ARE you having a good time with the March winds, my Blossoms? But then, you are so scattered that you can have all sorts of times. Some of you may be blowing around the street corners in a way to make you think of balloons, while others of you are picking wild-wood flowers in the sunny South; and away down in Maine, the boys are snowballing, while away on the southern slopes of California the girls are gathering roses! What a wonderful world it is!
Oh! do you know, my dear Pansies, I am going West this summer? I can't tell you much about it until the summer is over and I am settled down again for winter work; but I mean to keep my eyes wide open on purpose for you. I shall be in Utah, I think, and in Kansas, and Wisconsin, and Nebraska, and I don't know just where, but you shall know all about it after I have been, and returned. Wide-open eyes; that is our motto for the summer. I know a great many of you are going away, to the seaside, to the mountains, to Chautauqua, to Europe, where not? Will you be selfish, dwarfed-up little Pansies, keeping all your delights of travel to yourselves, or will you keep diaries of all the interesting things you see, and hear, and learn, and write beautiful letters for the stay-at-homes? Why not? Let us join hands and see how much we can use our eyes and ears for others during the long bright summer.
Lovingly, Pansy.
Louie from New York. My dear, I hope The Pansy came in time for the "little brother's birthday." We made all possible speed. Yes, Faye Huntington is to continue her work for The Pansy during another year. I am glad you love her. So do I. Please give my kind regards to your mamma, whom I remember very well.
Mamie from Connecticut. You dear little Blossom! I am glad you have not choked yourself with pins before you took your pledge! I presume you think you never would have done so; but do you really suppose there was ever a person who choked to death with a pin, on purpose? Yet there have been deaths caused in just that way. Your mother will be glad that you have resolved to give up so foolish and dangerous a habit.
Emily from Maryland. Your pledge commences with the right sentence, my friend. One who honestly trusts in His help, is sure to succeed. I think you will find it helpful if you will study His life on earth, and see how many proofs you can find of His perfect unselfishness.
Maria and Lucy from Missouri. Welcome, my little Missouri sisters. May you blossom luxuriantly in that sunny land. I hope the "temper" will grow as sweet as the Southern jessamine which I enjoyed so much in your South land last winter, and that the little fingers tempted to be "tardy" now, will quicken under the spell of the earnest pledge which has been taken.
Ward from Michigan. Glad to receive you, my boy. "I can't" is an enemy who has stolen many a grand action from boys and girls as well as from men and women. Did you ever notice also, that he generally speaks what is false? Nearly always "I can't" means "I don't want to," or a bold "I won't."
Ina from Iowa. Dear friend, do you know of what your pledge reminds me? Of a great many grown people who, though pledged to obey the Lord Jesus, forget to "mind" him so often, now that he is away. While you are carefully keeping your pledge to obey the dear mamma as well in her absence as when her eye is on you, will you sometimes think of Jesus, and his wish that we should remember always that his eye is on us?
May from Iowa. You are not alone in that fault. I know many people who can "remember" the faults of others, while seeming to be quite forgetful about their own. It is a good rule to remember nothing against any other person, unless we believe that Jesus Christ wants us to remember it, and speak of it, in order to help somebody else.