The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-02-17
A Lesson in Humility.

1 never see one of these fellows swell
ing around with their petty larceny
pride, that I don't think of a little ex-
perience of mine when / was a boy. An
old fellow caught me lifting a water
melon in his patch, one afternoon, and
instead of cutting me and letting me
| go, as 1 had expected if 1 got caught.
he led me home by the ear to my ma,
and told her what l had been up to.
Your grandma had been raised on
the old-fashioned plan. and she had
heard of the new-fangled theories
Of reasoning gently with a child till its
under lip begins to stick out and its
| eyes TO fill with tears as it sees the
error of its ways. She fetched the tears
all right, but she did it with a trunk
strap or a slipper. And you grandma
was a pretty substantial woman. Moth
ing of the tOotsey-Wootsey about her
foot, and nothing of h airy fairy
trife about her slipper. When she was
through I knew that I'd been licked
polished right off to a point-and then
she sent me to my room n told me
not to poke my nose out of it till /
could recite the Ten Commandments
and the Sunday-school lesson by heart.
There was a whole chapter of it. and
an Old Testament chapter at that, but
L A~A0 SAS IN L OSouS L hllSN lIlCs
n supper was only two hours off. /
can repeat that chapter still, forward
and backward, without missing a word
or stopping to catch my breath.
Every now and then old Dock Hoover
used to come into the Sunday-school
room and scare the scholars into fits
| by going around from class to class and
asking questions. That next Sunday,
for the first time, I was glad to see him
happen in, and l didn't try to escape at
tentlon when he worked around to our
class. For ten minutes I'd been bust
ing for him to ask me to recite a verse
of the lesson. and, when he did, I
simply cut loose n recited the whole
chapter and threw in the Ten Com
mandments for good measure. It sort
Of dazed the Doc. because he had come
to me for information about the Old
Testament before, and we'd never got
much beyond, And Ahab begat Jahab,
or words to that effect. But when he
cot e the shock he made me stand
right up before the whole school n
do it again. Patted me on the head
and said I was IAN honor to my pa
rents and an example to my play
mates"
I had been looking down all the time,
feeling mighty proud and scared, but
At that l coultn't help glancing up to
see the other boys admire me. But the
HHS' S1fO thS eye III oll was yOul
grandma, standing in the back of the
room, where she had stopped for a mo-
ment on her way up to church. and
giaring at me in a mighty unpleasant
way.
Tell 'em, john she said right out
loud, before everybody.
There was no way to run, for the
Elder had hold of my hand, and there
was no place to hide. though I reckon
| could nave craWled into a rat hole.
So, to gain time. I blurted out:
Tell 'em what, mam?'
Tell EN- how you come to have YOU
lesson so NICE
| learned to hate notoriety right the
and there, but I knew there was no
switching her off on to the weather
when she wanted to talk religion. So
shut my eyes and let it come, though
1T caught on my palate once or twice
on the way out.
Hooked a watermelon. man."
There wasn't any need for further
particulars with that crowd. and they
simply howled. Ma led me up to our
new, allowing that she'd tend to me
Monday for disgracing her in public
that Way-and she did.
That was q twelve-grain dose. without
any g coat, but it sweat more cant
and false pride out of my system thar
| could get back into it for the next
twenty years. l learned right there
how to be humble, which is a hear
more important than knowing how t
be proud. There are mighty few mer
that need any lessons in that.
(From Letters from a Self-Made
Merchant to His Son." by George
Horace Lorimer. By permission o
Small, Maynard 2: Co. Publishers, Ros.
ton, Mass.)