The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-06-14
THE .CHlLDREN'S HOUR.
A SECRET.

Can you keep secret? 1t is an
unpleasant and difficult thing to do,
and yet sometimes the breaking of
1t may have distressing and even
serious consequences. The best way,
therefore, is never to encourage any
body to tell you one. Too often the
very fact Of knowing thing to be a
secret makes one long to tell it and
at last it is confided to friend un-
der strict injunctions not to tell.
This eases ones conscience, but the
friend also tells another friend who
tells another, and so forth, and un-
der the promise of secrecy the story
gets published around, often in fact
even more completely than il it had
never been a secret And if there was
a real cause for secrecy, great mis-
chief is done.
An amusing story is told in the old
mythology, the history of the false
gods of the pagans. A certain rich
king named Midas graveiy offended
Apollo by preferring the music or Fan
70 his own, and in his anger, Apollo
declared that no one with such bad
musical taste was worthy of having
human ears, so he changed those of
King Midas into great, long, hairy
lonkey's ears. Fancy the despair OF
The Door king! Fortunately he was
able to hide them under one of the
great turbans which men often wore
n those days and nobody knew of his
l.isgrace, nobody but the kings bar
Der, whom the monarch threatened
with torments and death if he so much
as breathed a word about it.
The barber tried hard to keep his
secret, but, oh, he did SO long to tell
it! 1t harassed him day and night,
and at last he went far out into a
field, dug a deep hole and whispered
into it:
Midas, the King Midas, has don
keys ears" Then he went home
feeling quite relieved and thought no
more about it, but short time later
a bed of rushes sprang up over the
spot and every time the wind blew
and made the rushes rustic, they
whispered, too, Midas, the King
Midas, has donkey's ears" and soon
everyone knew the kings secret.
However small and insignificant a
secret is, remember it is a point of
honor to keep it. Train yourself care
fully to do this whenever necessary,
and it will keep you from much mis-
chief. AS rule, it is best not to
repeat what you have seen or heard
of others, for baekbiting and unkind
remarks about people are sinful, and
often do incalculable mischief. There
are even times when we should be
willing to die rather than reveal a
secret.
l remember seeing touching pic
ture called Where did you last see
your father?" In the center of it
stood a slight, delicate looking boy,
his head high, his hands clenched, his
eyes calmly defiant. He was sur
rounded by a whole band of Crom-
wells fierce soldiers trying to brighten
him into betraying his fathers hid
ing place Will he tell? No! You
may be sure of that by the look of
that resolute mouth and those stead
fast eyes. He is but defenseless
child, they can, and very likely will
kill him, many of them have already
their hand to their sword, but he is
little nobleman in the true sense of
the word and he will die sooner than
betray his secret.
Please God you may never be put
to such a test, but one never knows
what may happen and in any case
there is nothing like being prepared.
So train yourself to keeping great
secrets by never, never telling even
the smallest one.
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