to vour children; it is time well invested. You can never get nearer to them than in these days when they are living so near to nature. Does all this sound too much like a sermon? Never mind, likely enough you are not hearing many sermons this month, for the preachers have all taken to the woods. In conclusion, then, conform your lives and open your hearts to content, and upon your heads will rest the benediction, "The peace of God which passeth all understanding."-Ellen Lee Wyman.

SING A SONG.

if you'll sing a song as you go along,
In the face of the real or the fancied wrong;
In spite of the doubt, if you'll fight it out,
And show a heart that is brave and stout;
If you'll laugh at the jeers and refuse the tears,
You'll force the ever-reluctant cheers—
That the world denics when a coward cries
To give to the man who bravely tries-
And you'll win success with a little song:
If you'll sing a song as you go along!

If you'll sing a song as you plod along,
You'll find that the busy, rushing throng
Will catch the strain of the glad refrain;
That the sun will follow the blinding rain;
That the clouds will fly from the blackened sky;
That the stars will come out by and by;

And you'll make new friends, till hope descends
From where the placid rainbow bends;

And all because of a little song:

If you'll sing the song as you plod along!

-Selected.

**

THE WHISTLING BOY.

Is there a sound in the world so sweet, on a dark and dreary morn, When the gloom without meets the gloom within, till we wish we'd

not been born,

As the sound of a little barefoot boy gaily whistling in the rain, While he drives the cows to pastures green, down the path in the

muddy lane?

The joy of a boy is a funny thing, not dampened by autumn rain; His clothes and his hands and his sturdy feet are not spoiled by grime or stain;

The world to him is a wonderful place that he means some day to explore

If there's time to play and plenty to eat, who cares if the heavens

pour?

Oh, that cheery trill of a heart as fresh as the drops that clear the air,

Brings a smile to our lips, and clears the soul of gloom that brood

ed there;

And we bless the boy as he spats along through rivers of rain and

mud,

For the hope and cheer in that whistled note would rainbow the sky in a flood.

-Celia S. Berkstesser, in Ladies' Home Journal.

THE FRAGRANCE OF A GENTLE LIFE.

Once in crossing a meadow I came to a spot that was filled with fragrance.

Yet I could see no flowers, and I wondered whence the fragrance came. At last I found, low down,close to the ground, hidden by the tall grass, innumerable little flowers. It was from these that the fragrance came.

I enter some homes. There is a rich perfume of love that pervades all the place. It may be a home of wealth and luxury, or it may be plain and bare. No matter; it is not the house, nor the furniture, nor the adornment that makes this air of sweetness. I look closely. It is a gentle woman, mother or daughter, quiet, hiding herself away, from whose life the fragrance flows.

The gentle

There is a wondrous charm in a gentle spirit. girl in a home may not be beautiful, may not be well educated, may not be musical or an artist or "clever" in any way, but wherever she moves she leaves a benediction. Her sweet patience is never disturbed by the sharp words that fall about her. The children love her because she never tires of them. She helps them with their lessons, listens to their frets and worries, mends their broken toys, makes dolls' dresses, straightens out the tangles and settles their little quarrels and finds time to play with them. When there is sickness in the home she is the angel of comfort. Her face is always bright with the outshining of love. Her voice has music in it as it falls in cheerful tenderness on the sufferer's ear,

Her

hands are wondrously gentle as their soothing touch rests on the aching head, as they minister in countless ways about the bed of pain.

"The lives that make the world so sweet

Are shy, and hide like the humble flowers.
We pass them by with our careless feet,
Nor dream 'tis their fragrance fills the bower
And cheers and comforts us hour by hour."
-Southern Churchman.

BOOKS FOR USE IN PRIMARY ASSOCIATIONS.

Primary Roll Book.....

Primary Report Blanks, per doz...

A Young Folks' History of the Church, by Nephi Anderson,

Cloth.
Paper.

Life Sketches by Aurelia S. Rogers..

...

$1.00

.25

.50

.25

.75

.10 1.50

Minutes of the First General Conference of the Primary As

sociations....

Life of Christ, by Canon Farrar, illustrated..
Pictures representing Life of Christ, per set...
History of the Church, published by the Church...

...

A Child's Life of Brigham Young, by Wm. A. Morton.. ..

.60 1.50

.20

music....

Song Stories, by Hill, words and music..

For sale at this office; address all orders and communications to Miss May Anderson, 204 Templeton Building, Salt Lake City,

Songs of the Child World, by Gaynor; words and music.... 1.00 Songs for Little Children, by Eleanor Smith, words and

.30

1.00

1.00

THE

CHILDREN'S FRIEND.

VOL. II.

ORGAN OF THE PRIMARY ASSOCIATIONS OF THE
CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
Edited and Published by the General Board:

LET TOMORROW TAKE CARE OF TOMORROW.

Let tomorrow take care of tomorrow;
Leave things of the future to fate;
What's the use to anticipate sorrow;

Life's troubles come never too late.

If to hope overmuch be an error,

'Tis one that the wise have preferred; And how often have hearts been in terror Of evils that never occurred.

Have faith, and thy faith shall sustain thee;
Permit not suspicion and care

With invisible bonds to enchain thee;
But bear what God gives thee to bear.
By His Spirit supported and gladdened,
Be ne'er by forebodings deterred

But think how oft hearts have been saddened
By fear of what never occurred.

Let tomorrow take care of tomorrow,
Short and dark as our life may appear,
may make it still darker by sorrow
Still shorter by folly and fear.

We

Half our troubles are half our inventions,
And how often from blessings conferred
Have we shrunk, in the wild apprehension
Of evils that never occurred.

-Selected.