Various

“ Winter is over with its long, delightfully cosey evenings. Spring is nearly done, with its shorter evenings, and now we are fairly launched into the flower months—when all life seems an holiday, and every moment that is possible is to be passed out of doors.
To get ready for my little proposed festival, everybody must go a-Maying. With baskets, and fern cases, let the children, papa and mamma, nursey, aunt Grace, uncle Fred, and indeed every one who will drop books and work, and go off to the woods for the wild treasures that are playing hide-and-seek there. ”

“ I am trying to be a good boy, and if you will let me be one of your Blossoms, I will try to be better every day, and will promise not to drink any wine or cider, or anything that will make people drunk, and to be like the little boy my grandma read about in The Pansy, who signed the pledge when he was such a little boy. I say my prayers, and go to Sunday-school when I am well. ”

“ To improve as well as to amuse young people is the object of these twenty-one sketches, and they fill this purpose wonderfully well. What boy can fail to be interested in reading an account of an excursion made in a balloon and a race with a thunder-storm? And is there a girl who would not enjoy an afternoon in the Christmas-card factory? It is a curious fact that only one hundred and thirty years ago the first umbrella was carried in London, much to the amusement of the ignorant, and now there are seven millions made every year in this country. ”

“ I suspect, my dear Blossom, that you have a good mother. There is nothing which needs more careful guarding than what we read. Make a rule to read nothing that mother does not approve.
Lena from New York. Glad to hear from Lena. These dear mothers are worth minding the very minute they speak. I almost know you will keep your pledge.
Cora from Indian Territory. Welcome, dear Cora, to our Pansy bed. I am sorry you have to bloom all alone in your far-away home. Cannot you find some more Pansies who would bloom if they had a chance? Try. ”

“ I know all about what a nuisance it is to have people around who do not put away their "things." At this moment there lies a cap in the very centre of my study table among the papers. It belongs to a boy who is shouting at somebody in the kitchen to know if they have the least idea where his cap is! He spends an immense amount of time looking for things that ought to be hanging on their hooks, or lying properly on their shelves, and would be, I believe, if they could only walk. ”

“ Here is another little Southern Blossom who wants to overcome "all" her faults. Brave little girl! I am sure you will succeed much better than those who never think about their faults at all.
Emma from Connecticut. Did she have so many faults that she couldn't count them? Poor little robin! Still I suspect that is the honest truth about every one of us. We are great bundles of faults. If you try with wide-open eyes to overcome each as it appears to you, you will keep a very important pledge.
Arthur Fred from Rhode Island. My boy, I can sympathize with "mamma." ”

“ It was a great company of children, black and white, some with sweet sad faces; others with evil looks, but all singing. Soon Maggie came in from another door and sat among them and I could hear her voice ring out in joyful strains, leading the rest.
There was prayer and Bible reading, and such a good talk by a gentleman. It seemed like heaven, while many of the children, some partly blind, some lame, some pale and sad-faced, gathered around after meeting was out and seized aunt Joanna's hand, and seemed so happy. Another lady was there to whom they all pressed for a smile and a word. ”

“ We did pretty well for breakfast, only we hadn't any bread. 'I was out of flour,' said Mrs. Watson, 'before I knew it, and Mr. Jones was to bring me another barrel this morning, but I don't suppose he will come, now that there is so much snow.' The turkey was there in the pantry, so were the cranberries; Mrs. Watson let Fred and me help cook them for dinner, and we tried to make the best of our condition, and think as little as possible of the great wall of snow outside the house. ”

“ Howard Grinnell did not particularly dislike the work of filling the box, but he was never quite ready to do it. He was always putting it off until he had finished reading the morning paper, or been the rounds of the garden and meadows to see if there were any new flowers out or any new birds' nests, and at length the school bell would ring and he would go off to school having forgotten that there was such a thing in the wide world as a woodbox. One morning Mrs. Grinnell said, "Howard, Bridget will need a box full of wood to-day; she has a large ironing." ”

“ I hope the badge has reached you long ago, and is a comfort.
Ned from Massachusetts. Good for you, my brave young soldier! A pledge against all that can intoxicate, and against tobacco, is a grand thing. I hope every Pansy in the garden will follow your example. So you are tempted to say "I don't want to?" Sometimes that isn't a bad thing to say. If anybody coaxes you to do wrong, I hope you will always say boldly, "I don't want to." ”

“ Then all through her long life with its sad changes she kept that wonderful serenity of mind, and that happy faculty of living above the vexations of life. Many a woman when forced by growing poverty to move from place to place, each time going to a poorer home, would have grown faint and weary of life, and given up in despair. ”

“ Why can't boys as well as girls have one, pray tell. That is, no one but papa knows it, but then papa has a fashion without ever asking, of being informed of his boy's movements.
Bob's twenty-five cents hoarded for two weeks, went into the grocer's till only yesterday, and Bob has twelve bright yellow lemons instead, waiting as patiently as lemons will, to be sacrificed to a thirsty group who stand around the same flower-crowned table. Bob's papa is to give the sugar, and moreover he has promised to tie on another apron and help the boy make the loveliest lemonade on that very same night. ”

“ I would have this room open evenings, after the work was done, and I would have Norm head manager. He should wait on customers, and keep accounts. When the thing got going he would be as busy as a bee; and he is just the sort of fellow to do that kind [211] of thing well, and like it too," he added.
"O Jerry," said Nettie, and her hands were clasped so closely that the blood flowed back into her wrists, "was there ever a nicer thought than that in the world! I know it would succeed; and Norm would like it so much. Norm likes to do things for others, if he only had the chance." ”

