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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17467-h.zip b/17467-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..89234dc --- /dev/null +++ b/17467-h.zip diff --git a/17467-h/17467-h.htm b/17467-h/17467-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23c0038 --- /dev/null +++ b/17467-h/17467-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2267 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Effie Maurice, by Fanny Forester. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sd {margin-left: 10%; font-style: italic;} + .sdi {font-style: normal;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: 0.7em; color: gray; background: inherit; text-align: right;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; color: inherit; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .right {text-align: right;} + .right5 {text-align: right; margin-right: 5em;} + .right10 {text-align: right; margin-right: 10em;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .toc {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Effie Maurice, by Fanny Forester + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Effie Maurice + Or What do I Love Best + +Author: Fanny Forester + +Release Date: January 5, 2006 [EBook #17467] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EFFIE MAURICE *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><p><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></p> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="400" height="600" alt=""Give it to the poor woman with the sick baby," whispered +Effie—p. 23." title=""Give it to the poor woman with the sick baby"" /> +<span class="caption">"Give it to the poor woman with the sick baby," whispered +Effie—<a href="#Page_23"><b>p. 23.</b></a></span> +</div> + +<p><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></p><hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Effie_Maurice" id="Effie_Maurice"></a><span class="smcap">Effie Maurice</span></h2> + +<h3>OR</h3> + +<h3>What do I Love Best</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">A Tale</span></h3> + +<hr style="width: 10%;" /> + +<h5>London</h5> +<h5><span class="smcap">Gall and Inglis, 25 Paternoster Square;</span></h5> +<h5><i>AND EDINBURGH</i>.</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="This table helps format the book's table of contents"> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="toc">CHAPTER I. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="toc">CHAPTER II. PLANS PROPOSED.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="toc">CHAPTER III. NEW YEAR'S DAY.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="toc">CHAPTER IV. THE MISER.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="toc">CHAPTER V. THE POOR WIDOW.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="toc">CHAPTER VI. GENEROSITY AND JUSTICE.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="toc">CHAPTER VII. THE NEW BOOK.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="toc">CHAPTER VIII. ANOTHER OF MR. MAURICE'S LESSONS.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="toc">CHAPTER IX. THE FUNERAL.</span></a></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<h4>'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'</h4> + + +<p>'Mother,' said little Effie Maurice, on a Sabbath evening in winter, 'Mr +L—— said to-day that we are all in danger of breaking the first +commandment,—do you think we are?'</p> + +<p>'Did not Mr L. give you his reasons for thinking so?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, mother.'</p> + +<p>'Didn't you think he gave good reasons?'</p> + +<p>'I suppose he did, but I could not understand all he said, for he +preached to men and women. Perhaps he thought children were in no danger +of breaking it.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p><p>'Well, bring your Bible—'</p> + +<p>'O mother, I can say all the commandments, every word. The first is, +"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." I thought this was for the +Burmans and Chinese, and all those who worship idols where the +missionaries go.'</p> + +<p>'The poor heathen are not the only idolaters in the world, my child; we +have many of them in our own Christian land.'</p> + +<p>'What! <i>here</i>, mother? Do people worship idols in this country?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, my dear, I fear we do.'</p> + +<p>'<i>We</i> do, mother? You don't mean to say that you, and papa, and Deacon +Evarts, and all such good people, worship idols?'</p> + +<p>'Do you suppose, Effie, that all the idols or false gods in the world +are made of wood and stone?'</p> + +<p>'Oh no, mother, I read in my Sunday-school book of people's worshipping +animals, and plants, and the sun, and moon, and a great many of the +stars.'</p> + +<p>'And gold and silver, and men, women and children, did you not?'</p> + +<p>'Yes mother.'</p> + +<p>'Well, if a man loves gold or silver better <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +than he loves God, does it +make any difference whether he has it made into an image to pray to, or +whether he lays it away in the shape of silver dollars and gold eagles?'</p> + +<p>Effie sat for a few moments in thought, and then suddenly looking up, +replied,—'Men don't worship dollars and eagles.'</p> + +<p>'Are you sure?' inquired Mrs Maurice.</p> + +<p>'I never heard of any one who did.'</p> + +<p>'You mean you never heard of one who prayed to them; but there are a +great many people who prefer money to anything else, and who honour a +fine house, fine furniture, and fine dress, more than the meek and quiet +spirit which God approves.'</p> + +<p>'And then money is the god of such people, I suppose, and they are the +ones that break the first commandment?'</p> + +<p>'Not the only ones, my dear; there are a great many earthly gods, and +they are continually leading us away from the God of heaven. Whatever we +love better than Him, becomes our God, for to that we yield our +heart-worship.'</p> + +<p>'I never thought of that before, mother. Yesterday, Jane Wiston told me +that her mother didn't visit Mrs Aimes because she +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>was poor; and when I +told her that you said Mrs Aimes was very pious, she said it did not +make any difference, ladies never visited there. Is Mrs Wiston's god +money?'</p> + +<p>'If Mrs Wiston, or any other person, honours wealth more than humble, +unaffected piety, she disobeys the first commandment. But in judging of +others, my dear, always remember that <i>you cannot see the heart</i>, and +so, however bad the appearance may be, you have a right to put the best +possible construction on every action.'</p> + +<p>'How can I believe that Mrs Wiston's heart is any better than her +actions, mother?'</p> + +<p>'In the first place, Jane might have been mistaken, and money may have +nothing to do with her mother's visits; and if she is really correct, +Mrs Wiston may never have considered this properly, and so at least she +deserves charity. I desire you to think a great deal on this subject, +and when you understand it better, we will talk more about it.'</p> + +<p>'I think I understand it now, mother. Every thing we love better than +the God of heaven becomes our god, and if we don't bow down to pray to +it, we give it our <i>heart-worship</i>, as you said, and that is quite as +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>wicked. But after all, mother, I don't think there is any danger of my +breaking the first commandment.'</p> + +<p>'Do you remember the text Harry repeated at the table this morning? "Let +him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."'</p> + +<p>Effie looked very thoughtful for a moment, and then laying her face in +her mother's lap, she said: 'It is not because I am so good that I think +so, mother; I know I am very wicked, but I am sure that I love my +heavenly Father better than any thing else.'</p> + +<p>'I am glad to believe you do,' said Mrs Maurice, drawing the child +nearer to her and kissing her cheek. 'I am persuaded that calmly and +deliberately you would not prefer the world to Him. But perpetual +distrust of self, with constant trust in God, is your only ground of +safety. Those who do not fall, may for a moment slip, and you with all +the rest of us must watch and pray.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h4>PLANS PROPOSED.</h4> + + +<p>The conversation that Effie Maurice had had with her mother made a very +deep impression on her mind; but still, with all the confidence of one +who has had but few trials, she was grieved that any one should suppose +she could for a moment forget her heavenly Father, or prefer any thing +to His glory and honour. She repeated what her mother had said to her +brother Harry, and he increased her self-confidence by recalling a great +many little sacrifices she had made, which he was quite sure other young +persons would not do.</p> + +<p>'And now, Effie,' said the kind-hearted brother, 'we will talk no more +about this, for it makes you very sober. Remember that to-morrow is New +Year's day, and we've got the money to spend that Aunt Norton sent us, +so we must be out early, or all the prettiest things will be sold. I +went by Mr T.'s shop to-night, and it was all lighted up so that I could +see great sticks of candy, almost as big round as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>my wrist, and jars of +sweetmeats, and there was a rocking horse all saddled and bridled, and +the neatest little whip you ever did see, and <i>such</i> a little rifle—but +I forgot, girls don't mind those things; let me think—I dare say there +were dolls, though I didn't look for them, and then such a pretty little +rocking-chair all cushioned with purple silk, just about big enough for +dolly, and heaps of other nice things—so we must be out early, Effie.'</p> + +<p>'Harry—'</p> + +<p>'What is it, Effie?'</p> + +<p>'I was thinking—'</p> + +<p>'What about? Do you want something I haven't mentioned? I dare say it is +there.'</p> + +<p>'No, I was thinking—I—I believe I will give my money to the +missionaries.'</p> + +<p>'Now, Effie!'</p> + +<p>'Then I shan't make a god of it.'</p> + +<p>'But Aunt Norton gave you this to buy some pretty things for yourself.'</p> + +<p>'I know it, but—'</p> + +<p>'And you have given ever so much to the missionaries.'</p> + +<p>'Well, Harry, I don't know that I need any new toys.'</p> + +<p>'When you see Mr T.'s shop—'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>'I don't want to see Mr T.'s shop, that would be going in the way of +temptation.'</p> + +<p>Harry was silent a few moments,—he was two years older than Effie, and +although sometimes dazzled by appearances, as in the case of the +attractive toy shop, when he waited to think, his judgment was usually +very good for one so young. At last he looked up with a smile, 'I've +thought it out, Effie, we don't need any new toys; we might buy books +for our little library, but father has promised us two or three more +soon. Then our subscriptions to the Missionary Society, and the Bible +Society, and the Colporteur Society, are paid (to be sure it wouldn't +hurt us to give a little more), but I have just thought what to do with +this money (that is, yours and mine together, you know), which I think +is better than all the rest.'</p> + +<p>'What is it?'</p> + +<p>'We'll make a New Year's present of it.'</p> + +<p>'To whom?'</p> + +<p>'Can't you think?'</p> + +<p>'To father, or mother?'</p> + +<p>'No, I should love to buy them something, but they would rather not.'</p> + +<p>'To old Phillis, then?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>'Old Phillis!—it <i>would</i> be a good notion to buy her a gown, wouldn't +it, but I was thinking of John Frink.'</p> + +<p>'You didn't mean to give it to <i>him</i>, I hope, such an idle, +good-for-nothing boy as he is?'</p> + +<p>'He isn't idle and good-for-nothing now, Effie. Since he began to go to +the Sunday school he's as different as can be. Now if we could put our +money together, and help him to go to school this winter (he can't even +read the Bible, Effie,) I think it would do more good than anything else +in the world.'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps it would, but I never liked John Frink very well. He will learn +to read the Bible at the Sunday school, and if he did know any more, I'm +not sure he'd make a good use of it.'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps he wouldn't, but we could hope, Effie, and pray, and then we +should have the pleasure of knowing that our duty was done, as Mr L. +said the other day. If John Frink should become reformed, only think of +how much good he might do in that wicked family, and among the wicked +boys here in the city, and then when he gets to be a man—'</p> + +<p>'But if he isn't reformed, Harry?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p><p>'That is just what Mr S. said to father, the other day, when he asked +him for money to buy tracts for boatmen on the canal—"If they don't +read them," said he.</p> + +<p>'Father told him that if we did our duty faithfully, it was all that is +required of us, and we must leave the results in the hands of God. Now I +think just so of John Frink, only that I can't help believing that he +will reform. The Bible says, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the +evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall +prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." +Now, maybe, all the money you have given this year will do good, but +perhaps this to John Frink most of all.'</p> + +<p>'I believe you are right, Harry,' said Effie, 'but you will give me +to-night to think about it.'</p> + +<p>'Oh yes, to be sure, you could not give the money, with your whole +heart, unless you believed it was to do good, and so you may think just +as long as you please. Now your kiss, Effie, for I must go to bed. We +will be up early, if we <i>don't</i> go to Mr T.'s shop.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h4>NEW YEAR'S DAY.</h4> + + +<p>Harry Maurice was out 'bright and early,' wishing everybody a 'Happy New +Year,' and making them happy at least for the moment, by the expression +of his ruddy, laughing face. We love to see in children cheerfulness and +contentment. Harry's head was full of plans for doing good, and though +more than half of them were visionary, they seemed realities then, and +so being in good humour with himself, he could not fail of being so with +everybody else. Effie refused to go with him to Mrs Frink's, for she had +her own little gifts to dispense, but she consented to take a walk with +him in the afternoon, and even to call at Mr T.'s shop, for she +concluded there could be no danger in looking at the toys after they had +disposed of their money.</p> + +<p>Harry's account of his reception at Mrs Frink's was anything but +satisfactory to Effie, for although he evidently endeavoured to make the +best of it, he said not a single word of John's gratitude. 'I am afraid, +Effie,' he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>rather mischievously whispered, 'if you had gone with me to +Mrs Frink's you would have thought dirt was her god, for I believe she +loves it better than anything else.'</p> + +<p>'O Harry, I am sure it is wicked to make fun—'</p> + +<p>'I didn't mean to make fun, Effie, but I'm sure I couldn't help thinking +of the old man in Pilgrim's Progress with the muck rake, refusing the +crown, all the time I was there.'</p> + +<p>'Father told me that the man with the muck rake, meant the miser.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I suppose it does, but I should think it might mean any body that +is not a Christian, for such people, you know, are rejecting a heavenly +crown for worldly things, which are in reality worth about as much as +the trash the old man is raking together in the picture.' Effie stared +at her brother in complete astonishment, for she could not but wonder +how so small a head could contain such a wondrous amount of knowledge. +Harry endured a stare for a moment with considerable dignity, but he was +naturally a modest lad, and finally added, 'That is pretty nearly the +substance of what Frank Ingham told me about it—I can't remember the +words quite.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>After dinner was over, and Harry and Effie had distributed the remnants +of it among several poor families that lived on an adjoining street, +they set out on their walk. The day was extremely cold, but clear and +still, and altogether as beautiful as any day in the whole year. Effie +in cloak, hood, and muff, seemed the very picture of comfort as she +walked along beside her brother in his equally warm attire, towards Mr +T.'s shop.