THE LITTLE BOY'S QUESTIONS.
THERE were pictures of firemen and fire-engines in the book that the little boy had found, and he carried it directly to his elder sister and began to ask questions about them. She could not tell him all he wished to know—only the chief of a fire department could have done that; but she explained the pictures as well as she could, carefully choosing words that the child would understand, and he went away at length, wiser and happier. "I thought you were in a hurry to finish that dress," said a girl friend, who had looked and listened with amazement. "Why didn't you tell him you didn't know, or put him off in some way?" "If I were set down in a strange country, where I wasn't very well acquainted with the language or the customs, I'd expect people to be patient with me," the boy's sister answered. "Harry has been in this world only seven years, you know, and he sees and hears many things he can't comprehend. Isn't it natural that he should ask questions?" "I am not very wise, but since he pays me the compliment of thinking that I am, I feel as if I ought to be polite at least. If I lied to him in order to get rid of him, his confidence in me wouldn't last very long. If I put him off with an excuse—well, I think it's just as mean to starve a growing mind as it is to starve a growing body." "Really, the easiest way is to answer him as fully as I can. That gives him something to think about. Then he isn't half so likely to chatter about a dozen different things, and he learns more, too." "I didn't intend to preach a sermon, Katie," the girl added, smilingly, "but I studied this out for myself when little brother began to find his tongue, and I'm sure I'm right. I asked questions when I was his age, and I still remember15the answers to many of them. Early impressions are lasting, you know, either to help or to hinder. I want Harry to recall me always as a sister who was honest with him and willing to help."—Youth's Companion.