GRANDMA'S WAY OF KEEPING THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.
“Mr. Burk is wasting his time making us repeat the commandments in Sabbath-school—as if any of us were tempted to kill or steal,” said Stella. “The eighth commandment is at least often strained in this family,” answered grandma, quietly. “Mother, if you have seen the children doing anything of that kind, you ought to have told me,” spoke up Mr. Gordon. “I did not say the children were the only transgressors,” replied grandma, laughing. Mr. Gordon colored. Had grandma been down to his store, and had her puritanical ideas been shocked over the weighing of brown paper with sugar? or some other little advantage allowed to the seller? “I am sure I do not steal,” said Stella, emphatically. “Grandma, keep a record of every time we break the eighth commandment the coming week,” suggested Mrs. Gordon. “Saturday evening you shall read it, and the one who offends most must buy the kitchen clock I need.” Each one of the Gordon family was willing to buy a clock if convicted of stealing. “If it were impatience, mother, I should expect to buy my own clock,” Mrs. Gordon said, as they gathered around the glowing grate, Saturday evening. “If it were a quick temper, I would open my bank; but I am safe,” said Stella. Mr. Gordon and his son, Ben, felt too secure to even consider the matter. “I have not been with each one of you every moment, so can give only the few things I have seen. These will no doubt remind you of other things in which you have broken the eighth commandment,” said grandma, producing a large notebook, with a smile at her doubting audience. “To begin with Stella: I noticed two old Sabbath-school books, the kind that every one wishes, in her closet, and a song-book on the piano, marked, ‘For the Sabbath-school room only.’” “I've always forgotten to return them,” interrupted Stella. “Yes, as you have the handkerchief Hattie left, which is in the wash nearly every week,” continued grandma. “Then you stopped practicing Monday to talk a half-hour to Lizzie, stealing time from your music. You forgot to give your mother that important message, and took an afternoon from her when she went out to see about it, and got that headache that took another half-day, and a dollar to the doctor, besides the medicine, and you took away your mother's patience when she found that all this came from your neglect.” “The Bible does not say what we shall not steal, so the inference is that we shall not take anything that belongs to another without his consent. It certainly took money out of your father's pocket when you carelessly broke the parlor window yesterday. When you took the second dish of berries last night, you took Bettie's fruit as certainly as the boy at the corner took the oranges from the old man. Both went without fruit that they supposed was theirs. When you took your mother's new veil, and lost it—” “And my new lead pencil,” interrupted Ben, who was rather enjoying his positive little sister's discomfort. “Thursday you broke into my room as I was falling into a sleep, and stole a much-needed rest from me,” went on grandma, with a smile. “I put down the nights her cousin stays, and they keep us all awake until midnight, talking and giggling,” added Ben. “You may take some of these samples to yourself, Ben; and, with her neglect of the eighth commandment, Stella has been often very helpful and sweet to us all, so I pass to your own private record,” answered the old lady. “Besides the stolen books in your room, I saw a silk umbrella that had another name than Ben on it.” “I mean to take that back,” murmured the culprit. “I believe that excuse would not hold in court,” replied grandma. “Monday evening I have recorded that my grandson boasted that the car was so crowded that the conductor had failed again to ask for his fare.” “But, grandma, he is paid for collecting fares.” “Your ‘Thou shalt not steal’ has nothing to do with the conductor's duty to his employer,” went on grandma, in a tone very severe for her. “The next evening, when company came, the cake saved for supper was gone, and your mother thought Bettie must have eaten it, but I saw a tall young man slip away from the cake-box.” “A fellow can't starve,” murmured Ben, hanging down his head. “It is only the question whether cake is made for your lunch or for the family tea which makes taking right or wrong,” went on grandma. “Then, several times I have heard a young man tease his little sister until he took away her sunny temper.” “O grandma! teasing isn't stealing.” “My boy, if teasing takes away from Stella something she wishes to keep, what is it but stealing? Then, the mornings you were late to breakfast, I heard busy Bettie say that it took the best of the morning to get your breakfast, and clear up after you.” “Ben has nearly bankrupted us all, if you are going to consider the times we have all waited for him,” laughed the father. “Two evenings he stole the time from his lessons to read a foolish story, and will probably steal some of the Sabbath to get those lessons. Ben took his father's good temper when he took his cuff-buttons without asking, and his mother's when he took her new magazine and lost it, and his grandmother's when he took her new church paper to wrap up a package, and thus stole part of her Sabbath reading,” read grandma from her notebook. “I'm sorry I took your paper,” murmured Ben, who was really a good-hearted boy. “Anyway you haven't anything against mamma, for she gives up to every one.” “That's her worst fault,” said grandma. “She is robbing her old age by using up her nervous force, and robbing you children of independence by everlastingly waiting on you.” “Didn't you catch her getting money out of the pocket of my best trousers?” asked Mr. Gordon, smiling at his wife. “No, indeed; she was too well brought up for that. But, besides stealing time for work that ought to be used in sleep or rest, or improving the mind, you, too, Rebecca, have broken the commandment. I have noticed that you do not hurry up supper when your sewing girl is here, so in a week you manage to get an hour or more for nothing; and Thursday you took Bettie's afternoon to have her put up fruit.” “I meant to give her Friday, but company came. I see I did wrong, mother; for I do not like it if a girl takes as much as a spool of thread that does not belong to her,” answered Mrs. Gordon. “Now, Benjamin, you went to the store last Sabbath afternoon, and took some of the Lord's day for accounts.” “But the bookkeeper, mother——” “Yes, no one steals unless there is need of something, though I can hardly say that when you take Rebecca's time to pick up after you.” “What's a wife for, mother?” “Not to pick up collars off the bureau, coats off the chairs, and handkerchiefs and old letters off the floor. For a man to take his wife's time in picking up after him, is like stealing pennies from some one who intended to spend dollars for him. You stole Thursday evening from the prayer-meeting, when you were much needed there, and then took two hours of the minister's time to talk about something; and I heard his wife say, this afternoon, that he would have to sit up till midnight to finish his sermon, because he had had so many callers.” “Look here, mother, you need not read the rest of that book. I'll admit that we do not keep the commandments any too well, and I fear in business it is even worse. I hope the children will learn one lesson. It is not so bad to take things from the cupboard, or our bureau drawers, but it makes them indifferent to property rights, and might make them form a habit of taking from others, when it would be considered real theft. Anyway, mamma comes out best; so, children, we will get her that parlor clock she has been wanting, and the kitchen clock, too,” said Mr. Gordon. “You have given me a new idea, mother,” said Mrs. Gordon. “We must follow the golden rule very closely, or we shall often break the eighth commandment by taking happiness, or time, or health from others, and really robbing them more than if we had taken only money or other property.”