Next he walked into the room, flung his bag on a chair, his cap on the floor, and his overcoat on the sofa. Then he said in a loud voice, "Well, mother, how's your head?" His poor mother felt almost too sad to answer him; she had so often told her little boy about hanging up his coat and other things, and had tried so hard to teach him to be gentle and polite, instead of rough and rude; but you see Maurice was thoughtless, and did not remember the nice things he had been taught.
Take care, Maurice! or you will have the ugly stone of "Selfishness" in your Temple. A boy who is not kind to his mother is the worst kind of boy, and will find it difficult to grow up into a good and noble man.
99. Lulu and the Glass Door.
When Lulu was a little girl, she lived with her auntie and uncle. The front door of their house was made half of glass, and there was a shutter which covered the glass part of the door at night.
Lulu's auntie told her that when it was windy weather she must go round to the back door, lest the front door should get a bang, and some of the panes of glass be broken.
I am afraid Lulu did not always remember to obey her auntie, for one very windy morning she came home from school, and went as usual to the front door. She managed to open it and to get inside safely, then the door closed with a loud bang, for the wind was very strong, and it happened just as auntie had feared—a large pane of glass fell out of the door, and was shivered into a thousand pieces.
Auntie was very angry, and Lulu was so unhappy, and cried so much that she could not eat her dinner. When her uncle came home and heard the story, and knew how sorry Lulu was, he said: "Oh, well, dry your tears, we will call and ask old James to come and mend the door, and my little girl must do what auntie tells her next time".
So Lulu trotted back to afternoon school, holding to the hand of her kind uncle, and they called to tell James to put a new pane of glass into the door. But Lulu has not forgotten her disobedience, and the banging of auntie's door, although it is now more than forty years ago.
(Blackboard.)
Close Doors Softly.