[Illustration: "_What I can't tell mother, is not fit
for me to know_."]

TELLING MOTHER

* * * * *

A group of young girls stood about the door of the schoolroom one
afternoon, whispering together, when a little girl joined them, and
asked what they were doing.

"I am telling the girls a secret, Kate, and we will let you know, if you
will promise not to tell any one as long as you live," was the reply.

"I won't tell any one but my mother," replied Kate. "I tell her
everything, for she is my best friend."

"No, not even your mother, no one in the world."

"Well, then I can't hear it; for what I can't tell mother, is not fit
for me to know."

After speaking these words, Kate walked away slowly, and perhaps sadly,
yet with a quiet conscience, while her companions went on with their
secret conversation.