The Washington herald., 1913-07-07
WHEN TEMPTED TO
IDLE COSSPNG
Ak Your,ek: l. Il True? Is Il Kind!
b Il Necessary?
~ FRANCES sHAFFER.


A woman tells of q little happening
carried along from the days Of child
hood because of its simple impressive.
ness. and because Of the way It often
changed an impulse, once she called 4
to mind.
When she was q very small maid she
came home from school one day. all astir
with excitement over a story another
little miss had told concerning q third.
a mutual friend. All eagerness to re-
peat the childish gossip. she hurried to
the room where her mother ana grand
mother were sitting. and with quite
apparent relish told the details from
start to finish.
But the keen edge Of her pleasure was
gone at the reception or the story by
her mother, who listened to the recital
with head well bent over her work and
with lips tight shut. Dismayed q bit,
she still hoped for better things from
her indulgent grandmother, to whom she
turned for the expected comment But
it came in a surprising way. for the
grandmother, silent for a while, after a
moments thought, peckoned the little
girl to her side and suggested that they
go up to her room together.
When they reached the quiet shelter OF
life was all before her and the white
haired woman who was on the sunset
side of the hill-the grandmother told the
child she had something for her which
would win many friends as the years
went by.
What She Had for Her.
wonderingIy, the child waited for the
magic something that sounded like a gift
from fairyland. But all that came to
her was a little white card. On II, in
brilliant letters OF blue and gold, she
read the words:
Is IT TRUE?
is IT KIND?
is IT NECESSARY?
And then came the grandmother-ser-
mon, which sank deep down in the little
girl mind. and the little-girl heart as
well.
the particular story that had been re-
peated but the rebuke was there just
the same. and the warning that was to
carry down the years.
For the grandmother told her when
ever she was tempted to say anything
unkind about another or to repeat a
story that had a thorn in 1t somewhere.
to pause long enough to let those three
questions slit well through her mind.
u
to any one of them-"Don't repeat It."
And there the sermonette ended.
But the impression made upon the
little mind never faded away. For of
course she could hardly escape answer
ing no" 10 at least two OF those search
ing questions; so IL she remembered and
applied the lesson of the card at all,
how could it fail to do her good?
Many years have come and gone since
rrs,- hi - 49,
board, but the woman, whose childhood
has long since been a thing of the past. |
gladly confesses that often and often |
that card has warningly stood before her |
when she has felt tempted to repeat a |
bit of gossip neither kind nor. necessary. |
perhaps even lacking the questionable |
merit of truth. r-. |
More than that, upon occasion, when |
stories have come to her with a particu- |
repeat the little grandmother sermon |
mildly preached SO many years ago. And |
sometimes it has borne unexpected fruit |
Would Avert Heartnche.
And she has wished it might happen
that thousands of copies of that little |
white card, with its three big questions
might be scattered broadcast through
out the world, wherever they were |
needed. Thousands-would they stop
the thousands?
For one fancies. indeed. one knows,
that many a heartache and many a |
heartbreak might have been averted had
some thoughtless folk kept the kindly
little cards plainly hanging on the walls
Of memory.
And it has an unselfsh and a quite
selfish side.
As to the hurts that follow in the wake
Of the story needlessly carried along,
everybody knows the sorry damage it in
nicts, and the ugly accumulation 1t gath
ers all along the way, but on the selfish
side there are the friends that are lost,
the irreparable damage to self.
And the grandmother-card well might