You Cannot Pass This Way Again.
BREAKFAST was not quite ready, and while waiting, Mary took up a paper for a minute, and her eyes fell upon these words: “A good Quaker was wont to say, ‘I expect to pass this world but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do, to my fellow beings, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.’” Mary read the paragraph twice over, and it made a deep impression on her heart. She took her seat at the table, thoughtfully; and she wondered, as she glanced up at the already wearied face of her mother, whether she had not let many golden opportunities slip never to return. She could not go that way again. But here was a long, bright holiday she had proposed to spend in self-amusement. Indeed, she had kept herself awake an hour or more in planning the day’s enjoyment, intending to fill it as full as she could. Now these words, “I shall not pass this way again,” haunted her mind, and awakened quite a new train of thought. What if that mother’s cheek should grow paler and paler, her cough deeper, and her thin hands be finally folded away forever on her silent heart? The thought was startling and terrible. Oh, what bitterness of regret she would feel that she had lightened her burdens so little! For this day, at least, she would do what she could. “Mother,” she said, when breakfast was over, “you have been looking for a spare day to run over to Grafton, to see aunt Mabel, and now is your chance, I mean to take the helm to-day,” she continued pleasantly. “Not to-day, Mary, of all days, when there is so much work to be done.” “Yes, mother, that is just the day. I have nothing else to do but to take your place. You shall see to-night how well I have filled it.” Mary’s persuasions prevailed, and the mother spent a long, bright summer day visiting with a beloved invalid sister, to whom her visit was indeed a joyful surprise. It “did good like a medicine,” to both mother and sister, while the gain to Mary herself was a hundred-fold greater.—The Child’s World.