careful about what you write. The Chinese say of
a spoken word, that once let fall, it cannot be brought back by a
chariot and six horses. Much more is this true of written words, and
once out of your possession, there is no telling where they will go, or
who will see them.

The best time to write in a journal is in the evening. Keep the book in
your table-drawer, or on your desk, and, after supper, when the lamps
are lighted, sit down and write your plain account of the day. Don't try
to write an able and eloquent article, but simply give a statement of
what you have seen or done during the day. For the first week or two
after beginning a journal, the novelty of the thing will keep up your
interest, and you will be anxious for the time to come when you can
write your journal. But, after a while, it becomes tedious. Then is the
time when you must persevere. Write something every day, and before long
you will find that you are becoming so accustomed to it, that you would
not willingly forego it. After that, the way is plain, and the longer
you live the more valuable and indispensable your journal will become.

But some practical young person asks: What is the good of a journal?
There is very much. In the first place, it teaches habits of order and
regularity. The boy or girl who every evening arranges the proceedings
of the day in systematic order, and regularly writes them out, is not
likely to be careless in other matters. It helps the memory. A person
who keeps a journal naturally tries during the day to remember things he
sees, until he can write them down. Then the act of writing helps to
still further fix the facts in his memory. The journal is a first-class
teacher of penmanship. All boys and girls should take pride in having
the pages of their journals as neat and handsome as possible. Compare
one day's writing with that of the one before, and try to improve every
day. Keeping a journal cultivates habits of observation, correct and
concise expression, and gives capital practice in composition, spelling,
punctuation, and all the little things which go to make up a good
letter-writer. So, one who keeps a journal is all the while learning to
be a better penman, and a better composer, with the advantage of writing
original, historical, and descriptive articles, instead of copying the
printed letters and sentences of a writing-book.

But, best of all, a well-kept journal furnishes a continuous and
complete family h