To-day Rose Benoit has recited her lesson without a fault. She receives a good mark. Emmeline Capel too receives a good mark for her recitation in arithmetic.
When the class is out she tells her mother about her good mark, and then she asks: "What's the use of a good mark, Mamma?"
"A good mark is no use at all," says her mother. "That's just the reason why you should be proud to have it. You will know one day, child, that the rewards men think the most of are those that give them honor rather than profit."
MARY 
Little girls have a natural desire to gather flowers and stars. But stars won't let themselves be picked and so seem to teach little girls that in this world there are some desires that are destined never to be satisfied.
Miss Mary went out in the park, where she discovered a basket of hortensias. She knew that the flowers of hortensias are pretty, and so she picked one. It was very hard to pick too. She seized the plant in both hands, at great risk of sitting down hard when the stem broke. She was very pleased and proud at what she'd done. But her nurse saw her:
and scolded and darted at Miss Mary, seizing her by the arm. To make her do penance she did not put her in the dark closet this time, but posted her underneath a great chestnut tree, in the shade of a big Japanese umbrella.