Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1911-01-25
HOUSEHOLD
TELL THE TRUTH TO YOUR

I
send Lofty away" Martha sat with
folded hands. too greatly agitated to
even open her sewing bag. A chorus
of ooh, Martha, why?" broke from US
we could hardly bring ourselves to
face the doubts and perplexities that
we knew would confront Martha's lit
tie family without Lofty. Martha's
| Lofty had been the envy of US all.
She was woman faithful and disin-
terested and had done more for our
| friend-whose nursery life was most
strenuous--tha it seemed possible
one pair of hands couil ever do.
81 have been fighting it off for over
year." continued Martha detected
ly, land l am afraid it has come to
point now when | cannot stand it any
| longer. Lofty has no conception of
| truth. girls, and know her influence
all about it, and then you can give
me your advice-not that I'll follow
| it-for | fear my mind is already
made up.
1.-The twins are seven, you know,
and Jack is nearly five, Jill is too lit
tie to count. The boys want to know
the why for every single thing that
happens. Joe and ! feel that what
ever else We leave undone, our boys
must have their questions fearlessly
and truthfully met. We value truth
more than any characteristic. Lofty
is as much with the boys as am, and
her influence just permeates our
home. I feel it and know it only too
we'll. She is strong, dominating
personality and her ideals are set up
before my children every day She is
good woman, honest, faithful and
self-forgetting but she simply has no
idea of what it means to be truthful.
| cannot help being driven to realize
that | owe it to the children to re-
move from their daily lives the con-
slant temptation her influence is to
them to lower their standards of
truthfulness. If my boys should grow
with up faulty perception of truth.
sliding-scale of moral values. |
would never be able to hold up my
head. | don't expect them to be rich,
or great, or brilliant, but do expect
them to go out into the world with an
absolutely undertaking sense of the
truth. Their yea must be yea, and
their nay, nay. Nothing else mat
ters."
"But, MARTHA" interrupted Made
leine, almost impatiently, what
difference can it possibly make tc
them if their nurse chooses to honey
comb her speech with sweet fibs. You
are making a mountain out of nothing
my dear. The boys will soon forget
their nurse they surely will not imi
tate her. And, what is more, who
will you get any better? They are
all the same
"Perhaps l will have to be more
with the children myself. Made
leine," said Martha patiently. l may
! dispense with the nurse altogether
only wish could make myself be-
lieve that the mountain | have made
is imaginary. But Madeleine, l thinl
children are Influenced by their nurse
thought they acquire in childhood ar
really never entirely overcome. -
'Give US an example or two O.
what you mean, Martha DEAR" sait
Polly taking her troubled friend s
hand in hers.
] We'll, find, broadly speaking, tina
the children do not believe me nov
when tell them that such thing i
or is not so. They must see witt
: their own eyes before they will accep
my word This comes because o
Lotty's habit of telling them I'm
truths. For instance if they ask O
cake she will say, Sure gave We tn
/ last bit Yesterday. | swear to We al
that there bayent crumb left CIV
all smiled for readily could we pictur
: good-natured I.otty's discoursive false
hoods y Now, don't you see how thi
shakes the children's idea of truth il
its very foundations? When I tel
/ them there are no more mint drops i
r certain box, or the last cake ha
. been eaten. they have to see to be
, lieve. This is a serious fault for thre
, little boys to begin life with-a heart
. disbelief in the word of their elders
, ''Then, when | came home from
) town the other day Jack rushed t
meet me. His face suddenly fell an
, tears came into his eyes. | could Sc
> that he was terribly disappointe
, about something. | soon got him int
= Lofty bad told him that if he wa
: perfectly good all morning and helpe
: her to gather strawberries | was &C
, ing to bring him pretty expires
e wagon out from town. Don't you Sc
1 how false such position 18th
: child's cooperation and work secured
with no idea of fulfilling the Offered
d promise? The child's ideas of RICH
q and wrong cannot develop healthily
can they? What Lofty should hav
o said is something like this: You
mother asked me to pick some straw
: berries come, be big man and he'll
. me fill the basket or, There i
cake, boys. plenty of it. but you hav
> had your slice and cannot have an
more until tomorrow. This the fair
. honest way Of it, and the way | wan
. my boys to be treated. | want then
to speak the truth, and to do this the
must have it spoken to them"
y. 'tDo you really think the boys shoy
any i'll effects from Lotty's fibbing?
Madeleine asked, still doubtful as
e the true proportions of Martha
- mountain.
Eyes I do,' Martha answere
= promptly and this is the very thin
y w