Mother told me this story one day.
My relative was an old man. He had had a stroke and was confined to bed. I went to see him hoping to cheer him up a little.
He already had company: his niece and her daughter and his wife’s niece and her daughter. The wife was not the most diplomatic person in the world. I figured that out all by myself when I heard her ask her husband this question: did you ever see such a pretty little girl?
It was obvious that she meant her little relative.
I thought we almost needed Solomon for that one. The old man looked from one little blonde girl to the other little blonde girl a time or two, then replied, “They’re both as pretty as pictures. I can’t see a nickel’s worth of difference.”
I think that answer cheered us all up.
Mom told another story about not hurting feelings of others.
Part of the fun of going trick or treating is having people guess who you are. I learned the hard way never to guess a child with my first guess. I’d been asked to judge a rather large group of children and I was told the last three to be identified would be prizewinners.
Since only a few minutes were allowed for this, I thought I should just as rapidly as possible. One girl was well-masked, but I knew as soon as I looked at her exceptionally beautiful eyes, it had to be Susie.
She looked so crestfallen that I never again identified anyone on the first guess.
Last year, three little neighbor kids rang the doorbell. I invited him in and began guessing. They could hardly suppress their giggles. I really didn’t know the girl who had driven the car, but I thought there would be plenty of time later to decide who she was. The little ones and I were only on the second or third round of guesses when their driver said, “They are your neighbor children and I’m their cousin.” Then she told their names. What a spoilsport!
The moral to that is: Don’t let your cousin take you Halloweening.