</p> + +<p>'Are you cold? What makes you shiver so?' inquired Harry. Effie did not +answer, but she drew her hand from her muff and pointed with her gloved +finger to a little girl who stood a few yards from her, stamping her +feet, and clapping her red bare hands, and then curling them under her +arms as if to gain a little warmth from thence. 'Poor thing!' said +Harry, 'I should think she would freeze, with nothing but that old rag +of a handkerchief about her shoulders, and that torn muslin bonnet. I +don't wonder you shivered, Effie, it makes me cold to look at her.'</p> + +<p>'Let us see if she wants anything,' said Effie.</p> + +<p>By this time the attention of the little girl was attracted by the +children's conversation <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>and glances, and she came running towards them, +crying at every step, 'Give me a sixpence, please?'</p> + +<p>'We have no money, not even a penny,' said Harry, 'are you very hungry?' +The girl began to tell how long it was since she had had anything to +eat, but she talked so hurriedly, and used so many queer words, that the +two children found it very difficult to understand her.</p> + +<p>'She is in want, no doubt,' whispered Harry to his sister, 'but father +would say, it was best to give her food and clothing, not money.'</p> + +<p>'I wish I had a sixpence, though,' said Effie.</p> + +<p>The wealthy and the gay, the poor and the apparently miserable, went +pouring by in crowds, and some did not hear the beggar-child's plea, +others that heard did not heed it, while many paused from idle curiosity +to gaze at her, and a few flung her a penny, and passed on. Harry and +Effie too went on, frequently looking back and forming little plans for +the good of the child, until their attention was attracted by other +objects of compassion or admiration. Sleighs were continually <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>dashing +past them, drawn by beautiful horses, and filled with the forms of the +young, the gay, and the happy. Old men, bowed down by the weight of +years, hobbled along on the pavements, their thin blue lips distorted by +a smile—a smile of welcome to the year that, perhaps, before its +departure, would see them laid in the grave—and busy tradesmen, with +faces strongly marked by care, or avarice, or anxiety, jostled by them; +ladies too, in gay hats and large rich shawls, or the more +comfort-seeking in cloaks and muffs; and poor women, with their tattered +clothing drawn closely around their shrinking forms, were hurrying +forward apparently with the same intent. Every variety of the human +species seemed crowded on those narrow pavements.</p> + +<p>Harry and Effie were only a few rods from Mr T.'s door, when Mr Maurice +overtook them, on his way to some other part of the city. He smiled, as +he always did, on his children, then putting a few pence into Effie's +hand, whispered something about '<i>temptation money</i>,' and passed on.</p> + +<p>'I shan't be tempted, though,' said the child, holding the coin before +her brother's eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>'No, Effie,' replied the boy, 'it isn't wrong to spend this money for +yourself, so you can't be tempted to do wrong with it. This is every +body's day for pleasure, and you ought to enjoy it.'</p> + +<p>'I have enjoyed it,' said Effie, looking upon her brother smilingly, +'and I guess somebody else has helped me.'</p> + +<p>'I guess so, too,' was the reply, 'I think we have been a great deal +happier than if we had come here in the morning.'</p> + +<p>Children though they were, they were demonstrating the words of the Lord +Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'</p> + +<p>Mr T.'s shop was crowded to overflowing with children, a few grown +people intermingling: and every one, from the errand boy, that, with his +hard-earned pittance in his hand, was estimating the amount of good +things it would purchase, to the child of the wealthy merchant, +murmuring because the waxen doll she contemplated adding to her store, +was not in every respect formed to suit her difficult taste, seemed +intent on pleasure.</p> + +<p>Harry and Effie were as much pleased as any one, and some, who had seen +with what readiness they had parted with their money in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>the morning, +would have wondered at their taste for toys; but these children had one +talent which a great many grown people as well as children would do well +to imitate. It was not absolutely necessary that they should <i>possess</i> a +thing in order to <i>enjoy</i> it. They had been taught when very young, to +distinguish beautiful things from those that were merely novel, and +although they liked (as I believe is natural) to call things their own, +they could be pleased with what was calculated to produce pleasure, +without envying its possessor, just as you would look upon a beautiful +sunset, or a fine landscape, without thinking of becoming its owner. But +Effie had a little money to spend, and this occasioned a great deal of +deliberation, for to tell the truth, the little girl was so pleased with +her day's work, that she was still determined on self-denial.</p> + +<p>'Take care,' whispered Harry, as he watched her examining some trifles +which he was pretty sure were intended for old Phillis, 'take care, +Effie, that you don't get proud of your generosity—there is more than +one way to make self a god.'</p> + +<p>Effie blushed, and calling for some nuts, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>threw her money on the +counter, saying to her brother, 'We can share them together in the +evening.' The nuts were scarce stowed away in reticule and muff, when a +poorly-clad young woman, very pale and thin, bearing in her arms an +infant still paler, pressed her way through the throng, and gained the +counter. She inquired for cough lozenges. It was a long time before she +could be attended, but she stood very patiently, though seemingly scarce +able to support the weight of her own person. Harry involuntarily +glanced around the shop for a chair, and as he did so, his eye rested on +a bright-faced little girl, close beside his sister, who was choosing +and rejecting a great many pretty toys, and now and then casting a +glance at the well-filled purse in her hand, as if to ascertain after +each purchase the state of her finances.</p> + +<p>'Beautiful!' she exclaimed, her eye glistening with pleasure at the +sight of the purple cushioned rocking-chair of which Harry had told his +sister.</p> + +<p>'Is that all?' inquired a sad, low voice, and again Harry's eye turned +to the poor woman who was purchasing the lozenges.</p> + +<p>'Yes, ma'am, to be sure,' replied the pert <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>shopkeeper, 'and a pretty +large all too—what could you expect for a penny?'</p> + +<p>The poor woman made no reply, but the hurried glance she gave her infant +with its accompanying sigh, seemed to say, 'God help my poor baby then!'</p> + +<p>Harry involuntarily thrust his hand into his pocket, but he quickly +withdrew it, and glanced at the little girl who was purchasing the +rocking-chair.</p> + +<p>'This chair has cost so much,' she said, addressing the shopkeeper, +'that I have only a shilling left.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, then,' whispered Effie, emboldened by her brother's looks of +anxiety, 'give it to the poor woman with the sick baby.'</p> + +<p>The little girl stared at her somewhat rudely, then turning to the +woman, exclaimed, 'What! <i>that</i> one, with the horrid looking bonnet!' +and, shaking her head, laughingly replied, 'Thank you, Miss, I have a +better use for it.'</p> + +<p>Effie was really distressed. The poor woman looked so pale and sad, and +yet so meek and uncomplaining withal, that both brother and sister found +themselves strangely interested.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p><p>'O how I wish we could do something for her,' whispered Harry. 'Will +you please exchange my nuts for cough lozenges?' inquired Effie in a +faltering voice, of the shopkeeper.</p> + +<p>'Rather too busy, Miss.'</p> + +<p>'But it will oblige me very much.'</p> + +<p>'Happy to oblige you on any other day, Miss, but we really have no time +for exchanges now.' By this time the poor woman had gained the door, and +Effie, looking round, observed that her brother too was missing.</p> + +<p>'He followed the woman with the baby,' said the little girl who had +purchased the rocking-chair; then pursing up her mouth with an +expression as near contempt as such a pretty mouth could wear, she +inquired, 'Is she your <i>aunt</i>?'</p> + +<p>The angry blood rushed in a flood to Effie's face, but she quickly +subdued it, and with ready thought replied, 'No, my <i>sister</i>.'</p> + +<p>It was now the turn of the stranger girl to blush, and at the same time +she cast upon her new companion a slight glance of surprise. She then +turned over with her fingers her new toys, glanced at the rocking-chair, +and seemingly dissatisfied with all, again turned to Effie.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p><p>'Please give her this,' she said, putting the remaining shilling in her +hand. 'I know what you mean, my mother taught me that, but—she is dead +now.'</p> + +<p>'If Harry finds where the poor woman lives,' returned Effie, 'we will go +there together.' The little girl seemed to waver for a moment, then said +hastily, 'No, I must go home—give the money to her,' and hurried away +as fast as the crowd would permit. In a few moments Harry returned. He +had found out where the poor woman lived, but it was a great distance, +and he was too considerate to leave his sister alone. Harry was not one +of those philanthropists who, in doing a great amount of good, become +blind to trifles; for his father had taught him, that duties never +interfere with each other, and he knew that he owed Effie every care and +attention. I have often observed that those children, who are the most +kind and considerate to brothers and sisters, always shew more justice +and generosity to others, than those who think such attentions of but +little importance.</p> + +<p>Harry found out but little more of the woman, than that she was poor, +and sick, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>friendless. Her baby too, her only comfort, was wasting +away before her eyes, whether of disease or for lack of food, she did +not tell, and there was none to help her.</p> + +<p>'We will speak to father about her,' said Harry, as they proceeded +homeward, 'perhaps he can do something for them,—it is a sweet little +baby, Effie, with a skin clear and white, and eyes—oh, you never saw +such eyes! they look so soft and loving, that you would think the poor +thing knew every word you said, and how I pitied it. I could hardly help +crying, Effie.'</p> + +<p>'I am glad you followed the poor woman.'</p> + +<p>'So am I. But Effie, you don't know how vexed I was with that selfish +little miss, that bought the rocking-chair.'</p> + +<p>'Harry!'</p> + +<p>'Now, don't go to taking her part, Effie, it will do no good, I can tell +you; she is the most selfish and unfeeling little girl that I ever saw. +Because the woman wore an <i>old bonnet</i>, she couldn't help her—only +think of that! how mean!'</p> + +<p>'She—O Harry! now I know what mother meant when she talked to me so +much about having charity for people, and told me that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>we could not +always judge the heart by the actions. I thought as badly of her as you +at first, but I'm sure now she is not unfeeling.'</p> + +<p>'Well, if she has any feeling, I should like to see her shew it, that's +all. I tell you, Effie, if anybody ever made a god of self, it is that +little girl we saw to-night. She thought her gratification of more +consequence than that poor baby's life.'</p> + +<p>'No, Harry, she is one of the thoughtless ones mother tells us so much +about. If you had seen her when she gave me this money,' putting the +silver piece into her brother's hand, 'you would never call her +unfeeling.'</p> + +<p>'Did you tease her for it?'</p> + +<p>'No, I didn't ask her again, for I did feel a little vexed—yes, a good +deal so, at first, but, Harry, I don't feel vexed now, I am sorry for +her. There was a tear in her eye, I am pretty sure, though she was +ashamed to have me see it, and her lips quivered, and she looked—oh, so +sad, when she told me her mother was dead; I wish you could have seen +her, Harry.'</p> + +<p>'I would rather not see her again, for I can't bear proud people—' +Effie was about interrupting her brother in defence of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>the little +stranger girl, but at that moment a new object attracted their +attention. It was a fine sleigh drawn by a pair of beautiful gray +horses, that, with proudly arched neck and flowing mane, stepped +daintily, as if perfectly aware of the fact that they were gentlemen's +horses, and carried as fashionable a load as New York afforded. A little +girl leaned quite over the side of the sleigh, and smiled and nodded to +Effie, then waving her handkerchief, to attract still more attention, +dropped something upon the ground. It was the child they had seen at the +toy-shop. Harry flew to pick up the offering, and gave it to his sister.</p> + +<p>'Now, what do you think of her?' inquired Effie, as her eye lighted on +the self-same purse she had seen but a little while before; 'I knew she +must be kind-hearted—did you ever see anything so generous? Here is +ever so much money, and all for the poor woman and her sick baby—why +don't you speak, Harry?'</p> + +<p>'Because—I—'</p> + +<p>'You don't think she is selfish now, I hope?'</p> + +<p>'I don't think anything about it, Effie, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>because I don't know. If she +gave her own money she is generous, but if she begged it of somebody +else to give—'</p> + +<p>'If she begged it of somebody else, it was generous in her to give it to +this poor woman, instead of putting it to some other use.'</p> + +<p>'Well, Effie, the money will certainly do the poor woman a great deal of +good, and I rather think the little girl feels better for giving, so I +am sure we ought to be glad.'</p> + +<p>'I wish I could find out her name,' said Effie, 'perhaps it is on the +purse.' Harry drew the silken purse from his pocket, and after examining +it closely, found engraved on one of the rings the name of '<span class="smcap">Rosa +Lynmore</span>.'</p> + +<p>In the evening the children related the events of the day to their +mother, and found her approbation a sufficient reward for all their +self-denial. The conduct of Rosa Lynmore was duly canvassed, too; and, +while Mrs Maurice praised her generosity, she endeavoured to shew her +children the difference between this one impulsive act, and the +constant, self-denying effort which is the result of true benevolence. +'This little girl,' she said, 'may make but a small sacrifice in parting +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>with this money, not half so great as it would be to go and seek out the +poor woman and administer to her necessities, but still we have no right +to find fault with what is so well done, and I am sure, my children, +that you do not desire it.'</p> + +<p>'No, mother,' said Effie, 'I see now why you told me not to judge Mrs +Wiston by appearances; if I had come away a little sooner, I should have +thought this pretty Rosa Lynmore one of the most selfish little girls in +the world. But now I know she was only thoughtless.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I hope, my child, you will always remember not to judge hastily, +and without sufficient reason; yet to be utterly blind to the apparent +faults of those around you, is neither safe nor wise. It is not safe, +because by being too credulous you may easily make yourself the object +of imposition; and not wise, because, by such indiscriminate charity, +you lose a useful lesson.'</p> + +<p>'I think, mother,' said Harry, 'that I can see the lesson we can learn +from Rosa Lynmore's faults.'</p> + +<p>'I don't see that she has any faults,' said Effie, earnestly. 'I am +sure, Harry, you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>ought not to make so much of that one careless little +word about the bonnet; it <i>was</i> an ugly bonnet, with so deep a front +that I dare say Rosa didn't see the poor woman's pale face.'</p> + +<p>'You call it a careless word, Effie,' said Mrs Maurice, 'you admit that +this little girl was guilty of thoughtlessness, and surely you cannot +consider <i>that</i> no fault—but under certain circumstances this fault is +more pardonable than under others. Now you know nothing of these +circumstances, and so could not, if you wished, be Rosa Lynmore's judge. +But, taking everything as it appears, you may draw your lesson without +assuming a province which does not belong to you. Now, Harry, we will +hear what you have to say.'