254 POLITENESS. 



MRS. F. 



The evil consequences of untidiness on the one side, and 

 of procrastination on the other. You, Henrietta, should not 

 have left your bonnet about; and you, Frederick, having 

 promised to put it away, should have done so immediately. 

 Few habits are productive of greater inconvenience than that 

 of putting off what we have to do. In the first place, it 

 often, when deferred, entirely escapes our memory; and even 

 should it not, I think that the act ceases to be one of real 

 kindness, if we consult our own convenience in the time of 

 performing it. 



FREDERICK. 



I do not quite understand that, aunt. 



MRS. F. 



Politeness has been justly designated to be " refined good 

 nature." It does not consist in mere acts of form and cere- 

 mony, but in a total absence of all selfish feeling, and a con- 

 sequent desire to please and oblige others, whatever the per- 

 sonal sacrifice may be. I therefore consider selfishness and 

 real politeness to be incompatible, for my idea of politeness 

 takes a wider range than that which is usually conveyed by 

 the ordinary acceptation of the word: but here is Mary, with 

 Henrietta's bonnet; so we are now ready. I propose taking 

 a walk to the farm, and we will go through the wood, as it 

 will be less dusty than by the road. 



HENRIETTA. 



Pray stop, aunt, and look at the pretty brooms which this 

 little girl has brought to sell; she calls them silk weed. 



MRS. F. 



They are made of Polytrichum commune, which grows 

 abundantly on the heaths about here. It is the largest species 

 of moss known, excepting an exotic kind (Timmia longiseta). 

 In this country, the silk-weed seldom exceeds a span in length, 

 but in Alsace, we are told that it will sometimes attain the 



