Georgie | Page 5

after that, she can use it in so many ways, that it continues to
afford her pleasure for a long time. She can dress and undress it, put it
to bed, make it sit up for company, and do a great many other things
with it. When she gets tired of playing with it one day, she puts it away,
and the next day she thinks of something new to do with it, which she
never thought of before. Now, which should you think the pleasure you
should obtain from a ball, would arise from, its novelty, or its use?"
"Its use," said the boys.
"Yes," said the mother. "The first sight of a ball would not give you any
very special pleasure. Its value would consist in the pleasure you would
take in playing with it.
"Now, it is generally best to buy such playthings as you can use a great
many times, and in a great many ways; such as a top, a ball, a knife, a

wheelbarrow. But things that please you only by their novelty, will
soon lose all their power to give you pleasure, and be good for nothing
to you. Such, for instance, as jumping men, and witches, and funny
little images. Children are very often deceived in buying their
playthings; for those things which please by their novelty only, usually
please them very much for a few minutes, while they are in the shop,
and see them for the first time; while those things which would last a
long time, do not give them much pleasure at first.
"There is another kind of playthings I want to tell you about a little, and
then my lecture will be done. I mean playthings which give you
pleasure, but give other persons pain. A drum and a whistle, for
example, are disagreeable to other persons; and children, therefore,
ought not to choose them, unless they have a place to go to, to play
with them, which will be out of hearing. I have known boys to buy
masks to frighten other children with, and bows and arrows, which
sometimes are the means of putting out children's eyes. So you must
consider, when you are choosing playthings, first, whether the pleasure
they will give you will be from the novelty or the use; and, secondly,
whether, in giving you pleasure, they will give any other persons pain.
"This is the end of the lecture. Now you may rest a little, and look
about, and then I will tell you a short story."

THE YOUNG DRIVERS.
They came, about this time, to the foot of a long hill, and Jonas said he
believed that he would get out and walk up, and he said James might
drive the horse. So he put the reins into James's hands, and jumped out.
Rollo climbed over the seat, and sat by his side. Presently James saw a
large stone in the road, and he asked Rollo to see how well he could
drive round it; for as the horse was going, he would have carried one
wheel directly over it. So he pulled one of the reins, and turned the
horse away; but he contrived to turn him out just far enough to make
the other wheel go over the stone. Rollo laughed, and asked him to let
him try the next time; and James gave him the reins; but there was no

other stone till they got up to the top of the hill.
Then James said that Rollo might ride on the front seat now, and when
Jonas got in, he climbed back to the back seat, and took his place by the
side of Rollo's mother.
"Come, mother," then said Rollo, "we are rested enough now: please to
begin the story."
"Very well, if you are all ready."
So she began as follows:--

THE STORY Of SHALLOW, SELFISH, AND WISE.
Once there were three boys going into town to buy some playthings:
their names were Shallow, Selfish, and Wise. Each had half a dollar.
Shallow carried his in his hand, tossing it up in the air, and catching it,
as he went along. Selfish kept teasing his mother to give him some
more money: half a dollar, he said, was not enough. Wise walked along
quietly, with his cash safe in his pocket.
Presently Shallow missed catching his half dollar, and--chink--it went,
on the sidewalk, and it rolled along down into a crack under a building.
Then he began to cry. Selfish stood by, holding his own money tight in
his hands, and said he did not pity Shallow at all; it was good enough
for him; he had no business to be tossing it up. Wise came up, and tried
to get the money out with