Rachel from Kentucky. These "hasty tempers!" You have only to read the answers to the Pansies from month to month to discover how many are troubled with them. It is a wise thing to begin very early in life to keep them under control. About the habit of "forgetfulness," it sometimes grows on people so rapidly that they injure all their prospects in life by it. You do well to watch it.
Emma from Massachusetts. It would be very pleasant to the Pansies to hear the story of some one whom you succeed in "Helping." Will you tell it for us? I hope the badge has reached you long ago, and is a comfort.
Ned from Massachusetts. Good for you, my brave young soldier! A pledge against all that can intoxicate, and against tobacco, is a grand thing. I hope every Pansy in the garden will follow your example. So you are tempted to say "I don't want to?" Sometimes that isn't a bad thing to say. If anybody coaxes you to do wrong, I hope you will always say boldly, "I don't want to." But if it is something you know you ought to do, suppose you rush right off and set about it so quickly that your tongue will not have time to speak the words. How will that do?
Bessie and Helen form North Carolina. Bless your dear hearts, of course you will not fail! Don't think of such a thing. When a pledge is right to take, and therefore right to keep, just shut your lips firmly and say, "We shall succeed, because we ought to, and what we ought to do, we can." Glad to enroll you.
Iya from Minnesota. I wonder if I have the name right? I am not sure. I hope your badge gave you help and pleasure. Oh, no, it costs nothing to belong to the P. S. but a good strong tussle with one's faults.
Arthur from Massachusetts. My boy, if I should put our roll of honor in The Pansy, there would be room for nothing else. There are thousands and thousands of names! Hurrah for the temperance pledge! I feel like giving a hearty cheer for every boy who signs it. I wonder how many Pansies we have who have done so? Wouldn't it be nice to know? Dear me, I hope you are not a lazy boy! Because they are almost certain to make lazy men. Don't be a lazy Pansy, please.
Cora from South Carolina. So glad to hear the badge is helping you. Give my love to Daisy and little Alice; you will have to be a very careful older sister in order to help them, will you not? So your dear father has gone to Heaven? Poor little Blossom! I know how you miss him. You must be a special flower for your dear mamma now, shedding all the perfume you can around her.
Martha from Massachusetts. Yes, I know all about how easy it is to "answer back," and I know just what a trial it is to the mothers. You do well to make a great effort to break the power of the habit. Getting up in the morning isn't the easiest work in the world for a great many people. I knew a lady who said she was obliged to spring out of bed as soon as her eyes were opened, because if she waited five minutes it seemed to her that it was not possible to get up! I suspect, my dear Blossom, that you have a good mother. There is nothing which needs more careful guarding than what we read. Make a rule to read nothing that mother does not approve.
Lena from New York. Glad to hear from Lena. These dear mothers are worth minding the very minute they speak. I almost know you will keep your pledge.
Cora from Indian Territory. Welcome, dear Cora, to our Pansy bed. I am sorry you have to bloom all alone in your far-away home. Cannot you find some more Pansies who would bloom if they had a chance? Try. I know all about what a nuisance it is to have people around who do not put away their "things." At this moment there lies a cap in the very centre of my study table among the papers. It belongs to a boy who is shouting at somebody in the kitchen to know if they have the least idea where his cap is! He spends an immense amount of time looking for things that ought to be hanging on their hooks, or lying properly on their shelves, and would be, I believe, if they could only walk.