'Why should I balk,' said I, my taste?

I'll make at once a hearty feast.'
So snugly by myself I fed,

When every boy was gone to bed;

I gorged them all, both paste and plum,
And did not spare a single crumb ;
Indeed they made me, to my sorrow,
As sick as death upon the morrow.
This made me mourn my rich repast,
And wish I had not fed so fast."

Quoth Jack, "I was not such a dunce,
To eat my quantum up at once;

And though the boys all longed to clutch 'em,
I would not let a creature touch 'em ;
Nor though the whole were in my power,
Would I one single cake devour ;

Thanks to the use of keys and locks,

They're all now snug within my box:
The mischief is, by hoarding long,
They are grown so mouldy and so strong,
I find they won't be fit to eat,
And I have lost my father's treat."

"Well, Tom," the anxious parent cries,
"How did you manage?" Tom replies,
"I shunned each wide extreme to take,
To glut my maw, or hoard my cake;
I thought each day its wants would have,
And appetite again might crave;

Twelve school-days still my notches counted,
To twelve my father's cakes amounted;
So every day I took out one,

But never ate my cake alone;

With every needy boy I shared,
And more than half I always spared.

One every day, 'twixt self and friend,
Has brought my dozen to an end:
My last remaining cake to-day
I would not touch, but gave away;
A boy was sick, and scarce could eat;
To him it proved a welcome treat:
Jack called me spendthrift not to save;
Will dubbed me fool because I gave;
But when our last day came, I smiled,

For Will's were gone, and Jack's were spoiled;
Not hoarding much, nor eating fast,

I served a needy friend at last."

These tales the father's thoughts employ;
"By these," said he, "I know each boy:
Yet Jack, who hoarded what he had,
The world will call a frugal lad;
And selfish, gormandizing Will

Will meet with friends and favorers still;
While moderate Tom, so wise and cool,
The mad and vain will deem a fool;
But I his sober plan approve,

And Tom has gained his father's love."

APPLICATION.

So, when our day of life is past,
And all are fairly judged at last,
The miser and the sensual find
How each misused the gifts assigned;
While he, who wisely spends and gives
To the true ends of living lives:
'Tis self-denying moderation

Gains the Great Father's approbation.

-HANNAH MORE.

147. THOUGHTS.

Thought is the great builder in human life; it is the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and you will hate, and will be hated. Each follows its kind.

It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own atmosphere'; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the thought he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought atmosphere-the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced by.

-RALPH WALDO TRINE.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts, therefore guard accordingly, and take care, that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue, and unreasonable to nature.

-MARCUS AURELIUS.

Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but a thinking reed. It is not necessary that the universe in its entirety should arm itself to crush him. A vapour, a drop of water, is sufficient to slay him. But even were the universe to crush him, man would still be nobler thar that which kills him, because he knows he dies. Of the advantage which the universe has over man it is inconscious. Thus the whole of our nobility consists in thought,

and it is this which should elevate us, not space and time. Let us therefore strive to think well. Here is

the principle of morality.

Thought is deeper than all speech;

Feeling deeper than all thought.

-PASCAL.

-C. P. CRANCH.

Think not about decking thy body with ornaments but thy heart with pure thoughts and habits.

-MARCUS ANTONINUS.

From purity of thought, all pleasure springs;
And, from an humble spirit, all our peace.

-EDWARD YOUNG.

Bouhours, a French critic, says that it is impossible for any thought to be beautiful which is not just, and has not its foundation in the nature of things; that the basis of all wit is truth; and that no thought can be valuable of which good sense is not the groundwork.

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.
-SHAKESPEARE.

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts, in glad surprise,

To higher levels rise.

The tidal wave of deeper souls

Into our inmost being rolls,

And lifts us unawares
Out of all meaner cares.

-LONGFELLOW.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the cart.

—Buddha.

Don't give life to evil by remembering it.

-ANNIE BESANT.

For he that but conceives a crime in thought
Contracts the danger of an actual fault.

-DRYDEN.

No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it and so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to look within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it will be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within ourselves such that only good may enter.

-RALPH WALDO TRINE.

There was a stump of a tree in the dark at night. A thief came that way and said, "That is a policeman." A child who had been told ghost stories came out and began to shriek that it was a ghost. But it was the stump of a tree. We see the world as we are. the table a bag of gold, and let a baby be here.

Put on

Let a

thief come and take the gold. Would the baby know it