ONLY SISTER.
I WAS going down town in a horse car this morning, and noticed a little incident, which made quite an impression on my mind.
A family party, consisting of mother and five or six children, entered the car, and sat and stood nearly opposite me. They had two or three well-filled baskets, and numerous shawls: so I concluded that they were going on a picnic. The girls were dressed in clean though faded calico dresses, and the boys were washed and brushed until they shone.
One of the girls, who seemed to be about twelve or thirteen years old, was standing, and, in reaching up to take hold of the strap, her shawl fell from her shoulders.
Now, if you, Tom and John, had seen your sister drop her shawl when reaching up after a strap, I wonder if you wouldn't have laughed at her.
A good many boys would think, "It's only sister; we can laugh at her."
This girl dropped the strap, and was about to stoop for her shawl, when her little brother, about nine years old maybe, quickly picked it up, and politely put it around her shoulders. No grown young gentleman could have done it more courteously, or with less fuss. Yet it was "only sister," and the whole party were colored people. And I said to myself,
"Although that little fellow's skin is as brown as a nut, he is a little gentleman. Such boys as he are an honor to any mother."
When that boy is a little older, he will be courteous to all women, whatever their rank. He will not sit calmly in a car or on a boat, and see them stand; at a ticket-office, or in any crowd, it will not be he who will jostle them rudely aside.
I suppose there is not a boy that reads this who does not desire to be considered a gentleman when he becomes a man; but I assure you, boys, you will have hard work to gain the title deservedly, unless you begin now to cultivate manly attributes. For a thoroughly manly man is always a gentleman, a gentle man; not a rough, or a clown, but a gentleman to his equals and inferiors, whether in age, sex, or position; for every one is civil to his superiors, from selfish motives at least. It is no sign of a weak mind
to be thoughtful of the comfort of your mother and sisters.
Frances E. Wadleigh.