A Book Is Read by Its Title

"How we wish mothers would send us charming anecdotes like these, which so often happen to them with their children, so that we might publish them in The Woman's Voice with thanks."

Little Suzanne walked boldly and lightly across the room, her hat tucked under her arm, and put her hand in mine, saying:
Will you allow me to enter your school and sit beside you? Because I don't know very much.

Suzy passed by the hospital in which she was born, having reached the age of three. Her mother said:
— This is the house I bought you from, and I think I should have left you there and made room for someone else to buy you!
Suzy laughed aloud and answered calmly:
— If you had done that, and another lady had bought me, and you passed her wheeling me in my carriage out for a stroll, you would have stopped in amazement and said: What a beautiful little girl! If only I had one like her!

Little Lucy, five years old, had been trained never to ask for anything at people's houses on her visits. It happened once that her mother took her along to visit a friend before noon, and she spent most of her time in the garden. As lunchtime drew near she felt terribly hungry, and when she could no longer bear it she went and sat down beside the mistress of the house, and after studying her a long while she asked:
— Are you hungry, Madam?
— No, my dear, I am not hungry.

Lucy sighed from the depths and said:
— If only I were you!

My neighbor grew anxious one evening when the clock struck five and her small boy had not come back from school, and she asked me to go with her to search for him. Just as we were about to set out, in he came with his schoolbag, and his mother greeted him at once:
— Where have you been, my little one? Do you know what time it is?
— Yes, Mama, the child answered, looking at the clock hanging on the wall. I know I'm late, but I was busy.
— With what? asked the mother.
— First I watched a fight in front of me, then I had a fight of my own — and these are matters that take time, as you know...

One of the most delightful prayers I ever heard was that of a small boy who had entered a running race. He was far behind his companions, and his hope of winning was slim. Suddenly his lips began to move steadily, his legs quickened their pace, and in the end he won the race.

When he was asked what he had been murmuring to himself, he answered that he had been speaking to the Creator, repeating: "You lift them up, Lord, and I'll put them down. You lift them up and I'll put them down!..." — meaning his legs.

A mother cried out to her little daughter, scolding: "I shall not punish you this time, but I am going to exchange you for a well-behaved little girl."
The little one thought for a moment, then answered her mother, after a smile that showed her cleverness:
"You can't do that, Mother, for you will never find anyone who would exchange his good merchandise for poor!"

Lulu, five years old, was helping her mother roll up worn-out scraps to make a rug of them. Her mother asked her:
— Do you like helping your mother with her work?
She answered, rolling a long strip in her hand:
— If you love your work, it's play; and if you don't love it, it's work!

My brother was getting his little girl, two years old, ready for bed. When she refused to put on her pajamas, he asked her in astonishment:
— But what will you sleep in?
Quickly, and without hesitation, she answered him:
— In my body!

Hind was four years old, and she often spent her playtime acting the part of a visitor calling on her mother.
It happened once that their aunt from the suburbs visited them and stayed a week. On the morning after her departure, Hind came into her mother's room wearing her hat and carrying a bag and a doll, and greeted her mother with the words:
— I am Aunt Salma, and I have come to spend a week with you.
— You are most welcome. But I never knew you had a little girl. Indeed, I hadn't even heard you were married!
— Oh, I got married yesterday and gave birth the very same day — from which you can imagine for yourself the great hardship I have borne.