Pride goes before a fall

Mary Lee seemed to have everything. She was very beautiful with a neat trim figure and an attractive face. She was very rich. Her clothes were better than anyone else’s and she had more of them. Her books were always new and expensive as were her pens, school bags, and bicycle. She was very clever too and without appearing to do very much work, she was always first in all the examinations and always answered all the questions, while the rest of the class were still thinking.

With all this, or really because of all this, no one liked Mary Lee. She was too good, too clever and she was also very proud. No one was quite good enough to talk to her or to be seen with her or to be her friend. And so, with all her proud ways and riches and brains, she was lonely but she did not care because she was always best in everything.

As the end of term drew near, the pupils including Mary Lee began to think about the most important prize of all. this was the prize, offered by the principal, for the best essay to be written on one of two subjects. “I needn’t worry about that,” thought Mary Lee, as the others began to read and to think about the essay. “I shall easily win; after all, my compositions are always better than the rest.”

‘Pride goes before a fall,’ they say and it certainly did in the case of poor Mary Lee. ‘Happiness’ and ‘Friendship’ were the two subjects for the essay and Mary Lee knew little about either. As she scratched her head for ideas and scribbled with her pen, she realized that she hadn’t any friends to speak of and that she was very far from being happy. She had no idea and so, she did not win the prize.

Ah, Chu wrote the best essay, and the pupils were pleased because he had never really excelled in anything before. He won the lesson. She felt so silly because all her money and her cleverness seemed nothing compared with not winning the prize. “I mustn’t be too proud or too sure,” she thought, “the fall is very hard if you have been too arrogant. ” She became a much pleasant person after that and her fellow pupils became her friends. She still won many prizes, but she never forgot the valuable lesson that the one prize she lost had taught her.