_Helen_ from New Jersey. Oh, yes; we will try as hard as we can to help you. Whenever you see the meek little blossom on your badge, I hope it will put this verse into your mind: "For even Christ pleased not himself." If you think of this and try every time to do the thing you did not want to, so your life will be pleasing to Jesus, by and by it will grow so pleasant to you to think of what others want, that you will forget it was ever a trouble. I am glad you are going to try it. _Lanetta_ from New Hampshire. Not at all too late for good wishes, my friend; nine months of the year left to improve. Shall you and I try hard to make it the happiest year of our lives? What a quiet, pleasant Christmas you told me of! It rests me to think of your happy home. _Mildred_ from New York. Yes, I know, the little baby brother needs a great deal of patience. Sometimes it helps us to sit down in a corner by ourselves, and try to imagine how desolate the house would be without him. I know of a woman who sometimes sheds bitter tears, even now, because the last words she spoke to her little baby brother more than fifty years ago, were cross ones! Glad to receive your pledge. Here is a lovely bouquet of Blossoms from Massachusetts: _Cora_, _Ida_, _Bessie_, _Lizzie_, _Louise_, _Margaret_. Just a sweet half-dozen. I hardly know a bouquet of which I think with so much pleasure as this one. Something whispers to me that some of them are trying hard to help the others. Perhaps all are trying. Like the rest of us, these Blossoms have work to do; weeds will grow in flower gardens, if not carefully watched. Here is the weed of "Carelessness" popping up its naughty head to trouble Louise; it is so much easier to leave the books or the playthings just where they happen to drop; at least it seems easier at the time. Try the other way, Louise, and see how much comfort you will get from it. Margaret's sweet little tongue wants to speak, sometimes, when it would better keep silence; so many tongues attempt that! Margaret is going to teach hers that while "Speech is silver, silence is golden." Cora's tongue, too, is sometimes tempted to speak naughty words; watch it, my child. Do you know the verse-- This one little tongue that God has given Must always speak for him. If we make our words always such as He will love to hear, we shall be safe. Ida's tongue is tempted to whisper when it should be silent. Isn't it astonishing how many wrong things there are for tongues to do, and how sure they are to go wrong if they can! Ida, as well as the rest of us, needs this prayer: "Keep the door of my lips, that I sin not with my tongue." Bessie is evidently tempted to move slowly, either with hands or feet, or both, when she should make all speed. I am glad indeed to hear that you are going to try to teach these members better.