A MOTHER'S INFLUENCE.





"THERE come the children from school," said Aunt Mary, looking from
the window. "Just see that Clarence! he'll have Henry in the gutter.
I never saw just such another boy; why can't he come quietly along
like other children? There! now he must stop to throw stones at the
pigs. That boy'll give you the heart-ache yet, Anna."

Mrs. Hartley made no reply, but laid aside her work quietly and left
the room to see that their dinner was ready. In a few minutes the
street-door was thrown open, and the children came bounding in full
of life, and noisy as they could be.

"Where is your coat, Clarence?" she asked, in a pleasant tone,
looking her oldest boy in the face.

"Oh, I forgot!" he replied, cheerfully; and turning quickly, he ran
down stairs, and lifting his coat from where, in his
thoughtlessness, he had thrown it upon the floor, hung it up in its
proper place, and then sprang up the stairs.