[145 words]
We need to be careful, children are excellent imitators, consider for a moment the following story:
A small girl watched with absorbing interest, everything which was happening at her mother’s card party. She observed how her mother dressed; how she dealt the cards; how the women drank cocktails, and how freely they puffed on their cigarettes.
The next day, the little girl gathered her friends in the neighborhood to play “party.” She dressed herself in some of her mother’s clothes. Slipping into her mother’s room, she got her mother’s cigarettes. Returning to her friends, she put a cigarette in her mouth and lit it. She accidentally ignited the over-sized dress she was wearing. Instantly, she became a human torch. A few hours later, her little charred body lay still in death. As she died, she gasped, “I did like Mother and it killed me.”
Mark T. Tonkery
Camden Avenue church of Christ
Parkersburg, WV