A Small Story with a Moral
In the life of Madame Swetchine we read the following account of the amusements of a clever child…
” The occupation of a courtier did not prevent Monsieur Soymonof from bestowing the most assiduous care on
the education of a daughter, who for six years was his only child. He was struck by the progress of her young
intellect. She showed an aptitude for languages, music, and drawing, while she developed firmness of character,
— a rare quality in a child.
She desired a watch with an ardour which transpired in all her movements, and her father had promised her
one. The watch came and was worn with the keenest enjoyment ; but suddenly a new thought seized upon the
little Sophia. She reflected that there was something better than a watch. To relinquish it of her own accord,
she hurried to her father and restored to him the object of her passionate desires, acknowledging the motive. Her
father looked at her, took the watch, shut it up in a bureau drawer, and said no more about it.”
~The Art of Entertaining
