Lesson:

1. Soon, Herbert was as much interested in castle-building as he had been a little while before. He began to sing over his work. All his trouble was gone.


2. 'This is a great deal better than crying, isn't it?' said papa.


3. 'Crying for what?' asked Herbert, forgetting his grief of a few minutes before.


4. 'Because kitty knocked your castle over.'


5. 'Oh!' A shadow flitted across his face, but was gone in a moment, and he went on building as eagerly as ever.


6. 'I told him not to cry over spilled milk,' said Joe, looking down from his place on the sofa.


7. 'I wonder if you didn't cry when your kite string broke,' retorted Herbert.


8. 'Losing a kite is quite another thing,' answered Joe, a little dashed. 'The kite was gone forever; but your blocks were as good as before, and you had only to build again.'


9. 'I don't see,' said papa, 'that crying was of any more use in your case then in Herbert's. Sticks and paper are easily found, and you had only to go to work and make another kite.' Joe looked down at his book, and went on reading. By this time the castle was finished.


10. 'It is ever so much nicer than the one kitty knocked down,' said Hetty. And so thought Herbert, as he looked at it proudly from all sides.


11. 'If kitty knocks that down, I'll-'


12. 'Build it up again,' said papa, finishing the sentence for his little boy.


13. 'But, papa, kitty must not knock my castles down. I can't have it,' spoke out Herbert, knitting his forehead.


14. 'You must watch her, then. Little boys, as well as grown up people, have to be often on their guard. If you go into the street, you have to look out for the carriages, so as not to be run over, and you have to keep out of people's way.


15. 'In the house, if you go about heedlessly, you will be very apt to run against someone. I have seen a careless child dash suddenly into a room just as a servant was leaving it with a tray of dishes in her hands. A crash followed.'


16. 'It was I, wasn't it?' said Hetty.


17. 'Yes, I believe it was, and I hope it will never happen again.'


18. Papa now left the room, saying, 'I don't want any more of this crying over spilled milk, as Joe says. If your castles get knocked down, build them up again.'