m very glad that my dear Clara has
reflected so much upon the text. In itself, there is not much harm in
taking a walk with William Johnson and George Field, and yet it is not
proper for you to do so, without the knowledge and consent of your
parents. William and George are not bad boys, and perhaps would be
called by people generally, good ones; still, I have remarked a certain
levity in their manner, which if only occasional, might be called good
humor, but which, recurring as it does at all times and on all
occasions, the Sabbath not excepted, makes me fear that their training
at home is not what I should desire to have it. For this reason, Mary, I
am not willing that Clara should be often in their company, nor do I
think your mother would differ from me, should you ask her."

"I wonder," said Mary, "how Clara came to think of this slight
circumstance of a walk, in connection with the commandment, 'Honor thy
father and thy mother.'"

"I thought she had sufficiently explained that, herself," replied Mrs.
Spaulding. "I wish both of you, and not only you, but all young persons,
would think a good deal more on this subject. I remember when I was of
your age, that many things occurred which I omitted to mention to my
mother, but which it would have been much better for me, if I had told
her. Sometimes these concerned my bodily health, and I am sure that if I
had informed her of them at the time, I should now have a much better
constitution than I possess. At other times, I neglected to ask her
advice about what I thought were small matters; but the result proved
that I should have been saved much trouble had I consulted her."

"In fact," continued Mrs. S., "the command to honor thy father and thy
mother, is far more comprehensive, and exacts many more duties, than the
young, and, I am sorry to say, the old too, are willing to recognize.
The young are too apt to think, when they get into their teens, that
there are a great many things about which there is no need of asking
their parents' advice and counsel; that they know, _then, about_ as well
as their parents what they ought to do; and, by the time they get to be
eighteen or nineteen years of age, _a good deal better_. But, my dear
children, it is not so. And the young who reason and act thus, will soon
cease to honor their father and mother. No! The Almighty Father, in
giving this as one of the ten commandments to the children of Israel,
knew the vanity of our nature.