Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-22
ODD BITS OF TIME.

OOO BIO Of 1--WE
Tho Difference Between Two Girls-Whlc!,
Would You Rather BE Like:
"Molly, what have you been doing?"
'Nothing, mamma"
what do you NEAR by nothing? !
left you sitting by this window half an
hour ago. Where have you been since
then?"
"Nowhere, mamma. I was watch
ing the kitten"
"Watching the kitten for half an
hour! o Molly! And you promised to
help me pare the peaches"
"Shall 1 do them now?"
''They are all done. I supposed every
moment that you would come, or I
should have called YOU"
''I'm sorry, mamma, I forgot" But
Molly did not look particularly sorry,
and not at all ashamed. There was
nothing new or surprising, 1 regret to
say, either in the half-hour wasted CT
the forgotten promise; they were things
of every day with Molly Lester.
Molly was naturally an indolent
child. The blood did not dance in her
veins as a child's blood should; she felt
no quick impulses toward action and
movement. This constitutional slug
gishness of temperament was Molly s
excuse-her only one; but it was not ex-
cuse enough. For none of us are srnt
into the world to do only the things we
feel like doing; and the fact that we
have naturally a bias against what is
right or dutiful is but a reason for fight.
ing hard and steadily, and making our
selves do the duty. Scarcely any one
is born ~pcrsevering, or Industrious, or
prompt, or neat-all these are habits
which must be formed by years Of eff
fort; but, when formed, they are the
most valuable part of ourselves: that
which makes our living worth while to
the world and to the friends who belong
to us.
Molly Lester was not fighting with
her Incidence. She made faint resolu-
tions to do so once in awhile, but when
the moment came for the effort she was
too apt to indulge herself, 'just this
once," or to reflect that ''only twenty
minutes more' or 'only half an hour''
could make no difference, unmindful of
the fact that life is made up of minutes
and h%alf-hours, and that to waste them
meal to waste life. A good, h;.d
study of vulgar fractions would have
taught her the value of parts to their
whole; but, dear me! Molly ''hated"
arithmetic, and could never be induced
to apply her mind to it.
There wa another girl in the house
who was exactly the opposite OF Molly.
Her name was Lucy-Lucy Lester. She
was Molly's cousin, and about the same
age. Her father and mother died with
in a few weeks of each other of typhoid
fever; and her uncle, Robert, Mollv's
father, had taken her home to live with
him, and be a sister to Molly, who had
no sister Of her own The boys-there
were three-had not been at all glad to
have Lucy come. Girls are no fun"
they said; ''they are always sticking
about in bedrooms, and saying they
don't want to do anything, ana one is
enough in a house, any how" The
boys Judged all girls by Molly, but they
soon found that Lucy was of a different
sort. She didn't ''stick in bedrooms"
h liked to go rowing and fishing, to
walk in the woods and ride on the hay
cart, as much as the boys themselves:
and, though she was always busy, she
could generally make time to mend
gloves, cover balls and be useful and
obliging.
Lucy and Molly got on VERY we'll
together; they seldom quarrelca. Molly
was good-humored enough, like most
lazy people; but the girls were too I'M
III IN character to understand each
other very well, or to grow intimate.
Lucy had been carefully trained by an
energetic mother, who believed in .sssvs-
tom and Molly's dawdling WAYS were
always irritating to her. Molly seldom
Degan any new piece of work, and never
ilnlshed what she began. Lucy had
been taught that she mast finish. Th;s
made her cautious not to undertake. ton
much. Her impulse was to undertaIe
e~Ve1Ytb.ngs out she had learned bv az.
P,eriense that there comes a time ahomt
the middle of all long tasks when nea
pie feel inclined to give them IN. and
are half sorry that they began at all
Theses .''hitching' places are ike tho
"Ihank-you-ma'am's" set in the m;I'
die CT long hills TO arrest the wheels q
as they 60 by; but the wheels
go all the faster after once thev ha7,s
passed the obstacle, and SO Do thu
workers who persevere. -
Before she went to sleep each niobt
Lucy had pretty much decided in L "s,
W mind what she meant to do VIII
every hour of the next day. So n ",eh
time for this, so much for that n aaohl
following each in regular seonen ~.'
And though space was ALWAYS 1 1os, &c.
fun" Lucy knew in advance what s .Ur
meant the fun to be. This n]an haa que ;ae
disadvantages. 1t fretted hc, Gus ~
times t., be interrupted and c,lled au.ne
;h hnJ 10 ' 6er nicely adjusted plan
'cross. n ,u rt'o' sometimes it made her
!e erarh nut, on the whole, the good
''S Ss%ss' sad sse s II . f great in t, ali; m 1a5i s 70; q