THE FORMING OF HABITS How are habits formed? When we repeat an act many times, we finally do it easily without thinking, and it becomes a habit. In time we find it difficult to do that thing in a different way, or to leave off doing it. Walking is a habit. So are sitting and standing in a certain way. There are two kinds of habits: good habits and bad habits. One's habits make up one's character. What are some of the good habits? (Cleanliness, politeness, obedience, cheerfulness, good will, self-control, industry, courage, generosity, honesty, respect.) Bad habits? (Swearing, gossiping, drinking, smoking, etc.) Have you ever watched a monkey imitate the actions of a person? Have you ever "caught" the habits of another person, as biting the nails, talking or laughing loudly, shuffling or dragging the feet, squinting? Good habits make gentlemen and ladies of us. They also make many friends for us. Habits make or ruin our lives. Therefore, too great stress cannot be laid on the early forming of good habits. 10 HABITS All habits gather by unseen degrees As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. HABIT -Dryden THERE was once a horse that used to pull around a sweep which lifted dirt from the depths of the earth. He was kept at the business for nearly twenty years, until he became old, blind and too stiff in the joints for further use. So he was turned into a pasture, or left to crop the grass without any one to disturb or bother him. But the funny thing about the old horse was that every morning after grazing awhile he would start on a tramp, going round and round in a circle, just as he had been accustomed to do for so many years. He would keep it up for hours, and people often stopped to look and wonder what had got into the head of the venerable animal to make him walk around in such a solemn way when there was no earthly need of it. But it was the force of habit. And the boy who forms bad or good habits in his youth will be led by them when he becomes old, and will be miserable or happy accordingly. -The Evangelist Sing: "Be Careful What You Sow," from American School Songs. Why sigh you for jewels? There's plenty, Read: "The Discontented Pine Tree," from Household Stories, by Klingensmith; "The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse," from Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories; "Cornelia's Jewels," from Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories Retold. 12 TRUE WORTH A great nation is made only by worthy citizens. ROOM AT THE TOP IT IS related of Mr. Webster that, when a young lawyer suggested to him that the profession to which he had devoted himself was overcrowded, the great man replied, "Young man, there is always room enough at the top." Never was a wiser or more suggestive word said. There undoubtedly is always room enough where excellency lives. -Josiah G. Holland Read: "He Aimed High and Hit the Mark" and "There is Room Enough at the Top," from Marden's Stories from Life. Sing: "Learn a Little Every Day," from Merry Melodies. Birthdays: Richard J. Gatling, the inventor of the Gatling gun, which is used in the United States army, born in Hertford Co., N. C., September 12, 1818; died in New York City, February 26, 1903. Charles Dudley Warner, an American writer, born in Plainfield, Mass., September 12, 1829; died October 20, 1900. 13 SEPTEMBER DAYS September days are here, With summer's best of weather -Helen Hunt Jackson Sing: "September Days," from Hanson's Gems of Song. ONE day Mary and her mother crossed the little stream that came from the pond. The stones and sand were white and smooth. "May I play in the water, Mother?" asked Mary. "Yes, if you turn your dress up so that it will not get wet,' said her mother. By and by there was a noise like thunder. It seemed to come from the pond. "Quick, Mary, come here," cried her mother. Mary did not stop to ask why. She ran to the place where her mother stood. Then she looked back. The stream was pouring over the rocks. The great water-gate by the dam was open. If Mary had waited she would have been carried down the stream into the river. There is not always time to ask why. -N. Y. Teachers' Monographs Read: "Raggylug," as adapted from Ernest Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known, in How to Tell Stories to Children, by Sara Cone Bryant; Bible, Prov. 4:1-5. Sing: "Duty and Inclination," from Uncle Sam's School Songs. Birthday: Charles Dana Gibson, an American artist, born in Roxbury, Mass., September 14, 1867; lives in New York City. If you are about to strive for your life, take with you a stout heart and a clean conscience, and trust the rest to God.-From "The Pilot," by J. Fenimore Cooper. COOPER'S LITERARY LIFE COOPER's literary life is said to have begun in rather a curious way. One evening while reading an English novel to his wife, he declared that he could write a better one himself. To prove it he wrote Precaution, which was published anonymously in 1819. The book attracted very little attention and is said to have been disowned by its author. However, this did not discourage Cooper. In fact it set him to work harder than ever to prove his contention, and in 1821, The Spy, a novel founded on incidents of the American Revolution, was published and became popular at once. This was followed by thirty-eight other books, nearly all of which are widely read and liked. Read: Selections from Cooper's works, as The Deerslayer, The Spy, The Pilot, The Last of the Mohicans, etc. Sing: "The Secret of Success," from Uncle Sam's School Songs. Birthdays: James Fenimore Cooper, a noted American novelist, born at Burlington, N. J., September 15, 1789; died at Cooperstown, N. Y., September 14, 1851. William Howard Taft, twenty-seventh President of the United States, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 15, 1857. 16 WORK Let us, then, be up and doing, Birthdays: Anne Bradstreet, author of the first book of poetry written in America, born in Northampton, England, about 1612; died at Andover, Mass., September 16, 1672. Francis Parkman, an American writer of history, born in Boston, Mass., September 16, 1823; died at Jamaica Plain, near Boston, November 8, 1893. Hamlin Garland, an American author, born at West Salem, Wis., Sept. 16, 1861; lives in Chicago. 17 GRATITUDE I thank Thee, Lord, for quiet rest, Oh, let me through this day be blest, |