“ Each small spear of green has its delicate meaning—each blossom its tender message. Nothing has been lost there so long under the snow, and the good Giver tells anew to these awakened minds, his story of creative love. ”

“ Dear Pansy, I do try to keep my pledge. I try hard to keep things in their proper places; but I find I need to be very watchful, and to ask for a great deal of help from God. Mamma has just written to Boston to renew my subscription to The Pansy. ”

“ After breakfast Mr. Grinnell fed the hens, and at night he brought in the eggs, saying to his wife:
"I would like some boiled eggs for supper; as Bridget is away, we can get along very well with bread and butter and eggs. Didn't I see you making a sponge cake this morning?"
"Yes." Then they both laughed, but Mr. Grinnell sobered immediately and said:
"It is rather hard on the boy when he is so fond of eggs, but it is quite time he had a lesson. His dilatory habits will be a hindrance to his success as long as he lives unless he is cured." ”

“ IF there ever was a boy who needed to turn over a new leaf and write at the top as a motto, "Diligent in business," that boy was Howard Grinnell.
If his mother asked him to do anything, he always replied, "I will in a minute." He said this so often that I wonder he was not called "in a minute" by everybody. It would have been a very appropriate name.
Howard had the charge of the hens, at least that was the way they put it, but I think that Mrs. Grinnell was the one upon whom the burden rested. Every morning after breakfast she found it necessary to ask,
"Howard, have you fed the hens?" ”

“ While other colonies suffered from the attacks of the Indians, for more than seventy years, so long as the colony was under the control of the Quakers, no Indian ever raised his hatchet against a Pennsylvania settler. Under a great elm-tree, long known as Penn's elm, he met the Indians in council, soon after his arrival in the territory which had been ceded to him. He said to them:
"My friends, we have met on the broad pathway of good faith. We are all one flesh and blood. Being brethren, no advantage shall be taken on either side. Between us there shall be nothing but openness and love." ”

“ Literary Life, after saying that "Wide Awake is the best monthly magazine for young folks published in the country," goes on to say of it, "Next to watching Nature herself, it is the finest educational work we ever have seen for children. A child made happy by such a work will possess an intelligence and richness of mind beyond the mere range of school lessons." ”

“ Among publishers who have carried into their work serious convictions as to their duty to the public in the matter of supplying good literature, and who have resolutely resisted all temptations in the more lucrative direction of that which is simply sensational, an honorable place may be claimed for D. Lothrop & Co., who have accomplished in the United States a work second to that of no publishing-house. ”

“ Every little while, all the afternoon, I would flatten my nose against the window, and after looking at the snow a minute, I would shut my eyes tight, and pray to God that he would have somebody come and help us soon. ”

“ Blossom! A will is a very good thing if you make a servant of it, and oblige it to do just the right thing; but when one gets to be its slave, oh, dear! I am glad you have begun early to train it aright. ”

“ The works issued in this library are uniformly of a high standard and may well come under that class of literature styled "home fiction," a literature, that, while free from the flashy, sensational effect of much of the fiction of to-day, is, nevertheless, brilliant in style, fresh and strong in action, and of absorbing interest. It is a class that all the young folks, as well as the fathers and mothers and older brothers and sisters, may read with profit as well as great pleasure. ”

“ There are thousands and thousands of names! Hurrah for the temperance pledge! I feel like giving a hearty cheer for every boy who signs it. I wonder how many Pansies we have who have done so? Wouldn't it be nice to know? Dear me, I hope you are not a lazy boy! Because they are almost certain to make lazy men. Don't be a lazy Pansy, please.
Cora from South Carolina. So glad to hear the badge is helping you. Give my love to [2] Daisy and little Alice; you will have to be a very careful older sister in order to help them, will you not? So your dear father has gone to Heaven? Poor little Blossom! ”

“ I know a boy who says he "cannot" remember to brush his, only on Sundays, and I am very much afraid the consequence will be, they will not be worth brushing by the time he is a man. Thank you for being a worker for The Pansy. I know of no better way to show that you like the magazine than to try to get others to take it.
Ethelwyn from Pennsylvania. How many people have you helped, my dear? And how many ways have you discovered in which you can help others? Can we be helpful without speaking a word? One of the most helpful little people I know is a deaf and dumb girl. ”

“ Danvers was a timid woman, and very much afraid of dogs. True, she tried to hide her fear and aversion for Harry's sake, but she had a nervous dread of some member of the family being bitten by the dog, and only a few days before, Harry's father said: "My boy, I sometimes wish you could make up your mind to give that dog away; your mother dislikes dogs so much."
Remembering this, Harry did not consider it necessary to say anything to his father about what he intended to do. His way down the street led him past Colonel Bates' residence. ”

“ Willie from Ohio. I like your pledge. When a boy has a good father and mother, and pledges himself always to obey them in everything, he is about as safe as he can be in this world; especially if they are Christian people, who say to him, "My boy, your first duty is to give yourself to the Lord Jesus to obey him in all things."
Jessie from Colorado. I wish you had sent me a copy of the "Exercise," "Jesus Our Star." It must have been very beautiful, and perhaps the Pansies would like to use it in their Sabbath-schools. Perhaps you can send us a copy for next Christmas? ”