How to make Children false.
"My mother don't like you; you are a naughty woman," said little Nellie Brown to a caller—Mrs. Frazier. "Nellie!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, blushing to the reddest red, "go right out of this room in a minute." "Didn't you say you didn't like her?" continued Nellie, now exceedingly perplexed to know what her mother's mortification and anger could mean. "I say, Nellie, leave the room in a minute. You are a naughty girl to talk so; what has possessed you to tell such stories?" And with a thrust, she put her into the kitchen, and shut the door. So poor little Nellie went to sobbing and crying, just because she had told the truth, in her simple way. The fact was she heard her mother express herself decidedly adverse to Mrs. Frazier. Her language was not mealy-mouthed nor indefinite, concerning this near neighbor, so that even a little child like Nellie could understand the meaning thereof. It was spoken only, as if the child were at perfect liberty to hear, and no charge given to the artless girl not to "tell tales out of school." Was it strange that Nellie should thus repeat what had dropped from her mother's lips? Especially when she never learned that the "truth is not to be told at all times." She had been taught to tell the truth, and to avoid falsehood. She did not dream that she was doing wrong in giving circulation to her good mother's expressed opinion. And now consider what conflicting thoughts and sentiments must pervade Nellie's bosom, as she is thrust into the kitchen for saying just what her mother had said before. "What have I done?" she must have asked. "Something naughty, certainly, or I should not have been treated so; but what?" And thus her troubled mind is in doubt and perplexity as to her offence. "Mother says I musn't tell a lie," she continues, "and I didn't. O, dear, what does it all mean?" There is no fancy in the foregoing. Many a parent has been put into such a mortifying position by the glib tongue of a child. Children generally understand that it is right to speak the truth, although they may not comprehend that it is not to be spoken in all circumstances. Hence Nellie's intentions were good and so far praiseworthy. Instead of being summarily punished for the well-meant act there is a view to take of it that demands explanation. As it was, a shock was inflicted upon her moral sensibilities, and possibly a permanent injury was done to her moral character. But we have cited the above for the purpose of referring to a social evil. The manners and customs of society do not tolerate to a person's face what is said to his back. It would be rude and uncivil in Mrs. Brown to tell Mrs. Frazier to her face that she was not a lovable woman. No! that would never do. She might say it at the fireside, and utter it to a neighbor, but it would be impolite to say so to Mrs. Frazier. We are not condemning this social law now, we rather think it is a good one. It wouldn't do to say to the face of people all that is said to their backs. We should have war all the time. Peace would be out of the question. But, then, it is worth while to inquire whether it is well to say anything to people's backs that this social law will not permit us to say to their faces? Here is the point, after all. Did not Nellie's mother perpetrate a greater wrong by criticising Mrs. Frazier than Nellie did by telling her of it? Then, which ought to have been thrust into the kitchen? Custom may make it polite for one woman to tell another that she is glad to see her when she is not, to invite her to call again, when she hopes she never will, and sundry things, but there is no law of God to demand this course of action. Heaven has not a smile for such false-hearted ways. Veracity that is tried and true, is all that is current at the court of heaven. And this, too, for the sake of the children! For may not these social customs, that sanction one thing to a person's back and another to his face, educate children in duplicity and falsehood? Does not the course of Mrs. Brown tend to make her Nellie false-hearted? It is just here that the great evil of such manners and customs is seen. There is no telling how much influence is exerted in this way to make the young, dissemblers and hypocrites. Whatever there is of falsehood and treachery in the characters of men and women in social life, one great cause of it is to be found in customs that make it rude and impolite to say to a person's face what is freely spoken at their backs. It is a subject worthy of the thought and study of parents.—Congregationalist.