Girls, Help Your Father.


"My hands are so stiff I can hardly hold

a pen!" said farmer Wilbur, as he sat down

to figure out some accounts that were getting

behindhand.

"Can I help you, father?" said Lucy, laying

down her bright crotchet-work. "I

shall be glad to do so, if you will explain

what you want."

"Well, I shouldn't wonder if you could,

Lucy," he said, reflecting. "Pretty good

at figures, are you?"

"It would seem sad if I didn't know

something of them, after going twice through

the arithmetic," said Lucy, laughing.

"Well, I can show you in five minutes

what I have to do, and it'll be a wonderful

help if you can do it for me. I never was a,

master-head at accounts in my best days,

and it does not grow any easier since I put

on spectacles."

Very patiently did the helpful daughter

plod through the long lines of figures, leaving

the gay worsted to idle all the evening,

though she was in haste to finish her scarf.

It was reward enough to see her tired father,

who had been toiling all day for herself

and the other dear ones, sitting so

cozily in his arm-chair, enjoying his weekly

paper.

The clock struck nine before her task was

over; but the hearty, "Thank you, daughter,

a thousand times," took away all sense

of weariness.

"It's rather looking up where a man can

have such an amanuensis," said the farmer.

"It's not every farmer that can afford it."

"Not every farmer's daughter that is capable

of making one," said the mother, with

a little pardonable maternal pride.

“Not every one that would be willing, if

able," said Mr. Wilbur, which last was a

sad truth. How many daughters might be

of use to their fathers in this and many other

ways, who never think of lightening a care

or labor. If asked to perform some little

service, it is done at the best with a reluctant

step and an unwilling air that robs it of

all sunshine or claim to gratitude.

Girls, help your father! Give him a

cheerful home to rest in when evening

comes, and do not worry his life away by

fretting because he cannot afford you all the

luxuries you covet. Children exert as great

an influence on their parents as parents do

on their children.




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