DANGER
SIGNALS
Our
Little Friend- May 19:1916.
WHEN
I was a very small girl, I lived with my grandfather in the city. Every
summer, I looked forward to going home to see my mother, and the dear little
brothers and sisters, who lived on a large farm.
One
day in early summer, my mother came for me, to take me to the farm, where I
was to spend four happy weeks. It was a long, long way; so I amused myself, as
we rode along in the carriage, by reading the signs I saw beside the road. I
was just learning to read, so it was great fun to pick out the longest words I
saw, and try to read them. But I did not know them all; and when I came to a
large sign by the side of a railroad track, my mother helped me read the
words, "Danger-Look-out for the train-cars."
"Has
my little girl never learned to know the danger signals?" my mother
asked, when we had safely crossed the track. "You will always find one of
these signs at every railroad crossing. They are placed there to tell us that
a crossing is a dangerous place; and we must see if any trains are coming,
before we try to cross."
And
then it was that she told me something I shall never, never forget. She said
there were many kinds of danger signals in the world, and she wanted me to
know them; for some of them were so very small, and looked so harmless, that I
might not be able to find them all alone.
"One
of these danger signals," she said, "is using bad language; and
whenever you are with anyone who uses bad words, that is a signal for you to
hurry away as fast as you can."
She
said that "Bad Manners" and "Keeping Bad Company" were
other, danger signals. Bad manners always go with bad company; and when we are
not careful about our manners, we are really putting out a danger signal that
will make people afraid to be with us.
The
dull, sleepy feeling that we sometimes have after eating, is a signal that we
have eaten too much. It is a signal we should watch closely; for if we do not
learn to control our appetites while we are children, we will riot be able to
resist bigger temptations when we are older.
Telling
untruths is still another signal we should be sure to see; and boys (&
girls) especially must watch the signal that says "Smoking." It is a
danger they should always avoid, or when they get to be bigger, they will
not be able to run when they see the signals "Drinking,"
"Swearing," and "Stealing.""
"But
we are almost home," said mother, "and I cannot talk to you longer.
To-night however, I will tell you how even the animals teach their little ones
the danger signals'"
That
night, when story time came, and I, with the other children, was sitting by
the side of my mother, she told us this story:
"In
some parts of the world, there lives an animal something like a reindeer. It
is called a caribou. I have read that one day a man was walking through the
woods, when, from the top of a little hill, he saw a mother caribou and her
calf feeding in the valley below him. He quickly hid behind a stump; but the
wind was blowing in the direction of the caribou, and already she had caught
his scent.
"At
once she thought of her little calf, and the danger it might be in. Here was a
danger signal, and she must teach her little one to avoid the danger. So she
brought her baby up the hill some distance toward the man, and made it smell
the ground where the man had walked. Then, to teach it that whenever it got
this scent again, it must run for its life, she got behind the calf, and
butted it down the valley as fast as it could go.
"That
is why I am telling you to-night about the danger signals. I want my boys and
girls to learn to watch for them, and when they see them, to run quickly away
from them. In this way, you will grow up to be strong and clean and
pure."
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