MOTHER: They are in the _mind_. I must tell you before we go further that they are our _thoughts_. I can not tell what you think about, and you can not tell what is in my mind, only as we put our thoughts into words. I wish I could help every boy and girl to feel how important it is to have clean, good thoughts. “As he _thinketh_ in his heart, so _is_ he;” that is, a person is no better than his thoughts are, and he is just as good. If the thoughts are wrong, the person is all wrong, no matter how good he may appear to be. HELEN: I found a little poem about our thoughts and put it in my scrap-book. May I read it, mother? MOTHER: Please do; I know we all want to hear it. HELEN: Here it is:— “There were idle thoughts came in at the door, And warmed their little toes, And did more mischief about the house Than any one living knows. “They scratched the tables and broke the chairs, And soiled the floor and wall; For a motto was written above the door, ‘There’s a welcome here for all.’ “When the master saw the mischief done, He closed it with hope and fear, And he wrote above, ‘Let none Save good thoughts enter here.’ “And the good little thoughts came trooping in, When he drove the others out; They cleaned the walls, they swept the floor, And sang as they moved about. “And last of all an angel came, With a kindly, shining face, And above the door he wrote, ‘Here Love has found a dwelling-place.’” MOTHER: That is very good. Let us all take for our motto, “Let none save good thoughts enter here.” Now I think you understand that as we are talking of passing through different rooms, we mean that we are in the “chambers of the mind,” and we imagine that we are looking at a person’s thoughts. We will look inside of just a few rooms, and from them we can form an idea of the rest. ELMER: Where shall we go first? MOTHER: I think you will like to look in here, where the master keeps his pets. He is fond of birds, cats, dogs, and all kinds of animals; and where this room is large in the mind, you will find the master kind to them all. He will not give them pain if he can help it, and takes pleasure in making them happy. AMY: I think I should like to visit this room often. MOTHER: In this smaller room he keeps his money. Sometimes this room is so small, and he cares for it so poorly, that he wastes about all that he gets, and keeps very little. In some houses this room is very large, and the master lives here nearly all the time. His greatest delight is to shut himself in and count his money over and over. He becomes very selfish by doing in this way, and he will not part with what he has either for his own comfort or that of others. People who have such large rooms, and use them in this way, are called misers. PERCY: I don’t want to be one.