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Page 47
A GARDEN OVERRUN WITH WEEDS.
"Father, I don't like to go to school," said Harry Williams, one
morning. "I wish you would let me always stay at home. Charles Parker's
father don't make him go to school."
Mr Williams took his little boy by the hand, and said kindly to him, "Come,
my son, I want to show you something in the garden."
Harry walked into the garden with his father, who led him along until they
came to a bed in which peas were growing, the vines supported by thin
branches that had been placed in the ground. Not a weed was to be seen
about their roots, nor even disfiguring the walk around the bed in which
they had been planted.
"See how beautifully these peas are growing, my son," said Mr Williams.
"How clean and healthy the vines look. We shall have an abundant crop. Now
let me show you the vines in Mr Parker's garden. We can look at them
through a great hole in his fence."
Mr Williams then led Harry through the garden gate and across the road, to
look at Mr Parker's pea vines through the hole in the fence. The bed in
which they were growing was near to the road; so they had no difficulty in
seeing it. After looking into the garden for a few moments, Mr Williams
said--
"Well, my son, what do you think of Mr Parker's pea vines?"
"Oh, father!" replied the little boy; "I never saw such poor looking peas
in my life! There are no sticks for them to run upon, and the weeds are
nearly as high as the peas themselves. There won't be half a crop!"
"Why are they so much worse than ours, Harry?"
"Because they have been left to grow as they pleased. I suppose Mr Parker
just planted them, and never took any care of them afterward. He has
neither taken out the weeds, nor helped them to grow right."
"Yes, that is just the truth, my son. A garden will soon be overrun with
weeds and briars, if it is not cultivated with the greatest care. And just
so it is with the human garden. This precious garden must be trained and
watered, and kept free from weeds, or it will run to waste. Children's
minds are like garden beds; and they must be as carefully tended, and even
more carefully, than the choicest plants. If you, my son, were never to go
to school, nor have good seeds of knowledge planted in your mind, it would,
when you become a man, resemble the weed-covered, neglected bed we have
just been looking at, instead of the beautiful one in my garden. Would you
think me right to neglect my garden as Mr Parker neglects his?"
"Oh, no, father; your garden is a good garden, but Mr Parker's is all
overrun with weeds and briars. It won't yield half as much as yours will."
"Or, my son, do you think I would be right if I neglected my son as Mr
Parker neglects his son, allowing him to run wild, and his mind,
uncultivated, to become overgrown with weeds?"
Little Harry made no reply; but he understood pretty clearly what his
father meant.
"I send you to school," Mr Williams continued, "in order that the garden
of your mind may have good seeds sown in it, and that these seeds may
spring up and grow, and produce plentifully. Now which would you prefer, to
stay at home from school, and so let the garden of your mind be overrun
with weeds, or go to school, and have this garden cultivated?"
"I would rather go to school," said Harry. "But, father, is Charles
Parker's mind overrun with weeds?"
"I am afraid that it is. If not, it certainly will be, if his father does
not send him to school. For a little boy not to be sent to school, is a
great misfortune, and I hope you will think the privilege of going to
school a very great one indeed."
Harry Williams listened to all his father said, and, what was better,
thought about it, too. He never again asked to stay home from school.
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