</p> + +<p>'It was not what Rosa <i>said</i>, that I meant, mother,—I was thinking of +what we might learn to-day from all her actions, and I am sure I didn't +want to blame her more than Effie did.'</p> + +<p>'I supposed not, my son.'</p> + +<p>'But, mother, Harry had reason to blame her more, for he didn't see how +sorry she looked, and how her voice trembled when she said, "She is dead +now."—meaning her mother, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>I shouldn't think a little girl would ever do +right, without a mother to teach her.'</p> + +<p>'Such children deserve pity, my love, and I am glad you have a heart to +pity them, but I suspect that all little girls have wicked thoughts and +feelings that they must strive against, and whether they are blessed +with parents, or have only a Heavenly Father to guide them, they will +have need to watch and pray. But Harry has not given his lesson yet.'</p> + +<p>'Father told me a story the other day—an allegory he called it—about +impulse and principle.</p> + +<p>'Principle went straight forward, and did whatever was right, and tried +to make her feelings agree with it, but Impulse hurried along in a very +crooked path, stopping here, and then bounding forth at the sight of +some new object—one minute neglecting every duty, and the next, doing +something so great that everybody was surprised, and praised her beyond +all measure. Principle very seldom did wrong, and made so little show, +that she was quite unobserved by the world in general, but Impulse was +as likely to do wrong as right, and according as good or evil +predominated, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>received her full share of praise or censure. Principle +had an approving conscience, and however she might be looked upon by the +world, she was contented and happy, while poor Impulse was half of the +time tossed about by a light thing called Vanity, or gnawed by a monster +named Remorse. I liked the story very much, and I couldn't help +remembering it to-day, when the little girl dropped the purse over the +side of the sleigh. I thought she was governed by Impulse, and though +this is a good act, unless she has a better heart than most people, it +is no true sign that the next one will be good.'</p> + +<p>'Very true, my son, but you have not explained to Effie what you mean by +impulse and principle.'</p> + +<p>'You can explain it better than I can, mother. I don't remember half +that father said about it.'</p> + +<p>'Well, tell me as much as you can remember then.'</p> + +<p>'Why, principle means ground of action, and people who are governed by +principle always have some good reason for what they do, and do not act +without thinking. Father says old people are more apt to be governed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>by +principle of some kind, either good or bad, than children, for he says +children generally act first, and think afterwards.'</p> + +<p>'And impulse?' inquired Effie.</p> + +<p>'People that act from impulse are altogether at the mercy of +circumstances, and are driven about by their own feelings. They never +wait to inquire whether a thing is right before they do it, but if it +seems right for the minute it is sufficient.'</p> + +<p>Harry's explanation seemed quite satisfactory to his mother, and what +was just then of more importance, to Effie, who, it was but natural, +should find some fault with a definition which seemed to throw anything +like discredit on her new favourite. Any further allusion to the subject +was, however, prevented by the entrance of Mr Maurice, who, as he had +been out all day, making charitable and professional instead of +fashionable calls, had some very interesting stories to relate. But +there was one so strange, and to the children so new, that it threw the +rest quite into the shade, and absorbed their whole stock of sympathy. +It was late before Mr Maurice finished his story, and as it may be late +before our readers get to a better stopping-place, we shall reserve it +fer another chapter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h4>THE MISER.</h4> + + +<p>'In passing through a narrow back lane,' said Mr Maurice, after relating +several tales of minor importance, 'I paused to look upon a low +building, so old that one corner of it was sunken so much as to give it +a tottering appearance, and if possible it was more dark and dismal than +the others. It seemed to be occupied by several families, for a little +gray smoke went straggling up from two or three crumbling chimneys, but +the rooms were all on the ground floor. As I stood gazing at it, I was +startled by a boy (about your age, Harry, or a little older perhaps) who +came bounding from the door, and grasping my coat untreated me to go in +and see his grandfather.'</p> + +<p>'Did you go, father?' inquired Effie, 'wasn't you afraid?'</p> + +<p>'Afraid! what had he to be afraid of?' exclaimed her brother, 'I should +just as lief go as not.' Yet, notwithstanding the little boy's vaunt +there was a slight tremor on his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>lip, and his large blue eyes grew +larger still and darker where they were dark, while the whites became +unusually prominent.</p> + +<p>'Of course I went,' resumed Mr Maurice, in a sad tone, 'and a fearful +spectacle did I behold. I had expected to see some poor widow, worn out +by toil and suffering, perchance by anguish and anxiety, dying alone, or +a family of helpless ones, such as I had often visited, or a drunken +husband. I had often glanced at guilt and crime, but never would my +imagination have pictured the scene before me. The room was dark and +loathsome, containing but few articles of furniture, and those battered +and defaced by age, and with a rickety bed in one corner, on which lay +stretched in mortal agony the figure of a wrinkled, gray-haired old man, +apparently approaching the final struggle. O my children, poverty, +loneliness, want, are the portion of many on this fair, beautiful earth, +but such utter wretchedness as appeared in that man's face, can only be +the result of crime.' Mr Maurice was evidently deeply affected, and his +wife and children were for a moment silent.</p> + +<p>'Was he dying, father?' at length Harry ventured to inquire, in a +subdued tone.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>'He seemed very weak, except now and then when he was seized with +convulsions, and then he would writhe and throw himself about, and it +was more than I could do to keep him on his bed—I do not think it +possible for him to survive till morning.'</p> + +<p>'Didn't he say anything, father?'</p> + +<p>'It was a long time before he said anything, but after I had succeeded +in warming some liquid, which I found in an old broken cup, over the +decayed fire, I gave him a little of it, and in time he became much +calmer. Between his paroxysms of pain, I induced him to give some +account of himself, and the circumstances that brought him to his +present situation, and what think you was the prime moving cause of all +this wretchedness?'</p> + +<p>'I suspect he was very poor,' said Effie.</p> + +<p>'Something worse than that I should think,' added her brother, 'perhaps +he was a gamester.'</p> + +<p>'Or a drunkard,' suggested Effie.</p> + +<p>'Or both,' responded the mother, or perhaps he commenced by being merely +a time-waster, and money-waster, and finally was reduced to what persons +of that stamp are very apt to consider the necessity of committing +crime, by way of support.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p><p>Mr Maurice shook his head. 'It was neither poverty, nor play, nor +drunkenness, nor indolence, nor extravagance, that made that old man +wretched, and yet he was the most wretched being I ever saw.'</p> + +<p>'He was poor, though, wasn't he, father?'</p> + +<p>'Poverty is but a small thing, Effie, and in our land of equal laws and +charitable institutions, very few suffer from absolute want, but that +old man was richer (in gold and silver I mean) than I am.'</p> + +<p>'What! and lived in that dreadful place, father?'</p> + +<p>'Oh! I see it,' exclaimed Harry; 'he is a miser.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Harry,' returned Mr Maurice, 'you are right, the love of money is +the cause of all his misery. He came to this city a great many years +ago, (he could not himself tell how many, for his memory evidently +wavered,) and commenced business as a linen draper. He had one only +daughter then, and he lavished all his earnings on her at first, but +finally she married, and from that time he became wholly engrossed with +self. He was never very fond of show, and so did not become a +spendthrift, but he adopted the equally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>dangerous course of hoarding up +all his savings, until it became a passion with him. After a while he +retired from business, but the passion clung to him with all the +tenacity of a long established habit, and he became a usurer. He was +known to all the young profligates, the bad young men who throng our +city, and became as necessary to them as the poor avaricious Jew was in +former days to the spendthrifts and gamesters in London. He told me +frightful stories, my children, of tyranny and fraud, of ruined young +men led on by him till they committed self-murder, of old men shorn of +their fortunes through his ingenious villainy—'</p> + +<p>'O father!' exclaimed little Effie, covering her eyes with her hands.</p> + +<p>'All this,' said Mr Maurice, solemnly, 'was the result of the indulgence +of a single bad passion.'</p> + +<p>'But the little boy?' inquired Mrs Maurice.</p> + +<p>'The husband of the daughter proved to be a miserable, worthless +fellow, and for some time the old man sent them remittances of money, +but after a while his new passion triumphed over paternal love, and the +prayers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>of the poor woman were unheeded. Two or three years ago she came +to the city on foot—a weary distance, the old man said, but he could +not tell how far, bringing with her the little boy that first attracted +my attention to-night. Her husband was dead, and her elder children had +one by one followed him to the grave, till there was only this, the +youngest left. She had come to the city, hoping that her presence would +be more successful than her letters had been in softening the old man's +heart, but she only came to die. Her journey had worn her out, and she +was to be no tax upon the old man's treasures. She died, and the +miserable grandfather could not cast off her only son. The little +fellow's face looks wan and melancholy; as if from suffering and want, +and he seems to have passed at once from a child into an old man, +without knowing anything of the intermediate stage.'</p> + +<p>'Poor boy!' said Mrs Maurice 'you didn't leave him alone with his +grandfather, I hope?'</p> + +<p>'No, I engaged a neighbour to spend the night with them, and called at +my office on my way home to write a letter to a brother, of whom the old +man told me, who is now residing in the country. The little grandson +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>will probably be wealthy now, but I do not believe the enjoyment of it +will make up for his past suffering.'</p> + +<p>'I hope he won't be a miser,' said Effie.</p> + +<p>'I shouldn't think it very strange if he should be,' replied her +brother, 'the example of his grandfather is enough to spoil him.'</p> + +<p>'But you forget, Harry,' said Mrs Maurice, 'what a terrible example it +was. I think the little fellow will be likely to avoid it.'</p> + +<p>'Very probably,' added Mr Maurice, 'there is more danger of his going +into the opposite extreme.'</p> + +<p>'I am sure, father,' said Harry, 'that it can't be so bad to spend money +foolishly, as to hoard it up the way that old man did.'</p> + +<p>'No,' said Effie, 'for he made a <i>god</i> of it, and it is better to care +too little about it, than too much.'</p> + +<p>'But the man that spends his money in frivolous pursuits, or what would +be called slightly criminal adventures, who lavishes the money which God +has given him to do good with, upon himself, seeking only his own +gratification—'</p> + +<p>'O father!' interrupted Harry, 'he made a <i>god</i> of himself.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>'Such a man,' continued Mr Maurice, 'may be led on from one step to +another until he becomes as guilty as the old man of whom I have told +you to-night.'</p> + +<p>'If I were a man,' said little Effie, shuddering, 'I should be afraid to +do anything lest I should do wrong.'</p> + +<p>'And why so?' asked Mrs Maurice; 'you forget, my dear, that you, too, +are exposed to temptations, that none of us are exempt from trials, and +our only hope is in the promise that the child of God shall not be +tempted above what he is able to bear.'</p> + +<p>'Remember,' added Mr Maurice, taking the family Bible from its shelf +preparatory to their evening devotions, 'to love not the world, neither +the things that are in the world. And remember, when you are searching +your hearts to discover their hidden idols, that the same Divine Being +has said, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in +him."'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h4>THE POOR WIDOW.</h4> + + +<p>The next morning, in accordance with his children's wishes, Mr Maurice +accompanied Harry to the residence of the poor woman they had seen at Mr +T.'s shop. It was a miserable hovel, but after all there was an air of +cleanliness and comfort about it, that the most abject poverty can +seldom of itself destroy. A white curtain, mended it is true, in very +many places, yet looking quite respectable, still shaded the only window +of the apartment. There were a few coals, on which was laid a single +stick of wood, in the open fire-place, but it sent forth but a small +quantity of heat, and the room felt damp and chilly. On a narrow bed +drawn close to the fire lay the sick child, and beside it sat the mother +plying her needle steadily, and every now and then casting an anxious +eye upon her babe. She arose when Mr Maurice and Harry entered, and her +reception of the boy was truly affecting. She told again and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>again of +his following her the day before, and how kindly he had inquired if he +could do anything for her, and then bursting into loud sobs, and leaning +over the bed, she said nobody could do anything unless it was to cure +her baby. Mr Maurice took the hand of the little sufferer, but it was +burning hot, and the face, which was the day before pale, was now so +flushed that Harry could scarcely recognise it.</p> + +<p>'He has a fever,' said Mr Maurice.</p> + +<p>'A fever! oh don't say so,' shrieked the poor woman, 'it was of that his +father died—it is a cold, nothing but a cold! Oh, how could I be so +foolish as to take him out!'</p> + +<p>What could Mr Maurice do, but soothe her, and promise to be the child's +physician? In a few moments she became calmer, and then she told him +that her baby had been failing for a long time—day by day she could see +that he grew poorer, but she could not tell why, till at last a cough +had come, and concluding that it was occasioned by a cold, she had given +the usual remedies, but without effect. The day before, having no one +with whom to leave him, she had taken him out, and the fever that ensued +was the result.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p><p>'Do you think I have killed my baby, sir?' she inquired mournfully; and +she looked so long and earnestly into Mr Maurice's face for an answer, +that he was obliged to reply 'No.' It was easy for him to discern that +the death-blow was before received.</p> + +<p>'Oh thank you,' replied the poor mother, joyfully, 'I was sure he must +get well.' Mr Maurice was about to speak, but interrupted +himself—should he undeceive her? Should he tear from her her last hope? +perhaps it was weakness, but he could not do it. The blow was too +sudden, too heavy, and it must be softened to her. She said nothing of +poverty, but he knew by the rapidity with which she plied her needle in +the intervals of conversation that she was toiling for her bread and +fuel, and he secretly resolved to place her in a condition to devote +herself entirely to the care of the child.</p> + +<p>As Mr Maurice glanced around the room, noting each article it +contained, and gaining from thence some item of knowledge concerning the +character of its owner, his eye fell upon a shelf on which lay a few +tracts, a Bible, and a hymn-book. 'I see,' said he, pointing to them, +'that whatever trial you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>may be called to pass through, you are provided +with a better comforter than any earthly friend.'