Story Lessons on Character-Building (Morals) and Manners Part 6

29. The Brave Monkey.[7]

Did you ever hear of a monkey having toothache? There was a monkey once who lived in a cage in some gardens in London, and he had a very bad toothache, which made a large swelling on his face. The poor creature was in such great pain that a dentist was sent for. (A dentist, tell the children, is a man who attends to teeth.) When the monkey was taken out of the cage he struggled, but as soon as the dentist placed his hand on the spot he was quite still. He laid his head down so that the dentist might look at his bad tooth, and then he allowed him to take it out without making any fuss whatever. There was a little girl once who screamed and struggled dreadfully when she was taken to have her hair cut, and that, you know, does not hurt at all. Let us learn from the monkey, as we did from Robin, to

(Blackboard)

Be Brave in Suffering.

X. TRY, TRY AGAIN.

30. The Sparrow that would not be Beaten.[8]

A sparrow was one day flying over a road when he saw lying there a long strip of rag.

"Ah!" said he, "that would be nice for the nest we are building; I will take it home." So he picked up one end in his beak and flew away with it, but the wind blew the long streamer about his wings, and down he came, tumbling in the dust. Soon he was up again, and, after giving himself a little shake, he took the rag by the other end and mounted in the air. But again it entangled his wings, and he was soon on the ground. Next he seized it in the middle, but now there were =two= loose ends, and he was entangled more quickly than before.

Then he stopped to think for a minute, and looked at the rag as much as to say: "What shall I do with you next"? An idea struck him. He hopped up to the rag, and with his beak and claws rolled it into a nice little ball. Then he drove his beak into it, shook his head once or twice to make sure that the ends were fast, and flew away in triumph.

Remember the sparrow and the rag, and

(Blackboard)

Do not be Beaten, but Try, Try Again.

31. The Railway Train.

If you had been a little child a hundred years ago, instead of now, and had wished to travel to the seaside or any other place, do you know how you would have got there? You would have had to travel in a coach, for there were no trains in those days. I am afraid the little children who lived then did not get to the seash.o.r.e as often as you do, unless they lived near it, for it cost so much money to ride in the coaches. How is it that we have trains now?

There was a man called George Stephenson--a poor man he was; he did not even know how to read until he went to a night school when he was eighteen years old, but he worked and worked at the steam-engine until he had made one that could draw a train along. So you see that because this man and others tried and tried again, all those years ago, we have the nice, quick trains to take us to the seaside cheaply, and to other places as well. Like the sparrow, George Stephenson teaches us to

(Blackboard)

Try, Try Again.

32. The Man who Found America.

A long, long time ago the people in this country did not even know there =was= such a place as America; it was another "try, try again" man that found it out. His name was Christopher Columbus, and he thought there must be a country on the other side of that great ocean, if he could only get across. But it would take a good ship, and sailors, and money, and he had none of these. He was in a country called Spain, and he asked the king and queen to help him, but for a great while they did not.

However, he waited and never gave it up, and at last the queen said he should go, and off he started with two or three ships and a number of sailors.

It was more than two months before the new land appeared, and sometimes the sailors were afraid when it was very stormy, and wanted to turn back, but Columbus encouraged them to go on, and at last they saw the land. They all went on sh.o.r.e, and the first thing they did was to kneel down and thank G.o.d for bringing them safe to land; then they kissed the ground for very gladness, and wept tears of joy.

When Columbus came home again, bringing gold, and cotton, and wonderful birds from the new country, he was received with great rejoicing by the king and queen and all the people. Do not forget this lesson:--

(Blackboard)

Try, Try Again.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] Romanes' _Animal Intelligence_.

[8] _Ibid._

XI. PATIENCE.

33. Walter and the Spoilt Page.

Walter was busy doing his home lessons; he wanted to get them finished quickly, so that he could join his playmates at a game of cricket before it was time to go to bed. He was nearly at the end, and the page was just as neat as it could be--for Walter worked very carefully--when, in turning the paper over, he gave the pen which was in his hand a sharp jerk, and a great splash of ink fell in the very middle of the neat, clean page.

"Oh, dear!" cried Walter, "all my work is wasted. I shall get no marks for this lesson unless I write it all over again; and I wanted so much to go out and have a game." However, he was a brave boy, and his mother was glad to notice that he set to work quietly, and soon had it written over again. When bedtime came, she said: "Walter, your accident with the ink made me think of a story. Shall I tell it to you?"

"Oh, yes, mother! please do," said Walter, for he loved stories.

34. The Drawings Eaten by the Rats.

"There was once a gentleman (Audubon) in America," said his mother, "who was very fond of studying birds. He would go out in the woods to watch them, and he also made sketches of them, and worked so hard that he had nearly a thousand of these drawings, which, of course, he valued very much. One time he was going away from home for some months, and before he went he collected all his precious drawings together, put them carefully in a wooden box, and gave them to a relative to take care of until he came back.

"The time went by and he returned, and soon after asked for the box containing his treasures. The box was there, but what do you think? Two rats had found their way into it, and had made a home there for their young ones, and the beautiful drawings were all gnawed until nothing was left but tiny sc.r.a.ps of paper. You can guess how dreadfully disappointed the poor man would feel. But he tells us that in a few days he went out to the woods and began his drawings again as gaily as if nothing had happened; and he was pleased to think that he might now make better drawings than before. It was nearly three years before he had made up for what the rats had eaten. This man must have possessed the precious jewel of patience. Do you not think so?"

"What is patience, mother?" asked Walter.

"The little Scotch girl said it meant 'wait a wee, and no weary,'" said his mother; "and I think that is a very good meaning. It is like saying that we must wait, and do the work over again, if necessary, without getting vexed or worried."

Patience is a good "stone" to have in the Temple of Character.

(Blackboard.)

Patience means:-- Wait, and not Weary.

XII. ON GIVING IN.

35. Playing at Shop.