as selfishness, indifference to public good; or uglier still, sharp, shrewd handling of moneyed interests committed to your care, to make them yield benefits to the one who manipulates them. It may get even to be found deserving the name of a man who recognizes only the Ego of human existence, than which, you will quite agree with me, there is no more hateful being under the sun. ”

“ Quill pens require to be mended often and one who writes much would find it quite a task to make and mend his pens. I should not wonder if we would find a bunch of quills hanging from the rafters in the attic of this old house and I should like to make a quill pen for you that you may write with a pen like the one your grandfather always used. And now, Essie, if you will pay attention to your father's request you shall have a gold pen when we go back home," said mamma, smiling kindly. ”

“ I am always so sorry for those faithful friends when they have to be bitten. I will hope for better times with yours. It is astonishing how many warm friends Nettie Decker has! She is a favorite of mine, so I am glad you like her. I read your letter to the author of "My Brainless Acquaintance" and he expressed much pleasure at the thought that you enjoyed it. I hope you will give the "baby brother" a kiss for me.
Margie from Massachusetts. That is the trouble, my dear little girl: So many people are naughty "before they think." ”

“ Very different from the "Fox" of Kinderhook was Charles James Fox of England who died a hundred years ago. Strangely enough he was a great Whig, though Whig in England was not the same as Whig in the United States. He was a fine scholar and high statesman; some say, "the greatest debater the world ever saw."
Different still was George Fox of England who died two hundred years ago—one of the purest, best men that ever lived. The Quakers or Friends started from him. He went everywhere preaching the simple teaching of the Bible and against trusting to forms and ceremonies. ”

“ SHE ASKED.
"Probably the best steel pens are made in England, but American gold pens are the best. A great amount of labor is bestowed upon them. Every one is carefully tested before it is put into the market. When a person buys a gold pen he pays a good price for it and expects it to last a long time, and this is the reason that they are so carefully tested. If half the steel pens in your box prove to be worthless, the remainder are still cheap."
"But, mamma, you have not told me why people do not use quill pens nowadays." ”

“ Did you ever hear of the little girl whose father gave her a birthday present of a necklace of little thorns, because her tongue said so many sharp and spiteful words? He told her he had intended to make the necklace of beautiful beads, but had decided that thorns would match her style better. Such a necklace would not fit you, now, would it? I rejoice over your pledge.
Edwin and Harold from Maine. Of course we will receive the little brother. A boy five years old can keep a pledge as well as an older person; sometimes better. I hope there will be fewer tears shed in your home than ever before ”

“ The premiums are given only to subscribers to any of our magazines, with this exception: ANY person may work for the premiums by sending one more subscriber to any of the magazines than the premium calls for.
2. The full subscription price must be paid for each subscription, as follows: Wide Awake, $3.00; The Pansy, $1.00; Our Little Men and Women, $1.00; Babyland, 50 cents.
No premiums will be given to any person sending his own name as a new subscriber; nor can his name count as one of a club sent for premiums. ”

“ But he grew up to be a bad man."
"After all," said Rollo, after a few moments of silence, "you don't think, Grandma, that quoting that Bible verse made a bad man of him?"
"N-o," said Grandma, speaking slowly, giving her head a little doubtful shake the while, "I wouldn't like to say that. Boys do trifle with serious words, sometimes, and get over it, and make good men. I should be sorry enough if I thought they didn't. But then, Jeremiah Carter was exactly that kind of a boy. He had no reverence for the Bible, nor for words of prayer; he was tempted to make fun of everything ”

“ But that in some way, reliable information of the different school methods, and the principles and standing of the instructors, was given into their keeping.
"We never shall find a school where we can say confidently we will place our boy; never in all this world," cried Mrs. Allen one day, when a letter from a friend upset an almost decided plan of accepting the "Halloway School for Boys" as the arena for George Edward's activity. ”

“ You had a chance to exercise patience in waiting for your badge, did you not? I do not know why some of the badges seem to think they must be so long on the road, unless it is to help their owners to a little of that quality. Don't you think it is generally a scarce article with boys?
Birdie from Kentucky. O yes, Birdie, we have a great many Blossoms in Kentucky, only we have not answered their letters yet. There are many hundreds still waiting. My dear little girl, do you think one has to "try" very hard to love such a Friend as Jesus? ”

“ Clara loved her father. In her eyes no man was quite as grand as he except the minister. But on this tobacco question she took strong grounds with her mother, her pastor and Sabbath-school teacher, who all thought the same way. ”

“ If I remember rightly the first pens used were made of iron or steel and were not used with ink, but the letters were cut in stone, or clay, and afterwards the same sort of an instrument was used to write upon waxed tablets; then when parchment and paper began to be used pens were made of reeds, and of course the people must have had ink of some sort. Now about quill pens. It was probably more than a thousand years ago that some one discovered that the quills of birds made better pens for writing on paper than could be made of reeds, and people have used quill pens more or less ever since. ”

“ Yes, I remember using quill pens when I first began to go to school. My father had never used any other and he had a prejudice against steel pens, which had already come into [260] use, and as we kept a flock of geese we always had a supply of quills. It was considered in my father's day one of the necessary qualifications of a schoolteacher that he should be able to make a good quill pen. Such steel pens as we use may be classed among modern inventions. ”

“ Newell had an excellence above the reach of mere human nature; behold her, united to friends and country by a thousand ties, a woman of refined education, with delightful prospects in her own country, resigning all for a distant Pagan land ”