themselves what is to be done; for if he had to tell every boy and girl everything that was to be done, his time would be so much occupied, that there would be no leisure for lessons. Now, if we are thoughtless, we give the teacher more trouble than the other scholars do; and, as we do not pay any more than they do, we are, by our thoughtlessness, depriving them of the attention to which they are entitled. We need not therefore be very much surprised if our teacher either leaves us to ourselves, and cares very little about our making progress, or gets angry with us, reproves us before the class, and punishes us. We cannot expect that we are to be allowed to annoy the teacher all day long, without suffering for it in some way. If we bring the wrong books to school; if we mistake the lessons that are given out, and prepare wrong ones; if we bring our exercises on wrong days; if we begin our copy-books upside down, and commit the blunders that

thoughtless children are guilty of all day long; we know that this must provoke any teacher. It is no use to say to him when he finds fault with us for some piece of thoughtlessness, that we forgot, for this is just what is to blame; we have no business to forget what our teacher tells us to do, and if we were not so very thoughtless, we should not forget. We feel ashamed when the other scholars laugh at our foolish answers, but this again is our own fault; if we were not thoughtless we should be able to answer as well as they can, and we should not be the biggest and worst scholars in our class, as thoughtless pupils must always be.

If we were only to be scolded by our teachers and parents, or laughed at by our school-fellows for our thoughtlessness, we might think this a very trifling affair, which it was not worth our while to take much trouble to avoid. But, if we are careless now, we are likely to be just as thoughtless

when we grow up; and then we shall find to our regret how bad the habit is which we have learned, and how difficult it is to overcome it. There are hundreds of men and women who have brought themselves into misfortune and misery by their thoughtlessness; our parents know this, and it is for this reason that they are so careful to prevent us from acquiring such a mischievous habit, and if we wish to avoid misfortune and to get on well in the world, we may be sure that we shall be much assisted by attending to their advice, and trying to be careful and thoughtful.

133

THOUGHTLESS KITTY.

"KITTY," said Mrs. Brown to
her little girl, "you were eleven
last week, and your sister was
a great help to me before she
was so old as you are.
I am
going out this afternoon to
see your cousin George, who
has got his leg badly hurt,

and I wont be back till six

o'clock. It has just struck three, and I shall leave you to get everything ready for father's dinner; you must light the fire in the oven at four, and put in the pie to be heated, and have the kettle boiling, and the potatoes cooked, and the house tidied when he comes home. You have plenty of time, and see that you mind what I have told you, and don't be thoughtless."

"Never fear, mother," said Kitty, "I'll do

everything as nicely as sister Ann ever

did it."

"Well, we shall see," was her mother's reply; and off she went.

Now Kitty Brown was as kind-hearted a girl as ever breathed, and no one could be more ready to do a favour than she was; but her mother was quite vexed to see how thoughtless she was, especially as she was growing big, and would soon have to go to service; so she thought she would just leave her to herself a little, to try and convince her of the necessity of guarding against thoughtlessness. When her mother had gone out, Kitty began with great good will to put things to rights: she put on the kettle, and began to sweep the house. When she had finished she looked out of the window to see what o'clock it was on the town steeple.

"Just half-past three, I declare," she said to herself; "I wonder what I will find to do till six o'clock;" and not thinking of any