A Lesson in Courtesy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 10, 1907

A Lesson in Courtesy

A MOTHER had need one evening to pass between the light and her little son. With sweet, grave courtesy she said, “Will you excuse me, dear, if I pass between you and the light?”

He looked up and said, “What made you ask me that, mother?”

“Because, dear,” she answered, “it would be rude to do it without speaking. I would not think of not speaking if it had been Mr. ——, the minister,—and surely I would not be rude to my own boy.”

The boy thought a moment, and then asked, “Mother, what ought I to say back?”

“What do you think would be nice?”

He studied over it a while, for he was such a wee laddie, and then said, “Would it be nice to say, ‘Surely you can’?”

This was mother's time to say, “That would be nice; but how would you like to say, just as Mr. —— would, ‘Certainly’? It means the same thing, you know.”

That little lad, now a young man in college, is remarked for his never-failing courtesy. A friend said of him the other day, “It’s a second nature to —— to be polite.” The mother smiled as she thanked God in her heart for the grace which helped her to be unfailingly courteous to her boy.—Selected.