"Well, I will read you this beautiful story. It will instruct you in your duty much better than I can."
They all brightened up wonderfully at the prospect of a story, and listened to it in breathless attention. Here it is.
NEW-YEARS RESOLUTIONS.
It was New Year's evening, and the parlors, not yet lighted, were warm and quiet, when Joel Goodwill walked listlessly in and sat down in an easy chair before the grate.
"Now is a first-rate chance to think what I will do this year," said he to himself. He thought he was alone; but he had been there only a few minutes when some one spoke to him from the back parlor. It was his father.
"Why, father, you there?" said Joel. "I thought there was no one here."
"Come here, my son," said his father. Joel obeyed, and found his father sitting before the fire in the other room; he sat down on his knee.
"I have just been reviewing my past year, and laying some plans for this New Year; have you had any such thoughts, Joel?" asked his father.
"Yes, sir," replied Joel, soberly.