“I was on a train and a father and his young son sat near me. The father said: ‘John, do you practise regularly on the piano while I am away at business?’—‘Yes, father,’ replied the boy. ‘Every day?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘How long did you practise to-day?’ ‘Three hours.’ ‘And how long yesterday?’ ‘Two hours and a half.’ ‘Well, I’m glad to hear that you are so regular.’ ‘Yes, father.’ And the next time you practise be sure to unlock the piano. Here is the key. I locked the instrument last week and I have been carrying the key in my pocket ever since.’” (Text.)—Buffalo Enquirer.
(703)
DECEPTION JUSTIFIED
Truth in the abstract is perhaps made too much of as compared to certain other laws established by as high authority. If the Creator made the tree-toad so like the moss-covered bark to which it clings, and the larva of a sphinx so like the elm-leaf on which it lives, and that other larva so exquisitely like a broken twig, not only in color, but in the angle at which it stands from the branch to which it holds, with the obvious end of deceiving their natural enemies, are not these examples which man may follow? The Tibbu, when he sees his enemy in the distance, shrinks into a motionless heap, trusting that he may be taken for a lump of black basalt, such as is frequently met with in his native desert. The Australian, following the same instinct, crouches in such forms that he may be taken for one of the burnt stumps common in his forest region. Are they not right in deceiving, or lying, to save their lives? or would a Christian missionary forbid their saving them by such a trick? If an English lady were chased by a gang of murdering and worse than murdering Sepoys, would she not have a right to cheat their pursuit by covering herself with leaves, so as to be taken for a heap of them? If you were starving on a wreck, would you die of hunger rather than cheat a fish out of the water by an artificial bait? If a schoolhouse were on fire, would you get the children down-stairs under any convenient pretense, or tell them the precise truth, and so have a rush and a score or two of them crusht to death in five minutes?—Oliver Wendell Holmes.
(704)
Decision Dependent Upon Call—See [Testimony, a Sheep’s].
Decisive Deeds—See [Opportunity].
DECORATING SOLDIERS’ GRAVES
Strew flowers, sweet flowers, on the soldiers’ graves,
For the death they died the nation saves,