CHAPTER XXV.

PUNCTUALITY.

PUNCTUALITY NECESSARY TO ORDER

WANT OF PUNCTUALITY A GENERAL EVIL-WOMAN WHO LOST HER PLACE THROUGH TARDINESS THE LOWELL MOTHER VISITING BOSTON-ONE MINUTE TOO LATE FEMALES LESS PUNCTUAL THAN MALES - THE TARDY SCHOOL GIRL RISING EARLY - WRITING LETTERS — TWELVE O'CLOCK PRECISELY — RULES OF GENTILITY UNFAVORABLE TO PUNCTUALITY - THE COUNTESS OF BURFORD -- MARY LYON EVER PUNCTUAL REMARKS OF DR. HITCHCOCK - NOT PUT OFF TILL TO-MORROW WHAT CAN BE DONE TO-DAY- AMUSING DREAM - HER COUNSEL TO PUPILS ABOUT PUNCTUALITY -NAPOLEON AND THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

No person can be systematic without being punctual. This is absolutely necessary to the best improvement of time. Many cannot observe much order in their affairs simply because they are usually behind time in performing their tasks. If one piece of work is not done at the time, it interferes with the next duty, and finally all their affairs are in confusion.

It is astonishing to what extent the want of punctuality prevails. Both sexes are very censurable on this point. A truly punctual man or woman is so rare, that everybody knows such a

one for this trait. He or she is an exception to the mass of people around. Society has to guard itself more or less against this evil; and many institutions are compelled to form and enforce rigid regulations relating thereto. Banks, for instance, require the payment of notes promptly, under the direction of civil laws with heavy penalties. Were it left with borrowers to consult their own feelings or convenience about paying notes at the precise time, it would be impossible for banks to continue business, on account of the general habit of procrastination. It is so with taxes. It has been found necessary to enact stringent laws to compel men to be prompt in paying their taxbills. Within a week we have been told of a town where several thousand dollars of last year's taxes remain unpaid, on account of the negligence of the officers in executing the laws. Multitudes of people will not be punctual unless they are driven to it; and the evils entailed upon society by the delinquency are numerous.

A few years since, a woman failed to renew the policy of insurance upon her buildings. Her husband was living, but his mind was so much impaired that the transaction of all business devolved upon herself. She was not ready to renew the policy on the day it expired; other duties demanded her attention, so that she postponed it to the first

convenient day. Within twenty-four hours after the policy expired, her buildings took fire, and were damaged to the amount of fifteen hundred dollars.

Dr. Alcott tells us of a female who went from Boston to Lowell one day on a visit. "She left her young child at home, designing to return by the cars in the afternoon. Owing to her tardy habits, the hour for the last train of cars to Boston had nearly arrived before she was aware of it. She hurried on her things, and hastened to the cars, but was just one minute too late. There she was, thirty miles from her home, and there would be no other public conveyance until the following day. She thought of her infant, who was probably half starved by that time, and of her husband, who would wonder what had become of his wife. There was no time to lose. She had lost enough already. With the aid of her friends, a carriage was made ready to convey her home on that night. Her husband, also, started from Boston, about the same time, to go to Lowell after her. He met her when he had performed about half the journey, to the no small satisfaction of both. All this trouble, anxiety, and expense, were occasioned by being one minute too late."

One minute behind the time! This is the reason why a great many people never succeed in

life. In consequence of their tardiness, they lose a few minutes in the morning, and then vainly run after them all day long. At sun-down they have not overtaken them, and they never will.

We believe that punctuality is more rare among females than males. They are not subjected to the discipline of laws and regulations which business requires, and therefore they more readily yield to the inclination to put off till to-morrow what they might as well do to-day. We once knew a school-girl who was in the habit of coming into school any time during the first hour of its session. One day she would be at the school a half-hour before the time, perhaps on the fol lowing day a half-hour after. This habit characterized her in other matters. She was equally inconstant and unreliable in her studies. As a scholar she never accomplished much.

This want of punctuality is observable in a great many things which women do. A girl thinks she will rise in the morning at five o'clock. Perhaps that is her stated hour for rising, and she so informs other people. But five o'clock comes, and she concludes to gratify her inclination, and rest a little longer. This is done morning after morning, so that she seldom rises at the time assigned. In fact, she actually rises at no particular hour, although she still maintains that five o'clock is her time.

Another girl does not like to write letters. Her correspondents may be many, but their epistles lie upon her table unanswered, day after day. "There! I must not fail to reply to those letters to-morrow," she says; but the morrow's sun sets upon her procrastination. In this way the duty is postponed for a long time, and when her replies are really penned, they are full of apologies, in which there is usually very little truth.

We have known housewives to make twelve o'clock "precisely" the hour for dining, but never to have dinner ready at the time. Sometimes it would be a quarter past twelve, sometimes halfpast, and sometimes one o'clock, before it was prepared. A great many housekeepers have no particular time for breakfast. Any time from six to eight o'clock will do. If they only have it in the morning, it is enough "for all practical purposes." It is a capital device to cause every member of the family to form loose habits in this particular.

Perhaps the rules of gentility in social life may be unfavorable to the habit of punctuality. We have thought so, often. Early hours are not consistent with some rules of fashion and etiquette. A young lady must not visit too early in the afternoon or evening, for it is not custom. It is absolutely necessary that she should go late, if she would not be accounted unfashionable. If she goes