Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 3, March 1886Various
History
Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 3, March 1886
Various
Periodicals
One day a golden-haired child, who lived where no trees or flowers grew,
was gazing wistfully through the open gate of a beautiful park, when the
gardener chanced to throw out an armful of dry cuttings. Among them the
little girl discovered one with a tiny bud just starting.
"Perhaps it will grow," she whispered to herself, and, dreaming of wide,
cool boughs and fluttering leaves, she carried it carefully home, and
planted it in the darksome area. Day after day she watched and tended
it, and when, by-and-by, another bud started, she knew that the slip had
taken root.
Years passed, and the lowly home gave place to a pleasant mansion, and
the narrow area widened into a spacious garden, where many a green tree
threw its shadow. But for the golden-haired child now grown into a
lovely maiden, the fairest and dearest of them all was the one she had
so tenderly nourished. No other tree, she thought, cast such a cool,
soft shade; in no other boughs did the birds sing so sweetly.
But while the tree lived and flourished, the young girl drooped and
faded. Sweeter and sadder grew the light in her blue eyes, till
by-and-by God's angel touched them with a dreamless sleep. Loving hands
crowned the white brow with myrtle, and under the branches she had loved
laid her tenderly to rest.
But from that hour, as if in sorrow for the one that had tended it, the
stately tree began to droop. Lower and lower bent the sad branches,
lower and lower, until they caressed the daisied mound that covered her
form.
"See!" said her young companions, "the tree weeps for her who loved it."
And they called it the Weeping Willow.
* * * * *
HOW TO BECOME PROSPEROUS.
Let every youth be taught some useful art and trained to industry and
thrift. Let every young man lay aside and keep sacredly intact a certain
portion of his earnings. Let every one set out with a determination to
engage in business for himself as soon as he can. Begin in a small, safe
way, and extend your business as experience will teach you is
advantageous. Keep your own books and know constantly what you are
earning and just where you stand. Do not marry until in receipt of a
tolerably certain income, sufficient to live on comfortably. Let every
man who is able buy a farm on which to bring up his sons. It is from the
farm the best men are turned out, morally and intellectually. Bear in
mind that your business cannot be permanently prosperous unless you
share its advantages equally with your customers.
* * * * *
CHANGE THE SUBJECT.--"Always," said papa, as he drank his coffee and
enjoyed his morning beefsteak--"always, children, change the subject
when anything unpleasant has been said. It is both wise and polite."
That evening, on his return from business, he found his carnation-bed
despoiled, and the tiny imprint of slippered feet silently bearing
witness to the small thief.
"Mabel," he said to her, "did you pick my flowers?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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