OCR Text |
Show AN EDITORIAL BY i FLORENCE DAVIES , V LAYING THE CORNERSTONE Anna Catherine always teemed to have mixed "her roles. , No one ever quite knew wh ther She had originally been cast as a fairy or an irkp. She was four, going on me. and her deviate dev-iate body unu inilK Wttite Man, u!i bespoke be-spoke tiie fuir-liower ch.ld. But something some-thing about her red curls and the laugnlng naughtiness ot ner eyes toid you piamiy tnat there were reserves of Impiahnesa witiiii her that pucii himseii intut; have endowed iter with n Iwn s.h. , hurl 1110 tiii, ii"Ii Id.. biue. oat oi Use n.-. iiere iuto tfte iiere." us the poets ai wont to a about such s.nail creatures. But on this partu-ular occasion, afi -had fallen uOJl harJ vays. Her pb'-osophy pb'-osophy of life was in the difficult pfU-IceSfl pfU-IceSfl of being Porn. She was not to have any candy al all. not one slngie pit . i tor a month. Now a month to Anna Catherine was as good as a thousand years and the ways of the world seemed darlt and inscrutable. But her mother stood tlrm. "It Is going to be easier now than later." the ta;d calmly, "for 1 want her to learn to have something within reach and be strong enough not to touch It. It's the beginning and end of chaiac-tet chaiac-tet the Open candy box." For weeks and weeksAnna Catherine's Cather-ine's mother hod been trying It, tugging tug-ging away to act that cornerstone of ! character in place, the beginning ct sell control. ncic ij a .ecc ui c.iituj iui joo, Anna Catherine' she had aia, ' but it is to eat aiur dinner, and I want you to put it In the and;, box on the table until after uioner and then you nRiy have it." But oer und over again, the battle with temptation had beeu loo hard. Tho canuv had beckoned beck-oned and called and the Imp had gotten got-ten the b.-tler ol the fairy and siyly stolen the prize when mother wasn t looking. ! And so tho fi;,lit hid begun In earnest, ear-nest, the fight uiai would teach this lovable sprite to inasU r herseii tQ look at the 0PCU cauuy bo. a.ld Say "no." "I could put the candy on the top shelf, where she couldn't reach It, or hide it back of the fruit bowl, where sho couldn't see it. but that Isn't the point." her mother explained. It Is only the very few. the abnormal abnor-mal and the criminal, who try to grab things off the tup shelf anil pry open locks and dynamite banks lo get what thev want. Most Of us don't do any Of those things, and the tact that We den't do them doesn't spell character li Is the ability to say "No" when all we have to do is to reach out on: hands, that 's hard. That la the beginning be-ginning 01 personal Integrity, und personal per-sonal Intergity Is the most preuou.; thing In the world. And s patiently, gently, with many trials and explanations, Anna t'uther-Ine t'uther-Ine IS learning to look tbroXlgh this I r i door and not walk through, tc see the forbidden unit and no! touch it, to say "no" Instead l "yes." to be master of Anna Catherine. It's a slow, hard lesson when one la half fairy and half Imp', but In the long days ahead, it will make smooth manv s rough place the road, ami help her up many a hard hill and save her many a hard fall and bitter hurt. |