Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1881-12-03
Kicking against the Pricks.

There are hundreds of things in life
that are just like thOrny leaves and
stems that prick. Every day we come
across them. lOr they come to us. Some of
them are like the nettles and burdOcks,
just mere tOrments to get away from If
we can. Ugly-tempered people, and
stupid, tiresOme people are like nettles;
how they do sting us and make us smart!
And the stupid, tiresOme people are like
burdOsks; how they do stick to us when
we want to shake them off! But most of
the things in life which prick us are like
the roses, and the raspberries and the
blackberries; good things which we
want, beautiful things which we like to
best for us to have; but they all have
thorns, and if we don't take care of them
the right way, we shall surely get prick
ed. will mention one of the things |
mean, and you will think of dozens
yourselves.
Sleep is one. Once | asked little
girl what she disliked most of all things
in this world, and she answered me,
without stopping to think minute:
"Bed-timel bed-time's the thing hate
worst! Bedtime is the meanest thing in
all the wOrld!'
don't wonder much, for / remember
very well how used to hate to go to bed
when was child. But if had only
known then, as l know now, that every
hour spent in sleep was helping to make
me strong, healthy woman, and giving
my body chance to grow te its full size,
/ wouldn't have hated it so. No, indeed;
1 would have gone to bed early every
night, of my own accord, without any
body having to coax or to drive me, |
should have known that the more hours
Ispent sleeping, while l was little
child, the better time | should have
when | grew up. But little children
cannot possibly understand this. They
cannot believe it when their fathers and
mothers tell them. So they have to be
made to go to bed early, no matter how
much they dislike it. Almost every day
1 see some child being dragged off to
bed, by a nurse or mother; and when
hear it crying, and screaming and hold
ing back, L say: "Oh, you foolish child,
you are kicking against the pricks! How
much harder you make it for yourself,
as well as for everybody else."
Now wish every boy and girl that
reads this would just try for one week
gOiug to bed when the regular time
comes, without making any fuss about
it. Take bedtime just as You take the
dinnertime or teatime, or something
that is fixed and settled, and that is the
end of it. Why, at the end Of the week
you won't think much about it when
seven o'clock comes, or eight O'clock,
whatever your bedtime is, you will go,
as a matter of course, and you'll see how
much happier you'll be. You will save
ever so many pricks by it, And it would
be just so with all the things which
children have to do which they don't want
to do, and all the things whicl they want
to do and can't; all such things are
things with pricks. If you fret, and cry,
and tease, that is kicking against the
pricks, and you get dreadfully hurt. If
YOU say to yourself resOlutely:
"Well, it can't be helped, I've got to do
it, I'll make the best of it," that is taking
hold of the thorns the right way and
saves all the scratches.
There is one more thing to be said
about this kicking against the pricks.
1t always leaves shocking marks on
peoples faces.
You can imagine how boys clothes
would look if he had been In bed of
nettles and brambleS, and had just
plunged right through, kicking the
thOrny stems on every side. Why he
would look like beggar! His clothes
would hang in rags and tatters; great
pieces would have been torn out and left
behind.
Now our faces are the clothes of our
souls; and the strange thing is that the
souls clothes always show what shape
the souls have. The bOdy's clothing is
quite different. You can have clothes
made for the body what will quite. con-
ceal it's shape; it may be defOrmed and
ugly to look at. and yet good clothes
rightly made can almost cover up the
deformity. But not so with the face
which is the outside garment of the
soul.
If you kick against the pricks of life,
every kick leaves its mark on your face