</p> + +<p>The poor woman shook her head, 'They were my husband's, sir.'</p> + +<p>'Your husband was a pious man, then?'</p> + +<p>'He used to read the Bible and have family worship. Sometimes I went +with him on Sunday to hear the minister, but I was always tired and +drowsy, and could not keep awake.'</p> + +<p>'I suppose you don't go at all now?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir'</p> + +<p>'Nor read the Bible?'</p> + +<p>'No, not very often—I don't get time.'</p> + +<p>'You surely have time on the Sabbath-day?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, sir, that is the only leisure day I have, and then I like to take +little James, and go with him to his father's grave, and when I get +back, there's tea to make, (I never have tea but on Sundays, sir,) and +somehow the time slips away till dark, when I go to bed. I can't afford +to light a candle on Sunday nights.'</p> + +<p>'Do you never visit your neighbours on that day?'</p> + +<p>'Oh no, sir, since my husband died, I have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>not cared for going out, and +a lone woman like me is but poor company for others, so they never come +to see me.'</p> + +<p>'You tell me of visiting your husband's grave—when you stand over it, +do you ever think of the time you will meet him again?'</p> + +<p>'Not often; he used to talk to me about it, but I never can think of +anything but <i>him</i>, just as he lived, and I remember a great many kind +things he used to say, and speak them over to the baby (little James—he +was named for his father, sir,) in his own words.' And the poor woman +bent over her work, and plied her needle faster than ever.</p> + +<p>'It is natural,' said Mr Maurice, kindly, 'that you should remember your +husband as he was when living, but it is strange that you so seldom +think of seeing him again.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, sir, that looks like a dream to me, I can't more than half believe +it, but I know the other to be reality.'</p> + +<p>'Yet one is as true as the other.' The woman sighed, and her countenance +looked troubled, but she made no answer.</p> + +<p>'You believe the Bible?'</p> + +<p>'Ye-es, sir—my James believed it, and so it must be true.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p><p>'Then you will allow me to read you a chapter, I suppose.'</p> + +<p>'If you please, sir, but it always seemed to me a very gloomy book, and +I am afraid it will make me low-spirited.'</p> + +<p>'No, I think not, it may raise your spirits.' Mr Maurice took down the +Bible, and opened it at the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. A +piece of torn paper lay between the opened leaves, and a few of the +verses were marked with a pencil. As Mr Maurice proceeded to read, the +face of the poor woman was gradually lowered till it almost rested on +her bosom, and at last, yielding to the intensity of her feelings, she +buried her face in the bed-clothes, and did not raise it again till the +chapter was finished.</p> + +<p>'Oh, many and many is the time he has read it to me!' she exclaimed, +'and he put in the mark only the day before he died, so that I might +find it; but I could not, oh I couldn't bear to read it!'</p> + +<p>'And why not?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, I know it is true! I know I shall see him again! but, sir, he was a +<i>Christian</i>.'</p> + +<p>'And so prepared to die, was he not?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir, and my poor baby—'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>'If it is taken away it will go to him in heaven.'</p> + +<p>'Oh no, oh no! my baby must not die! My James was good, and has talked +to me hours, and hours, about being ready to die, but I used to laugh at +him—<i>that</i> goes to my heart the worst, sir, to laugh at <i>him</i> who was +as gentle as that baby, <i>him</i> who is in his grave now. Oh if I could +forget <i>that</i>! He is in heaven, sir, but I—I shall never get there! +It's of no use to read the Bible to me, and talk to me—James used to +pray for me, but it was of no use, I am too wicked. But if you can save +the baby, sir, if God will let the child live, I shall have a little +comfort.'</p> + +<p>Mr Maurice had succeeded in rousing the poor woman's feelings, but he +found that she felt more acutely than he imagined, and he now brought to +his aid the still small voice of the Gospel. He told her of the fountain +in which sin might be washed away, he told her of the place where the +weary might find rest, and pointed her to the Lord Jesus Christ, for +mercy; but though she appeared to listen, her thoughts were evidently +fixed upon her husband and child, and the truths he uttered fell +unheeded on her ear. After talking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>some time, he again read a portion of +the Bible, prayed with the poor woman, and went away.</p> + +<p>'Oh, how I pity her, father,' said Harry, when they were on their way +home. 'Do you really think the little baby will get well?—I do hope it +will.'</p> + +<p>'That is a natural wish, my child; but God knows what is best, and if He +should see fit to remove it, we have no right to murmur.'</p> + +<p>'No, father, but poor Mrs Gilman will feel so dreadfully, for then she +will be entirely alone. She told us, you know, that before she married +James Gilman she was a poor servant girl, and an orphan, and she don't +know whether she has any relatives or not. It will be very hard for her +to see everything she loves taken from her and buried in the grave.'</p> + +<p>'So it will, my dear boy, and she deserves all our sympathy; but it may +be that a kind Heavenly Parent, since she has no earthly ones to guide +her, is using these means to draw the poor widow nearer to Him. If this +chastisement is sent by His hand, it will undoubtedly be in love and +mercy.'</p> + +<p>'Do you think, father, that Mrs Gilman loves her little James too well?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p><p>'I will answer your question by asking another, Harry. Do you think her +love for the child interferes with that she owes to God?'</p> + +<p>Harry was for a few moments silent. At last he answered, 'She certainly +loves him better than she does God, and that is not right; but you +always told Effie and me that we could not love each other too well.'</p> + +<p>'And I told you right, provided <i>that</i> love is made subservient to a +holier one. But your first duty is, in the words of our Saviour, "to +love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Obedience to this precept +involves a great many other duties, but none of these should interfere +with the great first command.'</p> + +<p>'But, father,' inquired Harry, 'if Mrs Gilman should become a Christian, +would she love her baby less.'</p> + +<p>'No, she might love it more, but not with the same kind of affection +she bears it now. This is a blind idolatry—her child is her all, and +she cannot bear to part with it, even though it should join her lost +husband, and wear a crown in glory. If she were a Christian, she would +be able to say, "Thy will be done," and to place entire confidence in +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>Divine Master, and bow in submission to His requirements, even +though they should call on her to resign this treasure.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, how happy we should be, if we loved God better than anything else!' +said Harry.</p> + +<p>After they had arrived at home, and while Mrs Maurice was engaged in +preparing some comfortable things for the poor woman, Harry was heard to +whisper in his sister's ear, 'Poor Mrs Gilman makes a god of her baby, +Effie.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h4>GENEROSITY AND JUSTICE.</h4> + + +<p>Several days passed away, and little Effie was watching every +opportunity for making applications of the truth her mother had taught +her, but yet, (such is the deceitfulness of the human heart,) she still +considered herself out of danger. If any little boys or girls who may +perchance read this story, are as confident as Effie, we only ask them +to watch over their thoughts and actions for as long a time as she did, +and see if they do not discover <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>their mistake. One day Mrs Maurice went +to make a call on a lady of her acquaintance, and as Harry was engaged +with his father, she allowed Effie to accompany her. It was a beautiful +parlour into which they were ushered, and Mrs Town received them with +due politeness. They were scarce seated when the servant announced +another visitor, and a lady with whom Mrs Maurice was very well +acquainted entered, and immediately stated the object of her call—to +obtain subscriptions for a charitable society.</p> + +<p>'I am tired of these societies,' said Mrs Town, 'do not you think, Mrs +Maurice, that individual charity is preferable?'</p> + +<p>'Undoubtedly, in many instances, but societies have done much good, and +I am therefore disposed to countenance them.'</p> + +<p>'But don't you think,' said Mrs Town, 'that a person is very apt to +think by being a member of a society she is freed from individual +responsibility?'</p> + +<p>'There may be such people,' was the reply, 'and undoubtedly are, but +they are those who give merely because they are expected to do so, and +this is the easiest mode of cheating the world and themselves that could +be devised.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>'Well,' replied Mrs Town, 'I have always made it a point never to place +my name on a subscription list, so I shall be obliged to decline. I +hope,' she said to the disappointed lady, who had been advised to call +upon her because she was rich, 'I hope you will meet with better success +elsewhere.'</p> + +<p>'I hope I shall,' the lady could scarce forbear saying, as Mrs Town +curtsied gracefully in answer to her embarrassed nod, but she soon +calmed her excited feelings and passed on.</p> + +<p>'Poor Mrs D.!' said Mrs Town. 'This must be very unpleasant business. I +can't see what could induce a lady of her respectability to engage in +it.'</p> + +<p>'I know of no one who could perform the task better,' said Mrs Maurice.</p> + +<p>'Certainly not, but—' Mrs Town paused, and then added, hesitatingly, +'it seems a little too much like begging.'</p> + +<p>'It surely is begging,' said Mrs Maurice, with much animation, 'begging +for the poor, the weak, the desolate, the unfriended—these have claims +upon those who to-morrow may be in their places—and more, Mrs Town, it +is begging for our brethren, our sisters—these have claims upon us that +cannot be waived—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>but above all, it is begging for the King of kings, +Him who hesitated not to give His own Son for us, and His claims cover +all others. Not only our gold and silver are His, but ourselves.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, my dear Mrs Maurice, I would not have you to suppose that I object +to <i>giving</i>—by no means—it is only from an ostentatious display of +charity that I shrink—this is a duty that should be exercised in +private, a—' Mrs Town was interrupted in the midst of her vindication +by a servant who entered and placed a note in her hand, which she folded +closer and was about putting in her pocket—'Please, ma'am,' said the +servant, 'she wishes you to read it now, and say if you can see her.'</p> + +<p>Mrs Town glanced at the note and coloured slightly, but she had been too +long accustomed to concealing her feelings for a stronger manifestation. +'Tell her to come to-morrow,' said she.</p> + +<p>The servant was gone a moment and again returned, 'Please, ma'am,' said +he, 'the woman won't go away, she says she <i>will</i> see you, for her +husband is sick, and her children starving, and she must have her +<i>pay</i>.' Mrs Town started from her seat: this was a strange <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>comment upon +her beautiful theory of individual charity. Mrs Maurice retired as soon +as possible, and as she passed through the hall she saw a miserably-clad +woman with a face extremely haggard and care-worn, whom she supposed to +be the person claiming—not <i>charity</i>, but <i>justice</i>, of Mrs Town. Effie +saw that her mother's face was unusually clouded, and she did not +venture to comment upon the past scene, but she said to her brother as +soon as they were alone, 'I am glad we are not rich like Mrs Town, +Harry, lest we should make a <i>god</i> of our money.'</p> + +<p>Mrs Maurice did not, however, neglect at a suitable time to fix upon +Effie's mind the impression she had received from the scene at Mrs +Town's. 'Remember, my child,' she said, 'if you should ever live to +become a woman, that <i>justice</i> should be preferred to <i>generosity</i>, and +never talk of <i>giving</i> while some poor person may be suffering for that +which is her just due.'</p> + +<p>'Mother,' said Harry, 'Elisha Otis told me to-day that his father thinks +people who talk so much of giving, are all hypocrites.'</p> + +<p>'People who make a great noise about any good act which they perform +appear somewhat <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>pharisaical, but we have no right to condemn them upon +that score <i>alone</i>, for it often proceeds from a great desire to do +good. You know we are very apt to talk of that which most occupies our +thoughts, Harry. But where did Elisha Otis's father get such notions of +charitable people?'</p> + +<p>'That is what I was going to tell you about, mother. You know how much +Deacon Brown, gives—he heads all the subscription papers, and I heard +father say the other day that he was a great help to the church; but Mr +Otis says that he is never willing to pay people that work for him their +full price, and then they have to wait, and dun, and dun, before they +can get anything.'</p> + +<p>'I am sorry to hear this, my son, very sorry.'</p> + +<p>'Isn't it true mother?'</p> + +<p>'It is true that Deacon Brown in some instances has seemed more generous +than just, and this case is very good to illustrate what I before said; +but Mr Otis makes it appear much worse than it is.'</p> + +<p>'Then he don't cheat his workmen, mother?'</p> + +<p>'No; but, by procrastination, thoughtlessness, or even perhaps the +desire which business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>men may have to make a good bargain, he may do +wrong, and so lay himself open to all these remarks. Bad qualities, you +know, shew much plainer in a good man than a bad one, and are almost +always made to appear worse than they really are. But let this be a +warning to you, my boy—remember that <i>good</i> (not <i>great</i>) actions +seldom cover faults, but faults obscure the lustre of many good actions, +and destroy the usefulness of thousands of really good and pious +people.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h4>THE NEW BOOK.</h4> + + +<p>'A present for you, Effie,' said Mr Maurice, a few days after the +foregoing conversation, 'a present from your uncle William! it is in +this nice little packet, now guess what it is.'</p> + +<p>'O father—'</p> + +<p>'No, but you must guess.'</p> + +<p>'Why it's a book—say a book, Effie,' interposed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>Harry, 'with sights of +pictures, I dare say, and may be pretty gilt letters on the back, too.'</p> + +<p>'Is it a book?' inquired Effie, her little eyes dancing with pleasure, +'and from uncle William, too? Oh how good he is to remember a little +girl like me!'</p> + +<p>By this time Mr Maurice had unwound the cord and unfolded the paper, and +displayed a neat little book—what think you it was? 'Peter Parley's +Stories,' says one, 'The Love Token,' says another. No, you are both +wrong. Effie Maurice was almost a woman before these books were written. +Mrs Sherwood was then the children's friend, and some beautiful stories +she told them, too. The book had neither pictures, nor gilt letters, but +this did not spoil it for Effie, and she was soon so busily engaged in +reading that she forgot that there was anything in the world but herself +and the delightful book—more still, she forgot even her own existence, +and thought only of the people about whom she was reading. A half-hour +passed away and then Mrs Maurice reminded Effie of her room, and told +her it had better be put in order.</p> + +<p>'Yes, mother, in a few minutes.' The few <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>minutes passed away, and Mrs +Maurice spoke again.</p> + +<p>'I will, mother.' Mrs Maurice saw that Effie forgot these words almost +as soon as spoken, but instead of telling her at once to put up the +book, and do as she was bidden, she allowed her to pursue her own course +for this once, hoping by this means to cure her of a very bad habit.