ARE you tired of toasting, Annie, or is that book so interesting you cannot help reading a few pages? It is well that she has laid aside the fork, for if she attempted to read and toast at the same time, I am afraid the bread would soon be burnt.
I hope it is a good book that Annie has, for sometimes I see boys and girls with books that are certainly not worth the reading. I remember an old man once saying that learning was like a sharp sword—if you use it in a right way by holding the handle, it will prove a powerful weapon of defense, but if you take the blade in your hand it will cut you severely.
In like way education is of great value in enabling us to read and study all good books, and especially God's book — the Bible. But if we avoid these, and only choose bad ones to read, how sad it will prove in our life and ways. That would be like holding the sword by the blade, as the old man said, and I think he was quite right.
I trust my young readers will ever remember the words of Jesus, "Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."