Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/213

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The Mantle of Charity
201

worthless unless it is accompanied by self-denial. Therefore, make the purse of good gifts one well-filled with acts of renunciation. It is not difficult to deny one's self a little pleasure that somebody else may be made happy, and I wish very much that some of my girls could know how, in the working world, there are girls to-day who are busy and happy all the time, and yet whose earnings go to help some one who is close to them, or to make a home for one of their own who needs it. How easy ought it to be, then, for you to deny yourself the box of sweets, the gay trip, or even another bright ribbon, that some one else may be made happy. You ask to whom shall you give. First of all to those of your own family who need. If this were done as it should be there would be very few poor in the world. Then you can extend your charity, and you will not have to go far to seek objects for it, as you will certainly find them, if you inquire, close at hand.

GIVE WHAT YOU CAN

If you do not have the luxuries of life, if you do not handle much money, you can still give and give lavishly, because you can give of your kind. The half-day spent in helping your pretty cousin to make her gown, the hour devoted to reading to some one whose eyes are not quite as strong