</p> + +<p>Soon after, Mrs Maurice descended to the kitchen to give some +directions, and Effie was left alone. Once the thought entered her mind +that she had promised to visit Mrs Gilman that day, but she immediately +concluded another time would do as well, and so continued her reading. +After a while Harry, who had been out with his father, entered in great +haste, with a packet of medicine in his hand.</p> + +<p>'Effie,' he said, 'father wants you to take this to Mrs Gilman's when +you go, it is for her little James, and I—'</p> + +<p>'I am not going to-day, Harry.'</p> + +<p>'Can't you go? Oh do! don't mind the book! you can read it another +time.'</p> + +<p>'So I can go to Mrs Gilman's another time.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>'Oh, but the medicine, Effie.'</p> + +<p>'Can't you take it as well as I? It is too bad for me to have to be +running there all the time.' It was very unusual for Effie to speak so +peevishly, but Harry was in a very happy mood, so he merely exclaimed, +'Why, Effie!' and glanced at the book as much as to say, 'did you learn +it there!' Effie saw the glance, and ashamed of her ill nature said, 'Oh +it is such a good story, Harry! but if you can't go to Mrs Gilman's, why +not send a servant?'</p> + +<p>'Father said some of <i>us</i> ought to go; so do, Effie, just put up your +book for this once. The medicine is to prevent the convulsions that +frightened us so yesterday, but father is going out into the country (it +is delightful sleighing!) and he says I may go. You know it isn't every +day I can get a sleigh-ride, Effie.' And the delighted boy gave his +sister such a very hearty kiss that she could not forbear answering good +humouredly, especially as she had some suspicion that she had not spoken +pleasantly at first, 'Well, I will go, Harry, but don't hinder me now, I +shall get through the chapter in a few minutes.' 'Well, don't forget, +and when I come back I will tell you about all I see.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>Effie finished her chapter and thought of the medicine, and wondered if +it was really so important that it should go immediately; but she was +now in the most interesting part of the story, and she continued to read +a little farther. So the time stole away—I can't exactly tell how, but +perhaps some of my little readers (especially if they have read the +little book that delighted Effie so much) can imagine—till the dinner +hour. By this time Effie had finished her book, and her father and Harry +had returned from the sleigh-ride, the latter particularly in excellent +spirits. Effie thought of the medicine as she sat down to the table, and +in a moment all her enjoyment vanished; for she had been guilty of +procrastination, she had broken her word, and what excuse had she to +offer for her neglect? That she had scarcely known what she was about, +was no excuse at all, for she knew she ought to have known. She could +not, however, prevail upon herself to confess her fault, until after she +had repaired it, and so decided to go to Mrs Gilman's immediately after +dinner, and when she had set all right again, to tell the whole affair +to her parents and brother.</p> + +<p>Harry was full of stories about his ride, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>she heard as well as she +could about the farmer's big dog that at first wouldn't let them come +in, and afterwards shook hands with them, and the cat that could open +doors, and the hens and rabbits, but she forgot all about them in a +moment, and only wished she could slide away from the table and nobody +see her. At last the meal was ended, and they were about rising from the +table when they were startled by a message from Mrs Gilman's. Her little +boy was in convulsions.</p> + +<p>'I will go immediately,' said Mr Maurice, 'poor little fellow! nothing +can save him now—that medicine was my last hope.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, father!' exclaimed Effie.</p> + +<p>'Nay, my child—' Mr Maurice began, but he saw that it was not mere pity +that produced so much agitation, and inquired hastily 'what is the +matter?' Poor Effie attempted to speak, but burst into tears.</p> + +<p>'Oh, Effie!' exclaimed her brother, grasping her arm, 'you couldn't have +forgotten the medicine.' The poor child only sobbed the harder, and +Harry, turning to the table, pointed to the little packet, thus +explaining the mystery!</p> + +<p>'And so for a selfish gratification you have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>endangered a +fellow-creature's life,' said Mr Maurice, sternly.</p> + +<p>'Oh, father!' exclaimed Harry, 'she's so sorry! Don't cry, Effie, don't +cry!' he whispered, at the same time passing his arm around her neck, +'father didn't mean to be so severe, he is only frightened about little +James—I am very sorry I didn't go, for it was too bad to make you leave +the book.'</p> + +<p>But all Harry's soothing words could not make Effie blind to her own +neglect, and when she saw her father go out with an anxious, troubled +face, and her mother looked so sorrowful without saying a single word to +her, she could not help going back in her thoughts to Mrs Town, Rosa +Lynmore, and even the miser, and thinking she was worse than any of +them.</p> + +<p>Her brother Harry still clung around her neck, and kept whispering she +was not to blame, the fault was his, till Mrs Maurice called him away, +and then very reluctantly he quitted her side. Poor Effie, thus left +without sympathy, crept away to her own little room, and sat down, not +merely to weep, but to enter into a regular self-examination. The truths +she thus discovered were exceedingly humiliating, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>but the child began to +feel that she needed humbling, and she did not shrink from the task. I +do not know but Effie's self-condemnation was greater than the fault +really called for, but it certainly was of great use to her, and made +her humbler, and gentler, and more forgiving than she ever was before.</p> + +<p>Effie did not see her father or Harry again that night, but when her +mother came to see if she was warm in her little bed, she whispered in +her ear, 'Oh, I have so many faults: and my heart is full of false gods. +I am afraid I never really loved my Heavenly Father.'</p> + +<p>'Yet, Effie, a great many children, and some grown people, would +consider this neglect of yours to-day a very small thing.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, mother! I know it is not small, though I never thought it was so +very wicked before.'</p> + +<p>'And what makes you think it is wicked now?'</p> + +<p>'Because it has led me to do so many wicked things. In the first place, +it was wrong to read immediately after breakfast, for then is the time +that you desire me to work.'</p> + +<p>'Well, do you see any bad effect that the neglect of this rule may have +on your future life?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p><p>'I suppose I should make a very useless woman, if I should grow up in +ignorance of work.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, certainly you would; when I insist upon your attending to your few +duties at a particular time—can you imagine the reason of this? Why not +read the book this morning, and make up the lost time this evening?' +Effie could not tell, and Mrs Maurice went on to explain the necessity +of <i>order</i> in the distribution of time, and shewed her little daughter, +that it was as necessary in the government of a house as in the +government of a nation. 'But that is not the only bad effect,' she +added, 'of your self-indulgence.'</p> + +<p>'Oh no, mother, it made me disobedient to you, though I am sure I didn't +think of being so at the time.'</p> + +<p>'I dare say not, but you see when we once go wrong, we are like a +traveller who has lost his path, and can be certain of nothing.'</p> + +<p>'Then I forgot my duty to poor Mrs Gilman—I even made myself believe +that there was no need of going to see her; and I was cross to Harry, +and so selfish, that if I had not been ashamed to own it, I would have +had him give up his ride and go with the medicine.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p><p>'And he would rather have gone ten times than—'</p> + +<p>'I know it, mother, rather a hundred times than have the baby die.'</p> + +<p>'Or see you do so very wrong.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, Harry has been crying about it, I know, though he can't feel half +so badly as I do. But that was not all, mother—last of all, I broke my +promise. I told Harry I would go as soon as I finished the chapter.'</p> + +<p>'And all this,' said Mrs Maurice, 'is the result of what, under other +circumstances, would be a mere innocent gratification, a pleasant +pastime, and a useful exercise.'</p> + +<p>'But, mother, when I once begun, I thought I could not stop.'</p> + +<p>'Then that was the very moment when you should have stopped, and this +one victory would have made others easier. Now I am not afraid, my dear, +of your being led astray (at least at present) by things which you know +to be wrong; your danger lies on the unguarded side, and yet it is as +likely to prove fatal to your peace of mind, your piety, and your +usefulness.'</p> + +<p>'It never seemed to me before, that so much evil could come from such a +small thing.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>'Then you have learned an all-important lesson, which I trust will not +be soon forgotten.'</p> + +<p>'But, mother, I shall always be afraid of doing wrong now—I don't even +know what is right.'</p> + +<p>'That shews me, Effie, that you begin to look upon yourself as you +really are. If you are left to yourself, you will do wrong; but if you +distrust self, and place all your confidence in God, and at the same +time study to do right, you will not, for any long time, be left in +darkness.'</p> + +<p>The conversation of Mrs Maurice continued to a late hour; but as the +remaining time was spent in encouraging poor Effie, who needed all that +could be said to her, we will pass it over, and merely inform our +readers that she awoke in the morning wiser, and even happier; for the +joy that is felt in heaven over a repenting sinner, is reflected upon +that sinner's own heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h4>ANOTHER OF MR MAURICE'S LESSONS.</h4> + + +<p>'Father,' said Harry, after the little family had gathered around the +fire as usual, on the ensuing evening, 'it seems strange that people can +love good books too well.'</p> + +<p>'I believe they are not very apt to, Harry, especially boys who are so +fond of snowballing and sliding, as a certain little fellow I met +to-day.'</p> + +<p>'Oh you mean me, now, father, but I thought you liked to have me play.'</p> + +<p>'So I do; only look out that the books and play go together. One is for +the mind, and the other is for the body, and both should be cared for.'</p> + +<p>'Well, father, Mr Titus tells the boys, that the mind is the only thing +worthy of attention, at least he talks as though he thought so; and so +some of the larger boys think it is not scholarlike to play, and sit +mewed up in the house from morning till night, like so many drones.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p><p>'And so grow pale and sickly-looking, do they not?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir; and what's more, I don't think they learn a bit faster than +some of the rest of us.'</p> + +<p>'Very likely, Harry—for whether they think proper attention to the body +important or not, the state of the mind depends very much upon it. A +healthy mind, that is, a perfectly sound, active, and energetic one, +cannot dwell in a diseased body; and so your play, while it amuses you, +and seems to others to be mere waste of time, invigorates the body, +affords rest to the mind, and is in reality as essential to your +well-being as the food you eat, or the clothing you wear in winter.'</p> + +<p>'I wish Mr Titus could hear you say that, father.'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps it would not be safe to talk so to all his boys, for I presume +the most of them would at present be more benefited by what he says. +Children seldom love study too well. Even our little book-worm, Effie, +would never become too much engaged in anything but a story.'</p> + +<p>'Father, Thomas Marvin says that he can't get to school for a while, +and he can't spend <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>the time in exercise; as he says fun takes his mind +off his books, and makes him lose a great deal. He is intending to teach +a school when he goes away from here, but I don't believe he will, for +he looks sickly now. But he thinks it is very foolish to spend time in +jumping about, and all that, when there are things so much more +important to be done.'</p> + +<p>'The body, which God has so wonderfully made, and which He watches over +with such tender care, is very far from being beneath our notice, Harry; +and while we should give the greater care to the immortal part, we +should not neglect the other. I have been visiting a scholar to-day, who +I doubt not was once of young Marvin's opinion in these things, and, +poor fellow! he does not even see his folly now.'</p> + +<p>'Please tell us about him, father,' said Effie, with interest, 'did he +study so much to make him selfish and wicked?'</p> + +<p>'I will tell you the story, and then you must be the judge,' returned +Mr Maurice. 'I believe, however, that in this case selfishness was more +out of the question than usual; he had too much zeal, "a zeal not +according to knowledge." Lewis Varden was the son of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>a poor widow, who +contrived to support a large family in comfort and to give them a good +education. He was the youngest son, and perhaps from the circumstance of +being too tenderly nurtured, and perhaps from some constitutional +defect, was never so strong and muscular as his brothers, and so his +mother determined that he should study a profession.</p> + +<p>'Lewis was particularly pleased with the arrangement, as he had a +natural fondness for sedentary employments, and at sixteen had become so +extensive a reader, as to be a kind of family encyclopedia. The +question, however, remained to be decided whether he should study law or +medicine, the only professions which among us are at all lucrative.</p> + +<p>'While he was yet wavering between the two, he lost his mother, and +suddenly the whole object of his life, even his own character, became +changed. Mrs Varden was what is usually called a good woman, that is, +with a sharp eye upon her worldly interests, she maintained her standing +in the church, and bore a fair reputation; but she was a worldly-minded +Christian, and as such had not sufficiently encouraged in her children +any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>peculiar love for holiness. She was, however, a devoted, +self-sacrificing mother, as far as their worldly interests were +concerned: and never was a lost parent more sincerely mourned.</p> + +<p>'From that time forth, Lewis seemed to lose all connection with the +business part of the world, and he devoted himself more closely than +ever to his books.</p> + +<p>'Yet among these books, the Bible now found a place, and occupied a +large share of his attention. From reading it, because it suited his now +serious thoughts, he began to love its contents, and finally he made +them the guide of his life. He became a member of the church in the +little village where he resided, and was soon regarded as a very +promising young man.</p> + +<p>'His new friends were exceedingly anxious that he should study for the +ministry, and he entered with alacrity upon his new duties. But not +content with what he considered the circuitous way to usefulness usually +taken, he determined by industry to cut it short, and so the noonday sun +and midnight lamp found him at the same task. When worn out by his +incessant mental labours, he would throw <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>himself down and sleep for a +little time; but his dreams were only a continuation of his waking +thoughts, so that even in sleep he was studying still.</p> + +<p>'When his fellow-students expostulated, he laughed at the idea of his +health being injured by incessant application, and seemed to be afraid +that variety of employment would distract his attention. So he went on +from week to week, and month to month, preparing his mind for +usefulness, but his body for the grave. His pale brow grew yet paler, +his cheek hollow, and his hand thin and colourless, but still he +declared himself to be in perfect health, and no one knew his danger.