XI. PATIENCE.
33. Walter and the Spoilt Page.
Walter was busy doing his home lessons; he wanted to get them finished quickly, so that he could join his playmates at a game of cricket before it was time to go to bed. He was nearly at the end, and the page was just as neat as it could be—for Walter worked very carefully—when, in turning the paper over, he gave the pen which was in his hand a sharp jerk, and a great splash of ink fell in the very middle of the neat, clean page.
"Oh, dear!" cried Walter, "all my work is wasted. I shall get no marks for this lesson unless I write it all over again; and I wanted so much to go out and have a game." However, he was a brave boy, and his mother was glad to notice that he set to work quietly, and soon had it written over again. When bedtime came, she said: "Walter, your accident with the ink made me think of a story. Shall I tell it to you?"
"Oh, yes, mother! please do," said Walter, for he loved stories.
34. The Drawings Eaten by the Rats.
"There was once a gentleman (Audubon) in America," said his mother, "who was very fond of studying birds. He would go out in the woods to watch them, and he also made sketches of them, and worked so hard that he had nearly a thousand of these drawings, which, of course, he valued very much. One time he was going away from home for some months, and before he went he collected all his precious drawings together, put them carefully in a wooden box, and gave them to a relative to take care of until he came back.
"The time went by and he returned, and soon after asked for the box containing his treasures. The box was there, but what do you think? Two rats had found their way into it, and had made a home there for their young ones, and the beautiful drawings were all gnawed until nothing was left but tiny scraps of paper. You can guess how dreadfully disappointed the poor man would feel. But he tells us that in a few days he went out to the woods and began his drawings again as gaily as if nothing had happened; and he was pleased to think that he might now make better drawings than before. It was nearly three years before he had made up for what the rats had eaten. This man must have possessed the precious jewel of patience. Do you not think so?"
"What is patience, mother?" asked Walter.
"The little Scotch girl said it meant 'wait a wee, and no weary,'" said his mother; "and I think that is a very good meaning. It is like saying that we must wait, and do the work over again, if necessary, without getting vexed or worried."
Patience is a good "stone" to have in the Temple of Character.
(Blackboard.)
Patience means:—
Wait, and not Weary.