THAT boy and girl in the picture were real persons. They were Thomas and Clara; were born in a certain town in Steuben County, N. Y., ten years apart—though they seem to be almost of the same age—and always knew each other.
THOMAS AND CLARA.
Clara was a very thoughtful girl, and anxious to know all about everything—often trying to do things beyond her power. She was also fond of her needle, and at an early age could use it with remarkable skill and rapidity.
You need not be surprised to learn that her father used tobacco. Most men do. They begin in boyhood. Many boys think it fine to be men, and that one of the quickest ways to be men is to smoke or chew. So they become deathly sick learning to use tobacco. It is strange. It costs a great sum of money in one's life—enough to buy a home. It makes the breath offensive. It is a very filthy habit and selfish as it is filthy, for though the tobacco user is a great nuisance to many people, especially to ladies, yet he does not seem to care how much others dislike his smoke or breath. He goes right on puffing his cigar or nasty old pipe-fumes into the nostrils and eyes of all who come near.
Now Clara's father was no exception. Sometimes he would come into the kitchen or dining-room—the parlor even—and fill the air with tobacco odor.
Clara's mother would get out of patience at times and say it was a nasty habit and that men had no more right to smoke and chew than women.
And she was right!
Clara loved her father. In her eyes no man was quite as grand as he except the minister. But on this tobacco question she took strong grounds with her mother, her pastor and Sabbath-school teacher, who all thought the same way.