</p> + +<p>'Finally, he was attacked by a cold, a very slight one, he at first +thought, but it clung to him, and could not be shaken off. The poor +fellow is now wasting away by consumption, but I cannot convince him of +his danger, and to-day when I called on him at the house of his brother, +I found him surrounded by books and papers, his large dark eye +absolutely glowing with enthusiasm, and a deep red spot burning on +either cheek.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, father, what did you say to him?' inquired Harry, earnestly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>'A short time ago I recommended quiet and relaxation, telling him +plainly that his disease was beyond the reach of medicine, so he +understood my look of painful surprise at once.</p> + +<p>'He only shook his head, laughingly, and said, "Ah, Doctor, this life is +too short to throw away, and so I have gone to work. But you must not +blame me," he said, observing that I was about to speak, "I am only +planning a few sermons I intend to preach next summer."</p> + +<p>'And then he went on to talk about his intentions, and inquired my +opinion of some particular sentiments that he had been writing down, +until he became so much excited that I was obliged to order the removal +of all his papers. Poor fellow! he will never preach a sermon. In his +impatience to become useful, he has destroyed his power to do good.'</p> + +<p>'I don't think,' said Effie, 'that poor Mr Varden makes knowledge his +<i>god</i> exactly, because he does it all for good; but it would be very +wicked for Harry or me to do so, because we know how wrong it is. I wish +everybody that praised people for studying too hard could know it is +wicked.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p><p>'But remember,' said Mr Maurice, 'that where one person's cheek is +paled by hard study, fifty make themselves utterly useless by neglecting +the bodily exercise which <i>moderate</i> mental effort demands. It is +aversion to active employment, and not the love of knowledge, that has +slain its hundreds and crippled its thousands.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h4>THE FUNERAL.</h4> + + +<p>It was a bright and sunshiny day, and so warm as to make the snow moist +and yielding beneath the foot—such a day as children love and choose +for their happiest sports; but to at least two children it was anything +but a day of pleasure. Poor Mrs Gilman's little James had lingered on +beyond all expectation, and finally died, calmly and quietly, as if he +had been composing himself for sleep. And so it was—a long sleep.</p> + +<p>This was the day on which the little one was to be buried, and Harry +and Effie were sincere mourners. Not like the poor mother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>—oh no, no one +could feel like her—but they wept as one child of adversity weeps for +another, all through life, from the cradle to the grave.</p> + +<p>Children are sad when they see those of their own age falling like the +spring flowers around them; and when the little infant grows cold and +lifeless in its cradle, beneath a loving mother's eye, and is borne away +to the silent, lonely graveyard, they insensibly grow thoughtful, and if +they have been deprived of previous instructions, death becomes their +teacher, and for a little time they grow wise beneath the influence of +his lessons.</p> + +<p>But Harry and Effie had not been thus deprived, and as hand in hand +they followed the little coffin to the grave, through their tears of +sadness and sympathy there gleamed out a bright and elevated expression, +almost a happy one, which shewed that they looked beyond these +sorrow-claiming objects, and saw the suffering child they had loved and +pitied a redeemed spirit of light. They could see that the little +flower, which had drooped and faded in the atmosphere of this world, +grew bright and beautiful in the sunshine of immortal love. They knew +that the kingdom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>of God was made up of just such little children—those +who had died before they knew anything of the sin and wickedness of this +world; or having known it, having grown old and gray beneath its heavy +burden, had laid all at the feet of Jesus, and in spirit gone back to +helpless, guileless infancy again.</p> + +<p>They knew that their little friend now dwelt with that dear Saviour, +who, when on earth, blessed little children, who gathers the lambs in +His arms, and carries them in His bosom. Yet it was a sad day for them, +for they mourned the dead, as mortals always mourn when mortals die, +although they did not wish him back, and they pitied the living. More +tears were indeed shed for Mrs Gilman, than for the child.</p> + +<p>The contents of Rosa Lynmore's purse had been reserved by Mr Maurice for +this sad occasion, he having supplied all previous wants; and it had +been sufficient to give a decent burial to the little boy, who slept +quietly at his father's side—to be awakened only when you and I, my +dear reader, shall be aroused from the same slumber.</p> + +<p>Mr Maurice was right when he said if Mrs Gilman was stricken, it would +be in mercy; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>for her heart being weaned from the world, at last found a +refuge from its loneliness in the consolations of religion, and left the +broken reed of earthly love, on which it had leaned too confidently, for +the Rock, Christ Jesus, the friend that never fails.</p> + +<p>She entered Mr Maurice's family as a domestic, and has grown gray in its +service.</p> + +<p>Harry Maurice, it was for a long time thought, would become a preacher +of the Gospel; but when he became old enough to judge, he decided in +favour of his father's profession, declaring that he who fails to do +good in one situation in life, would most decidedly fail in another.</p> + +<p>Sweet little Effie! Her struggle with her heart on the occasion of the +book was not the last; it was difficult for her to learn its +deceitfulness, and she required repeated lessons.</p> + +<p>As she grew older, however, she was always complaining of her own +sinfulness, while every one else thought her the meekest, the gentlest, +and most self-sacrificing being that ever lived. She had, indeed, become +remarkably sharp-sighted to her own faults, and, in proportion, +forgiving to those of others.</p> + +<p>But at last a trial came. She was called <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>on to leave all she loved on +earth, and carry the Gospel to a far off benighted land.</p> + +<p>She wept at parting with her parents, but even then she whispered in her +mother's ear thanks for the early lessons she had received, and added, +'But for these I might never have learned true self-denial, and might +have preferred my dear home to the service of my Master.'</p> + +<p>Effie loved her home sincerely, but she loved her Saviour who gave it to +her better, and she will have her reward.</p> + +<p>And now, my little readers, I have not told you this story simply to +amuse you, although I should like to see you interested in its perusal, +but I had a better object.</p> + +<p>It is not enough that you should see your own faults, and try to mend +them yourself; neither is it enough that you should pray, 'lead us not +into temptation;' but you must '<i>watch and pray</i>' also, always +remembering that however pleasant and beautiful this world is, there is +a brighter and a better, where little children and old men may equally +sit down together in happiness, having one God and one Father.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Effie Maurice, by Fanny Forester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EFFIE MAURICE *** + +***** This file should be named 17467-h.htm or 17467-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/4/6/17467/ + +Produced by David Clarke and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/17467-h/images/frontis.jpg b/17467-h/images/frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..67bb19f --- /dev/null +++ b/17467-h/images/frontis.jpg diff --git a/17467.txt b/17467.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..12323a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/17467.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2165 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Effie Maurice, by Fanny Forester + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Effie Maurice + Or What do I Love Best + +Author: Fanny Forester + +Release Date: January 5, 2006 [EBook #17467] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EFFIE MAURICE *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "Give it to the poor woman with the sick baby," whispered +Effie--CHAPTER III] + + + + +EFFIE MAURICE + +OR + +What do I Love Best + +A TALE + + +London +GALL AND INGLIS, 25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE; +_AND EDINBURGH_. + + + + +Contents. + + +CHAPTER + + I. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT + + II. PLANS PROPOSED + + III. NEW YEAR'S DAY + + IV. THE MISER + + V. THE POOR WIDOW + + VI. GENEROSITY AND JUSTICE + + VII. THE NEW BOOK + +VIII. ANOTHER OF MR. MAURICE'S LESSONS + + IX. THE FUNERAL + + + + +EFFIE MAURICE + +OR + +What do I Love Best + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' + + +'Mother,' said little Effie Maurice, on a Sabbath evening in winter, 'Mr +L---- said to-day that we are all in danger of breaking the first +commandment,--do you think we are?' + +'Did not Mr L. give you his reasons for thinking so?' + +'Yes, mother.' + +'Didn't you think he gave good reasons?' + +'I suppose he did, but I could not understand all he said, for he +preached to men and women. Perhaps he thought children were in no danger +of breaking it.' + +'Well, bring your Bible--' + +'O mother, I can say all the commandments, every word. The first is, +"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." I thought this was for the +Burmans and Chinese, and all those who worship idols where the +missionaries go.' + +'The poor heathen are not the only idolaters in the world, my child; we +have many of them in our own Christian land.' + +'What! _here_, mother? Do people worship idols in this country?' + +'Yes, my dear, I fear we do.' + +'_We_ do, mother? You don't mean to say that you, and papa, and Deacon +Evarts, and all such good people, worship idols?' + +'Do you suppose, Effie, that all the idols or false gods in the world +are made of wood and stone?' + +'Oh no, mother, I read in my Sunday-school book of people's worshipping +animals, and plants, and the sun, and moon, and a great many of the +stars.' + +'And gold and silver, and men, women and children, did you not?' + +'Yes mother.' + +'Well, if a man loves gold or silver better than he loves God, does it +make any difference whether he has it made into an image to pray to, or +whether he lays it away in the shape of silver dollars and gold eagles?' + +Effie sat for a few moments in thought, and then suddenly looking up, +replied,--'Men don't worship dollars and eagles.' + +'Are you sure?' inquired Mrs Maurice. + +'I never heard of any one who did.' + +'You mean you never heard of one who prayed to them; but there are a +great many people who prefer money to anything else, and who honour a +fine house, fine furniture, and fine dress, more than the meek and quiet +spirit which God approves.' + +'And then money is the god of such people, I suppose, and they are the +ones that break the first commandment?' + +'Not the only ones, my dear; there are a great many earthly gods, and +they are continually leading us away from the God of heaven. Whatever we +love better than Him, becomes our God, for to that we yield our +heart-worship.' + +'I never thought of that before, mother. Yesterday, Jane Wiston told me +that her mother didn't visit Mrs Aimes because she was poor; and when I +told her that you said Mrs Aimes was very pious, she said it did not +make any difference, ladies never visited there. Is Mrs Wiston's god +money?' + +'If Mrs Wiston, or any other person, honours wealth more than humble, +unaffected piety, she disobeys the first commandment. But in judging of +others, my dear, always remember that _you cannot see the heart_, and +so, however bad the appearance may be, you have a right to put the best +possible construction on every action.' + +'How can I believe that Mrs Wiston's heart is any better than her +actions, mother?' + +'In the first place, Jane might have been mistaken, and money may have +nothing to do with her mother's visits; and if she is really correct, +Mrs Wiston may never have considered this properly, and so at least she +deserves charity. I desire you to think a great deal on this subject, +and when you understand it better, we will talk more about it.' + +'I think I understand it now, mother. Every thing we love better than +the God of heaven becomes our god, and if we don't bow down to pray to +it, we give it our _heart-worship_, as you said, and that is quite as +wicked. But after all, mother, I don't think there is any danger of my +breaking the first commandment.' + +'Do you remember the text Harry repeated at the table this morning? "Let +him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."' + +Effie looked very thoughtful for a moment, and then laying her face in +her mother's lap, she said: 'It is not because I am so good that I think +so, mother; I know I am very wicked, but I am sure that I love my +heavenly Father better than any thing else.' + +'I am glad to believe you do,' said Mrs Maurice, drawing the child +nearer to her and kissing her cheek. 'I am persuaded that calmly and +deliberately you would not prefer the world to Him. But perpetual +distrust of self, with constant trust in God, is your only ground of +safety. Those who do not fall, may for a moment slip, and you with all +the rest of us must watch and pray.' + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +PLANS PROPOSED. + + +The conversation that Effie Maurice had had with her mother made a very +deep impression on her mind; but still, with all the confidence of one +who has had but few trials, she was grieved that any one should suppose +she could for a moment forget her heavenly Father, or prefer any thing +to His glory and honour. She repeated what her mother had said to her +brother Harry, and he increased her self-confidence by recalling a great +many little sacrifices she had made, which he was quite sure other young +persons would not do. + +'And now, Effie,' said the kind-hearted brother, 'we will talk no more +about this, for it makes you very sober. Remember that to-morrow is New +Year's day, and we've got the money to spend that Aunt Norton sent us, +so we must be out early, or all the prettiest things will be sold. I +went by Mr T.'s shop to-night, and it was all lighted up so that I could +see great sticks of candy, almost as big round as my wrist, and jars of +sweetmeats, and there was a rocking horse all saddled and bridled, and +the neatest little whip you ever did see, and _such_ a little rifle--but +I forgot, girls don't mind those things; let me think--I dare say there +were dolls, though I didn't look for them, and then such a pretty little +rocking-chair all cushioned with purple silk, just about big enough for +dolly, and heaps of other nice things--so we must be out early, Effie.' + +'Harry--' + +'What is it, Effie?' + +'I was thinking--' + +'What about? Do you want something I haven't mentioned? I dare say it is +there.' + +'No, I was thinking--I--I believe I will give my money to the +missionaries.' + +'Now, Effie!' + +'Then I shan't make a god of it.' + +'But Aunt Norton gave you this to buy some pretty things for yourself.' + +'I know it, but--' + +'And you have given ever so much to the missionaries.' + +'Well, Harry, I don't know that I need any new toys.' + +'When you see Mr T.'s shop--' + +'I don't want to see Mr T.'s shop, that would be going in the way of +temptation.' + +Harry was silent a few moments,--he was two years older than Effie, and +although sometimes dazzled by appearances, as in the case of the +attractive toy shop, when he waited to think, his judgment was usually +very good for one so young. At last he looked up with a smile, 'I've +thought it out, Effie, we don't need any new toys; we might buy books +for our little library, but father has promised us two or three more +soon. Then our subscriptions to the Missionary Society, and the Bible +Society, and the Colporteur Society, are paid (to be sure it wouldn't +hurt us to give a little more), but I have just thought what to do with +this money (that is, yours and mine together, you know), which I think +is better than all the rest.' + +'What is it?' + +'We'll make a New Year's present of it.' + +'To whom?' + +'Can't you think?' + +'To father, or mother?' + +'No, I should love to buy them something, but they would rather not.' + +'To old Phillis, then?' + +'Old Phillis!