  Elsie Hayden would have been a charming little maiden but for her besetting fault—talebearing. She was always running in to tell her mother or governess the faults of the others. All day long it was, "Mamma, Rex took some currants," "Mamma, Minnie blotted her copy this morning," "Mamma, the boys have been quarrelling," or some other complaint concerning her companions. Before long Elsie was to go to school, and her mother knew what troubles lay before her if she persisted in looking out for motes in the eyes of others, and forgetting all about the beams in her own. She got Elsie to work a text in silks, "Speak not evil one of another," and she told the child that if we feel it is our duty to complain of somebody else, we should be very careful to speak only the truth, and in love. One day Elsie came to her mother in great distress. "Mamma," she sobbed, "they won't play with me; the others have all sent me to Coventry. They whisper 'tell-tale-tit' when I go near them; please make them play with me, mamma. It is so horrid to be left all alone." "But Elsie," said Mrs. Hayden, "you have brought this trouble on yourself. When you play with the others you seem always on the lookout to find fault with them; how can you suppose they will enjoy a game with a little tale-bearer? Miss Clifford and nurse and I have kept an account of the tales you have carried to us, complaining of the others, and our lists added together make 352 complaints in one week!" "Oh, mamma—I haven't been a tale-bearer 352 times in a week!" "It is so indeed, my poor little Elsie. I am sadly afraid you will grow up a scandal-monger, one of those people who go from house to house spreading tales and making mischief. You must try hard, my darling, to cure this fault; remember your own failings, and let the faults of your playmates alone. Poor little Minnie came crying this morning to confess to me she had called you by an unkind name which I had forbidden; but she found you already complaining about her, and trying to get her punished. It was not kind or sisterly, Elsie! Let love rule that little tongue, and be silent when those impatient complaints come into your mind." "I will try, mamma—I will indeed. Will you keep another list for next week, and see if I am any better?" Mrs. Hayden promised to do so, and the result showed that Elsie had been a tale-bearer ten times only during the week. The child tried very hard to cure herself of fault-finding, and she was soon "out of Coventry," and as time went on nobody on seeing her sang the rhyme about "tell-tale-tit."
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