Sometimes she leaves the candle burning after she gets to bed, and on one occasion, she set her bed-curtains on fire.
She is continually calling out to Mary; “Mary, where is my bonnet? Mary, have you seen my shawl?” Once or twice in the morning she came down stairs with only one stocking on, because she could not find the other. She had gone to bed with her stockings over her heels, and one had got wrapped up in the bed-clothes.
Miss Thoughtless rarely does anything for herself. She wants Mary, on all occasions, to pin her tippet, to tie her shoes, or to put on her India rubbers. When she proceeds to do anything, she wants the servants to wait on her.
What a difference between these two young ladies! If you were to see them, you might soon tell which was Miss Thoughtless; because you would see something disorderly in her looks, something disorderly in her dress, and something disorderly in her manner of speaking.
Wisdom from a Jester.—Bishop Hall tells us, that there was a certain nobleman who kept a fool or jester, (a thing common in former days in the families of the great,) to whom one day he gave a staff, with a charge to keep it till he should meet with one who was a greater fool than himself. Not many days after, the nobleman was ill, and near death. The jester came to see him, and his lordship said to him, “I must soon leave you.” “And where are you going?” asked the fool. “Into another world,” replied his lordship. “And when will you come again? within a month?” “No.” “Within a year?” “No.” “When then?” “Never?” “Never!” said the jester; “and what provision hast thou made for thy entertainment there where thou goest?” “None at all.” “No!” said the fool, “none at all! Here, then, take my staff; for, with all my folly, I am not guilty of any such folly as this!”
The Little Mariner.
Ay, sitting on your happy hearths, beside your mother’s knee,
How should you know the miseries and dangers of the sea?