--it _would_ be a good notion to buy her a gown, wouldn't +it, but I was thinking of John Frink.' + +'You didn't mean to give it to _him_, I hope, such an idle, +good-for-nothing boy as he is?' + +'He isn't idle and good-for-nothing now, Effie. Since he began to go to +the Sunday school he's as different as can be. Now if we could put our +money together, and help him to go to school this winter (he can't even +read the Bible, Effie,) I think it would do more good than anything else +in the world.' + +'Perhaps it would, but I never liked John Frink very well. He will learn +to read the Bible at the Sunday school, and if he did know any more, I'm +not sure he'd make a good use of it.' + +'Perhaps he wouldn't, but we could hope, Effie, and pray, and then we +should have the pleasure of knowing that our duty was done, as Mr L. +said the other day. If John Frink should become reformed, only think of +how much good he might do in that wicked family, and among the wicked +boys here in the city, and then when he gets to be a man--' + +'But if he isn't reformed, Harry?' + +'That is just what Mr S. said to father, the other day, when he asked +him for money to buy tracts for boatmen on the canal--"If they don't +read them," said he. + +'Father told him that if we did our duty faithfully, it was all that is +required of us, and we must leave the results in the hands of God. Now I +think just so of John Frink, only that I can't help believing that he +will reform. The Bible says, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the +evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall +prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." +Now, maybe, all the money you have given this year will do good, but +perhaps this to John Frink most of all.' + +'I believe you are right, Harry,' said Effie, 'but you will give me +to-night to think about it.' + +'Oh yes, to be sure, you could not give the money, with your whole +heart, unless you believed it was to do good, and so you may think just +as long as you please. Now your kiss, Effie, for I must go to bed. We +will be up early, if we _don't_ go to Mr T.'s shop.' + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +NEW YEAR'S DAY. + + +Harry Maurice was out 'bright and early,' wishing everybody a 'Happy New +Year,' and making them happy at least for the moment, by the expression +of his ruddy, laughing face. We love to see in children cheerfulness and +contentment. Harry's head was full of plans for doing good, and though +more than half of them were visionary, they seemed realities then, and +so being in good humour with himself, he could not fail of being so with +everybody else. Effie refused to go with him to Mrs Frink's, for she had +her own little gifts to dispense, but she consented to take a walk with +him in the afternoon, and even to call at Mr T.'s shop, for she +concluded there could be no danger in looking at the toys after they had +disposed of their money. + +Harry's account of his reception at Mrs Frink's was anything but +satisfactory to Effie, for although he evidently endeavoured to make the +best of it, he said not a single word of John's gratitude. 'I am afraid, +Effie,' he rather mischievously whispered, 'if you had gone with me to +Mrs Frink's you would have thought dirt was her god, for I believe she +loves it better than anything else.' + +'O Harry, I am sure it is wicked to make fun--' + +'I didn't mean to make fun, Effie, but I'm sure I couldn't help thinking +of the old man in Pilgrim's Progress with the muck rake, refusing the +crown, all the time I was there.' + +'Father told me that the man with the muck rake, meant the miser.' + +'Well, I suppose it does, but I should think it might mean any body that +is not a Christian, for such people, you know, are rejecting a heavenly +crown for worldly things, which are in reality worth about as much as +the trash the old man is raking together in the picture.' Effie stared +at her brother in complete astonishment, for she could not but wonder +how so small a head could contain such a wondrous amount of knowledge. +Harry endured a stare for a moment with considerable dignity, but he was +naturally a modest lad, and finally added, 'That is pretty nearly the +substance of what Frank Ingham told me about it--I can't remember the +words quite.' + +After dinner was over, and Harry and Effie had distributed the remnants +of it among several poor families that lived on an adjoining street, +they set out on their walk. The day was extremely cold, but clear and +still, and altogether as beautiful as any day in the whole year. Effie +in cloak, hood, and muff, seemed the very picture of comfort as she +walked along beside her brother in his equally warm attire, towards Mr +T.'s shop. + +'Are you cold? What makes you shiver so?' inquired Harry. Effie did not +answer, but she drew her hand from her muff and pointed with her gloved +finger to a little girl who stood a few yards from her, stamping her +feet, and clapping her red bare hands, and then curling them under her +arms as if to gain a little warmth from thence. 'Poor thing!' said +Harry, 'I should think she would freeze, with nothing but that old rag +of a handkerchief about her shoulders, and that torn muslin bonnet. I +don't wonder you shivered, Effie, it makes me cold to look at her.' + +'Let us see if she wants anything,' said Effie. + +By this time the attention of the little girl was attracted by the +children's conversation and glances, and she came running towards them, +crying at every step, 'Give me a sixpence, please?' + +'We have no money, not even a penny,' said Harry, 'are you very hungry?' +The girl began to tell how long it was since she had had anything to +eat, but she talked so hurriedly, and used so many queer words, that the +two children found it very difficult to understand her. + +'She is in want, no doubt,' whispered Harry to his sister, 'but father +would say, it was best to give her food and clothing, not money.' + +'I wish I had a sixpence, though,' said Effie. + +The wealthy and the gay, the poor and the apparently miserable, went +pouring by in crowds, and some did not hear the beggar-child's plea, +others that heard did not heed it, while many paused from idle curiosity +to gaze at her, and a few flung her a penny, and passed on. Harry and +Effie too went on, frequently looking back and forming little plans for +the good of the child, until their attention was attracted by other +objects of compassion or admiration. Sleighs were continually dashing +past them, drawn by beautiful horses, and filled with the forms of the +young, the gay, and the happy. Old men, bowed down by the weight of +years, hobbled along on the pavements, their thin blue lips distorted by +a smile--a smile of welcome to the year that, perhaps, before its +departure, would see them laid in the grave--and busy tradesmen, with +faces strongly marked by care, or avarice, or anxiety, jostled by them; +ladies too, in gay hats and large rich shawls, or the more +comfort-seeking in cloaks and muffs; and poor women, with their tattered +clothing drawn closely around their shrinking forms, were hurrying +forward apparently with the same intent. Every variety of the human +species seemed crowded on those narrow pavements. + +Harry and Effie were only a few rods from Mr T.'s door, when Mr Maurice +overtook them, on his way to some other part of the city. He smiled, as +he always did, on his children, then putting a few pence into Effie's +hand, whispered something about '_temptation money_,' and passed on. + +'I shan't be tempted, though,' said the child, holding the coin before +her brother's eyes. + +'No, Effie,' replied the boy, 'it isn't wrong to spend this money for +yourself, so you can't be tempted to do wrong with it. This is every +body's day for pleasure, and you ought to enjoy it.' + +'I have enjoyed it,' said Effie, looking upon her brother smilingly, +'and I guess somebody else has helped me.' + +'I guess so, too,' was the reply, 'I think we have been a great deal +happier than if we had come here in the morning.' + +Children though they were, they were demonstrating the words of the Lord +Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' + +Mr T.'s shop was crowded to overflowing with children, a few grown +people intermingling: and every one, from the errand boy, that, with his +hard-earned pittance in his hand, was estimating the amount of good +things it would purchase, to the child of the wealthy merchant, +murmuring because the waxen doll she contemplated adding to her store, +was not in every respect formed to suit her difficult taste, seemed +intent on pleasure. + +Harry and Effie were as much pleased as any one, and some, who had seen +with what readiness they had parted with their money in the morning, +would have wondered at their taste for toys; but these children had one +talent which a great many grown people as well as children would do well +to imitate. It was not absolutely necessary that they should _possess_ a +thing in order to _enjoy_ it. They had been taught when very young, to +distinguish beautiful things from those that were merely novel, and +although they liked (as I believe is natural) to call things their own, +they could be pleased with what was calculated to produce pleasure, +without envying its possessor, just as you would look upon a beautiful +sunset, or a fine landscape, without thinking of becoming its owner. But +Effie had a little money to spend, and this occasioned a great deal of +deliberation, for to tell the truth, the little girl was so pleased with +her day's work, that she was still determined on self-denial. + +'Take care,' whispered Harry, as he watched her examining some trifles +which he was pretty sure were intended for old Phillis, 'take care, +Effie, that you don't get proud of your generosity--there is more than +one way to make self a god.' + +Effie blushed, and calling for some nuts, threw her money on the +counter, saying to her brother, 'We can share them together in the +evening.' The nuts were scarce stowed away in reticule and muff, when a +poorly-clad young woman, very pale and thin, bearing in her arms an +infant still paler, pressed her way through the throng, and gained the +counter. She inquired for cough lozenges. It was a long time before she +could be attended, but she stood very patiently, though seemingly scarce +able to support the weight of her own person. Harry involuntarily +glanced around the shop for a chair, and as he did so, his eye rested on +a bright-faced little girl, close beside his sister, who was choosing +and rejecting a great many pretty toys, and now and then casting a +glance at the well-filled purse in her hand, as if to ascertain after +each purchase the state of her finances. + +'Beautiful!' she exclaimed, her eye glistening with pleasure at the +sight of the purple cushioned rocking-chair of which Harry had told his +sister. + +'Is that all?' inquired a sad, low voice, and again Harry's eye turned +to the poor woman who was purchasing the lozenges. + +'Yes, ma'am, to be sure,' replied the pert shopkeeper, 'and a pretty +large all too--what could you expect for a penny?' + +The poor woman made no reply, but the hurried glance she gave her infant +with its accompanying sigh, seemed to say, 'God help my poor baby then!' + +Harry involuntarily thrust his hand into his pocket, but he quickly +withdrew it, and glanced at the little girl who was purchasing the +rocking-chair. + +'This chair has cost so much,' she said, addressing the shopkeeper, +'that I have only a shilling left.' + +'Oh, then,' whispered Effie, emboldened by her brother's looks of +anxiety, 'give it to the poor woman with the sick baby.' + +The little girl stared at her somewhat rudely, then turning to the +woman, exclaimed, 'What! _that_ one, with the horrid looking bonnet!' +and, shaking her head, laughingly replied, 'Thank you, Miss, I have a +better use for it.' + +Effie was really distressed. The poor woman looked so pale and sad, and +yet so meek and uncomplaining withal, that both brother and sister found +themselves strangely interested. + +'O how I wish we could do something for her,' whispered Harry. 'Will +you please exchange my nuts for cough lozenges?' inquired Effie in a +faltering voice, of the shopkeeper. + +'Rather too busy, Miss.' + +'But it will oblige me very much.' + +'Happy to oblige you on any other day, Miss, but we really have no time +for exchanges now.' By this time the poor woman had gained the door, and +Effie, looking round, observed that her brother too was missing. + +'He followed the woman with the baby,' said the little girl who had +purchased the rocking-chair; then pursing up her mouth with an +expression as near contempt as such a pretty mouth could wear, she +inquired, 'Is she your _aunt_?' + +The angry blood rushed in a flood to Effie's face, but she quickly +subdued it, and with ready thought replied, 'No, my _sister_.' + +It was now the turn of the stranger girl to blush, and at the same time +she cast upon her new companion a slight glance of surprise. She then +turned over with her fingers her new toys, glanced at the rocking-chair, +and seemingly dissatisfied with all, again turned to Effie. + +'Please give her this,' she said, putting the remaining shilling in her +hand. 'I know what you mean, my mother taught me that, but--she is dead +now.' + +'If Harry finds where the poor woman lives,' returned Effie, 'we will go +there together.' The little girl seemed to waver for a moment, then said +hastily, 'No, I must go home--give the money to her,' and hurried away +as fast as the crowd would permit. In a few moments Harry returned. He +had found out where the poor woman lived, but it was a great distance, +and he was too considerate to leave his sister alone. Harry was not one +of those philanthropists who, in doing a great amount of good, become +blind to trifles; for his father had taught him, that duties never +interfere with each other, and he knew that he owed Effie every care and +attention. I have often observed that those children, who are the most +kind and considerate to brothers and sisters, always shew more justice +and generosity to others, than those who think such attentions of but +little importance. + +Harry found out but little more of the woman, than that she was poor, +and sick, and friendless. Her baby too, her only comfort, was wasting +away before her eyes, whether of disease or for lack of food, she did +not tell, and there was none to help her. + +'We will speak to father about her,' said Harry, as they proceeded +homeward, 'perhaps he can do something for them,--it is a sweet little +baby, Effie, with a skin clear and white, and eyes--oh, you never saw +such eyes! they look so soft and loving, that you would think the poor +thing knew every word you said, and how I pitied it. I could hardly help +crying, Effie.' + +'I am glad you followed the poor woman.' + +'So am I. But Effie, you don't know how vexed I was with that selfish +little miss, that bought the rocking-chair.' + +'Harry!' + +'Now, don't go to taking her part, Effie, it will do no good, I can tell +you; she is the most selfish and unfeeling little girl that I ever saw. +Because the woman wore an _old bonnet_, she couldn't help her--only +think of that! how mean!' + +'She--O Harry! now I know what mother meant when she talked to me so +much about having charity for people, and told me that we could not +always judge the heart by the actions. I thought as badly of her as you +at first, but I'm sure now she is not unfeeling.' + +'Well, if she has any feeling, I should like to see her shew it, that's +all. I tell you, Effie, if anybody ever made a god of self, it is that +little girl we saw to-night. She thought her gratification of more +consequence than that poor baby's life.' + +'No, Harry, she is one of the thoughtless ones mother tells us so much +about. If you had seen her when she gave me this money,' putting the +silver piece into her brother's hand, 'you would never call her +unfeeling.' + +'Did you tease her for it?' + +'No, I didn't ask her again, for I did feel a little vexed--yes, a good +deal so, at first, but, Harry, I don't feel vexed now, I am sorry for +her. There was a tear in her eye, I am pretty sure, though she was +ashamed to have me see it, and her lips quivered, and she looked--oh, so +sad, when she told me her mother was dead; I wish you could have seen +her, Harry.' + +'I would rather not see her again, for I can't bear proud people--' +Effie was about interrupting her brother in defence of the little +stranger girl, but at that moment a new object attracted their +attention. It was a fine sleigh drawn by a pair of beautiful gray +horses, that, with proudly arched neck and flowing mane, stepped +daintily, as if perfectly aware of the fact that they were gentlemen's +horses, and