TYPICAL MEN WHO HAVE BEEN THRIFTY . 66 WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY HELPFUL WOMEN HOW TO GET A HOLIDAY-A WIFE'S EXAMPLE. 66 IF YOU WOULD HAVE A FAITHFUL SERVANT, SERVE MEN WHO HAVE CLIMBED THE LADDER OF FAME 66 GREAT FLOODS FROM SIMPLE SOURCES FLOW 184 READING BOOK. THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT. quer'lous, querulous, discontented. peevish, 66 'tis, an abbreviation for "it is." we'll, abbreviation for we will." d'ye, abbreviation or short way A GRASSHOPPER, whose sprightly song And whilst her suit she thus preferred, Holds borrowing in a sort of dread, And (from this charge we'll not defend her) Abhors the very name of lender. With importunity grown weary, She checks it with this single query, 66 Pray, neighbour, how d'ye spend your summer?" "I charm, an't please you, every comer; All thro' the season every day I sing the merry hours away." Lammas. "Oh!" cries the ant, and bars the door This was one of the four great festivals of the old Pagan religion of Britain, and falls on the 1st August, to celebrate the harvests and gathering in of the grain. When Christianity was intro LA FONTAINE. duced, the feast was continued with the same object, though the harvest must have been much earlier than it is now; and the observance of the festival has fallen into disuse, THRIFT: WHAT IS IT? intelligence, good sense. querulous, peevish, discontented. vermin, loathsome animals. subsistence, a living, meat and drink. community, a number of persons. commerce, trade. WHATEVER is good in a nation has to be done by individuals themselves before it can become national. So as national thrift means national prosperity, every Englishman, and every English boy and girl, can help to make their country prosperous, and in doing this they are likely to become prosperous themselves. In the dictionary the meaning of the word "thrift” is thus given: THRIFT-Profit, gain, riches gotten, state of prospering, parsimony, frugality, good husbandry. In reading the writings of our old English poets it is mentioned. Spenser says, * * "The rest-willing to fall to thrift, Prove very good husbands." Shakespeare writes, "I have a mind presages me such thrift." And again, "I have five hundred crowns, The thrifty hire I saved under your father." As You Like It. *Swift says, "I am glad he has such youth and vigour left-of which he has not been thrifty." So that thrift really means saving-care-prudence-making the best of what we have. And it is a lesson that cannot be learned too early. A reckless, extravagant boy or girl is likely to make a reckless, extravagant man or woman; and often the punishment for this want of thrift does not come till they are grown up. The parents or friends of a child usually try to save the child from the consequences of his foolishness, and so a habit is formed of carelessness which brings its fruit in after years, when there is no one ready to help and to make things better. Thrifty people need not be mean people, and thrifty boys and girls are not necessarily selfish ones. Often the most thrifty persons are the most generous, because they can afford to be so. They save out of the money they earn, or the money that is given to them for their own use and pleasure; and so when they really wish to be kind to some one else they have the means of generosity ready to hand. It is natural to every one to be extravagant ; at least to all unthinking persons. A savage is the greatest spendthrift, for he has no forethought, no to-morrow. The first men who inhabited the earth saved nothing. They lived in caves, or in |