American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-08-31
What Does UnseIfish Mean.

Three little children were sitting in the
room one evening while their mother was
busy ironing-Johnny, and Fred, and
Louise. Johnny was nine years old, and
he read aloud to his little brother and sis
ter. Whenever they came to any hard
word that they could rot understand,
their mother would tell them what it
meant
Louise held up her hand for attention.
'Pd like to have mother tell us what
'unselfish' means. Maybe / do know, but
l want her to tell it her way" said the
child.
81 will illustrate it by little story,
when Johnny is through reading, and /
am done ironing" said their mother.
Then after awhile she told this story:
zone time there were three little chill
dren, and their mother told them she would
give each one penny for every elk eggs he
brought into the house. The Oldest child
brought in six or eight eggs day, but the
youngest ones couldn't find any. The nests
were all low down in quiet places easily
reached. But the hens liked best to lay
up in the fragrant mows.
The eldest of the three little ones
thought of aplan that pleased him exceed
ingly, and he put it into execution.
He would peep into the other nests
silly, and if there were no eggs in them,
would take those out of his nest and put
in theirs, and let his little brother and sis
ter think they had been lain there"
That is what one calls an unselfish act.
He was glad to give his own pleasure to
make his little brother and sister happy,
though | believe his delight was greater
than theirs. / want you all to seek to be
unselfsh-study the comfort and happi-
ness of others before your own. If there
is anything good and enjoyable, try and
have someone else get it. Never fear but
you'll be happy enough. An unselfsh
person is rarely unhappy"
Just here the mothers eye fell upon
Johnny. Little fellow he was appear
ing unspeakably full of some kind of an
emotion. His hands were thrust down
into his pockets, and he looked right into
tile CRATE, just as though he thought the
red blaZes were something wonderfully
new and beautiful. His face was red,
fire might have made that. He twisted
his head around uneasily, when his
mothers eye fell upon him.
'That hoy in the story was our blessed
little brother Johnny, wasn't it, mother?
Say, wasn't it, Fred? Say, all of you?
Oh! oh! 1 thought my hen pitied me
and laid lots of eggs just to please me,
and there it was our Johnny all the timer
and Louise flew to the little hero and
wooded MS mead ABOUT ana nuSgeO ulHl,
and kissed him, and tickled him. and
there he sat looking just as ashamed as
though he'd stolen somebody's hens eggs,
and had been caught at it.
ooh, who told you that, ma" said he,
looking down modestly; II didn't want
'em to know it ever"
"Oh, maybe little bird sang it to me-"
said the mother, laughing.
Nobody can do anything that our
mother won't find out" said Fred, laying
his hand on Johnny's shoulder.
don't WEI" said Louise, land l mean to
try and be just as unselfish as ever l CAM"
and here she flew at her little Johnny,
and began fuzzing up his hair, and pat
ting his cheeks, and all the while proud
of the shy, kind brother, who had set
such sweet example of unselfishness
before them-AdUdnce.