se_ it in so many ways, that it continues
to afford her pleasure for a long time. She can dress and undress it, put
it to bed, make it sit up for company, and do a great many other things
with it. When she gets tired of playing with it one day, she puts it away,
and the next day she thinks of something new to do with it, which she
never thought of before. Now, which should you think the pleasure you
should obtain from a ball, would arise from, its _novelty_, or its _use_?"

"Its _use_," said the boys.

"Yes," said the mother. "The first sight of a ball would not give you any
very special pleasure. Its value would consist in the pleasure you would
take in playing with it.

"Now, it is generally best to buy such playthings as you can use a great
many times, and in a great many ways; such as a top, a ball, a knife, a
wheelbarrow. But things that please you only by their _novelty_, will soon
lose all their power to give you pleasure, and be good for nothing to you.
Such, for instance, as jumping men, and witches, and funny little images.
Children are very often deceived in buying their playthings; for those
things which please by their novelty only, usually please them very much
for a few minutes, while they are in the shop, and see them for the first
time; while those things which would last a long time, do not give them
much pleasure at first.

"There is another kind of playthings I want to tell you about a little,
and then my lecture will be done. I mean playthings which give _you_
pleasure, but give _other persons_ pain. A drum and a whistle, for
example, are disagreeable to other persons; and children, therefore, ought
not to choose them, unless they have a place to go to, to play with them,
which will be out of hearing. I have known boys to buy masks to frighten
other children with, and bows and arrows, which sometimes are the means of
putting out children's eyes. So you must consider, when you are choosing
playthings, first, whether the pleasure they will give you will be from
the _novelty_ or the _use_; and, secondly, whether, in giving _you_
pleasure, they will give _any other persons_ pain.

"This is the end of the lecture. Now you may rest a little, and look
about, and then I will tell you a short story."

The Young Drivers.

They came, about this time, to the foot of a long hill, and Jonas said he
believed that he would get out and walk up, and he said James might drive
the horse. So he put the re