carried as fashionable a load as New York afforded. A little +girl leaned quite over the side of the sleigh, and smiled and nodded to +Effie, then waving her handkerchief, to attract still more attention, +dropped something upon the ground. It was the child they had seen at the +toy-shop. Harry flew to pick up the offering, and gave it to his sister. + +'Now, what do you think of her?' inquired Effie, as her eye lighted on +the self-same purse she had seen but a little while before; 'I knew she +must be kind-hearted--did you ever see anything so generous? Here is +ever so much money, and all for the poor woman and her sick baby--why +don't you speak, Harry?' + +'Because--I--' + +'You don't think she is selfish now, I hope?' + +'I don't think anything about it, Effie, because I don't know. If she +gave her own money she is generous, but if she begged it of somebody +else to give--' + +'If she begged it of somebody else, it was generous in her to give it to +this poor woman, instead of putting it to some other use.' + +'Well, Effie, the money will certainly do the poor woman a great deal of +good, and I rather think the little girl feels better for giving, so I +am sure we ought to be glad.' + +'I wish I could find out her name,' said Effie, 'perhaps it is on the +purse.' Harry drew the silken purse from his pocket, and after examining +it closely, found engraved on one of the rings the name of 'ROSA +LYNMORE.' + +In the evening the children related the events of the day to their +mother, and found her approbation a sufficient reward for all their +self-denial. The conduct of Rosa Lynmore was duly canvassed, too; and, +while Mrs Maurice praised her generosity, she endeavoured to shew her +children the difference between this one impulsive act, and the +constant, self-denying effort which is the result of true benevolence. +'This little girl,' she said, 'may make but a small sacrifice in parting +with this money, not half so great as it would be to go and seek out the +poor woman and administer to her necessities, but still we have no right +to find fault with what is so well done, and I am sure, my children, +that you do not desire it.' + +'No, mother,' said Effie, 'I see now why you told me not to judge Mrs +Wiston by appearances; if I had come away a little sooner, I should have +thought this pretty Rosa Lynmore one of the most selfish little girls in +the world. But now I know she was only thoughtless.' + +'Well, I hope, my child, you will always remember not to judge hastily, +and without sufficient reason; yet to be utterly blind to the apparent +faults of those around you, is neither safe nor wise. It is not safe, +because by being too credulous you may easily make yourself the object +of imposition; and not wise, because, by such indiscriminate charity, +you lose a useful lesson.' + +'I think, mother,' said Harry, 'that I can see the lesson we can learn +from Rosa Lynmore's faults.' + +'I don't see that she has any faults,' said Effie, earnestly. 'I am +sure, Harry, you ought not to make so much of that one careless little +word about the bonnet; it _was_ an ugly bonnet, with so deep a front +that I dare say Rosa didn't see the poor woman's pale face.' + +'You call it a careless word, Effie,' said Mrs Maurice, 'you admit that +this little girl was guilty of thoughtlessness, and surely you cannot +consider _that_ no fault--but under certain circumstances this fault is +more pardonable than under others. Now you know nothing of these +circumstances, and so could not, if you wished, be Rosa Lynmore's judge. +But, taking everything as it appears, you may draw your lesson without +assuming a province which does not belong to you. Now, Harry, we will +hear what you have to say.' + +'It was not what Rosa _said_, that I meant, mother,--I was thinking of +what we might learn to-day from all her actions, and I am sure I didn't +want to blame her more than Effie did.' + +'I supposed not, my son.' + +'But, mother, Harry had reason to blame her more, for he didn't see how +sorry she looked, and how her voice trembled when she said, "She is dead +now."--meaning her mother, I shouldn't think a little girl would ever do +right, without a mother to teach her.' + +'Such children deserve pity, my love, and I am glad you have a heart to +pity them, but I suspect that all little girls have wicked thoughts and +feelings that they must strive against, and whether they are blessed +with parents, or have only a Heavenly Father to guide them, they will +have need to watch and pray. But Harry has not given his lesson yet.' + +'Father told me a story the other day--an allegory he called it--about +impulse and principle. + +'Principle went straight forward, and did whatever was right, and tried +to make her feelings agree with it, but Impulse hurried along in a very +crooked path, stopping here, and then bounding forth at the sight of +some new object--one minute neglecting every duty, and the next, doing +something so great that everybody was surprised, and praised her beyond +all measure. Principle very seldom did wrong, and made so little show, +that she was quite unobserved by the world in general, but Impulse was +as likely to do wrong as right, and according as good or evil +predominated, received her full share of praise or censure. Principle +had an approving conscience, and however she might be looked upon by the +world, she was contented and happy, while poor Impulse was half of the +time tossed about by a light thing called Vanity, or gnawed by a monster +named Remorse. I liked the story very much, and I couldn't help +remembering it to-day, when the little girl dropped the purse over the +side of the sleigh. I thought she was governed by Impulse, and though +this is a good act, unless she has a better heart than most people, it +is no true sign that the next one will be good.' + +'Very true, my son, but you have not explained to Effie what you mean by +impulse and principle.' + +'You can explain it better than I can, mother. I don't remember half +that father said about it.' + +'Well, tell me as much as you can remember then.' + +'Why, principle means ground of action, and people who are governed by +principle always have some good reason for what they do, and do not act +without thinking. Father says old people are more apt to be governed by +principle of some kind, either good or bad, than children, for he says +children generally act first, and think afterwards.' + +'And impulse?' inquired Effie. + +'People that act from impulse are altogether at the mercy of +circumstances, and are driven about by their own feelings. They never +wait to inquire whether a thing is right before they do it, but if it +seems right for the minute it is sufficient.' + +Harry's explanation seemed quite satisfactory to his mother, and what +was just then of more importance, to Effie, who, it was but natural, +should find some fault with a definition which seemed to throw anything +like discredit on her new favourite. Any further allusion to the subject +was, however, prevented by the entrance of Mr Maurice, who, as he had +been out all day, making charitable and professional instead of +fashionable calls, had some very interesting stories to relate. But +there was one so strange, and to the children so new, that it threw the +rest quite into the shade, and absorbed their whole stock of sympathy. +It was late before Mr Maurice finished his story, and as it may be late +before our readers get to a better stopping-place, we shall reserve it +fer another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE MISER. + + +'In passing through a narrow back lane,' said Mr Maurice, after relating +several tales of minor importance, 'I paused to look upon a low +building, so old that one corner of it was sunken so much as to give it +a tottering appearance, and if possible it was more dark and dismal than +the others. It seemed to be occupied by several families, for a little +gray smoke went straggling up from two or three crumbling chimneys, but +the rooms were all on the ground floor. As I stood gazing at it, I was +startled by a boy (about your age, Harry, or a little older perhaps) who +came bounding from the door, and grasping my coat untreated me to go in +and see his grandfather.' + +'Did you go, father?' inquired Effie, 'wasn't you afraid?' + +'Afraid! what had he to be afraid of?' exclaimed her brother, 'I should +just as lief go as not.' Yet, notwithstanding the little boy's vaunt +there was a slight tremor on his lip, and his large blue eyes grew +larger still and darker where they were dark, while the whites became +unusually prominent. + +'Of course I went,' resumed Mr Maurice, in a sad tone, 'and a fearful +spectacle did I behold. I had expected to see some poor widow, worn out +by toil and suffering, perchance by anguish and anxiety, dying alone, or +a family of helpless ones, such as I had often visited, or a drunken +husband. I had often glanced at guilt and crime, but never would my +imagination have pictured the scene before me. The room was dark and +loathsome, containing but few articles of furniture, and those battered +and defaced by age, and with a rickety bed in one corner, on which lay +stretched in mortal agony the figure of a wrinkled, gray-haired old man, +apparently approaching the final struggle. O my children, poverty, +loneliness, want, are the portion of many on this fair, beautiful earth, +but such utter wretchedness as appeared in that man's face, can only be +the result of crime.' Mr Maurice was evidently deeply affected, and his +wife and children were for a moment silent. + +'Was he dying, father?' at length Harry ventured to inquire, in a +subdued tone. + +'He seemed very weak, except now and then when he was seized with +convulsions, and then he would writhe and throw himself about, and it +was more than I could do to keep him on his bed--I do not think it +possible for him to survive till morning.' + +'Didn't he say anything, father?' + +'It was a long time before he said anything, but after I had succeeded +in warming some liquid, which I found in an old broken cup, over the +decayed fire, I gave him a little of it, and in time he became much +calmer. Between his paroxysms of pain, I induced him to give some +account of himself, and the circumstances that brought him to his +present situation, and what think you was the prime moving cause of all +this wretchedness?' + +'I suspect he was very poor,' said Effie. + +'Something worse than that I should think,' added her brother, 'perhaps +he was a gamester.' + +'Or a drunkard,' suggested Effie. + +'Or both,' responded the mother, or perhaps he commenced by being merely +a time-waster, and money-waster, and finally was reduced to what persons +of that stamp are very apt to consider the necessity of committing +crime, by way of support. + +Mr Maurice shook his head. 'It was neither poverty, nor play, nor +drunkenness, nor indolence, nor extravagance, that made that old man +wretched, and yet he was the most wretched being I ever saw.' + +'He was poor, though, wasn't he, father?' + +'Poverty is but a small thing, Effie, and in our land of equal laws and +charitable institutions, very few suffer from absolute want, but that +old man was richer (in gold and silver I mean) than I am.' + +'What! and lived in that dreadful place, father?' + +'Oh! I see it,' exclaimed Harry; 'he is a miser.' + +'Yes, Harry,' returned Mr Maurice, 'you are right, the love of money is +the cause of all his misery. He came to this city a great many years +ago, (he could not himself tell how many, for his memory evidently +wavered,) and commenced business as a linen draper. He had one only +daughter then, and he lavished all his earnings on her at first, but +finally she married, and from that time he became wholly engrossed with +self. He was never very fond of show, and so did not become a +spendthrift, but he adopted the equally dangerous course of hoarding up +all his savings, until it became a passion with him. After a while he +retired from business, but the passion clung to him with all the +tenacity of a long established habit, and he became a usurer. He was +known to all the young profligates, the bad young men who throng our +city, and became as necessary to them as the poor avaricious Jew was in +former days to the spendthrifts and gamesters in London. He told me +frightful stories, my children, of tyranny and fraud, of ruined young +men led on by him till they committed self-murder, of old men shorn of +their fortunes through his ingenious villainy--' + +'O father!' exclaimed little Effie, covering her eyes with her hands. + +'All this,' said Mr Maurice, solemnly, 'was the result of the indulgence +of a single bad passion.' + +'But the little boy?' inquired Mrs Maurice. + +'The husband of the daughter proved to be a miserable, worthless +fellow, and for some time the old man sent them remittances of money, +but after a while his new passion triumphed over paternal love, and the +prayers of the poor woman were unheeded. Two or three years ago she came +to the city on foot--a weary distance, the old man said, but he could +not tell how far, bringing with her the little boy that first attracted +my attention to-night. Her husband was dead, and her elder children had +one by one followed him to the grave, till there was only this, the +youngest left. She had come to the city, hoping that her presence would +be more successful than her letters had been in softening the old man's +heart, but she only came to die. Her journey had worn her out, and she +was to be no tax upon the old man's treasures. She died, and the +miserable grandfather could not cast off her only son. The little +fellow's face looks wan and melancholy; as if from suffering and want, +and he seems to have passed at once from a child into an old man, +without knowing anything of the intermediate stage.' + +'Poor boy!' said Mrs Maurice 'you didn't leave him alone with his +grandfather, I hope?' + +'No, I engaged a neighbour to spend the night with them, and called at +my office on my way home to write a letter to a brother, of whom the old +man told me, who is now residing in the country. The little grandson +will probably be wealthy now, but I do not believe the enjoyment of it +will make up for his past suffering.' + +'I hope he won't be a miser,' said Effie. + +'I shouldn't think it very strange if he should be,' replied her +brother, 'the example of his grandfather is enough to spoil him.' + +'But you forget, Harry,' said Mrs Maurice, 'what a terrible example it +was. I think the little fellow will be likely to avoid it.' + +'Very probably,' added Mr Maurice, 'there is more danger of his going +into the opposite extreme.' + +'I am sure, father,' said Harry, 'that it can't be so bad to spend money +foolishly, as to hoard it up the way that old man did.' + +'No,' said Effie, 'for he made a _god_ of it, and it is better to care +too little about it, than too much.' + +'But the man that spends his money in frivolous pursuits, or what would +be called slightly criminal adventures, who lavishes the money which God +has given him to do good with, upon himself, seeking only his own +gratification--' + +'O father!' interrupted Harry, 'he made a _god_ of himself.' + +'Such a man,' continued Mr Maurice, 'may be led on from one step to +another until he becomes as guilty as the old man of whom I have told +you to-night.' + +'If I were a man,' said little Effie, shuddering, 'I should be afraid to +do anything lest I should do wrong.' + +'And why so?' asked Mrs Maurice; 'you forget, my dear, that you, too, +are exposed to temptations, that none of us are exempt from trials, and +our only hope is in the promise that the child of God shall not be +tempted above what he is able to bear.' + +'Remember,' added Mr Maurice, taking the family Bible from its shelf +preparatory to their evening devotions, 'to love not the world, neither +the things that are in the world. And remember, when you are searching +your hearts to discover their hidden idols, that the same Divine Being +has said, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in +him."' + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE POOR WIDOW. + + +The next morning, in accordance with his children's wishes, Mr Maurice +accompanied Harry to the residence of the poor woman they had seen at Mr +T.'s shop. It was a miserable hovel, but after all there was an air of +cleanliness and comfort about it, that the most abject poverty can +seldom of itself destroy. A white curtain, mended it is true, in very +many places, yet looking quite respectable, still shaded the only window +of the apartment. There were a few coals, on which was laid a single +stick of wood, in the open fire-place, but it sent forth but a small +quantity of heat, and the room felt damp and chilly. On a narrow bed +drawn close to the fire lay the sick child, and beside it sat the mother +plying her needle steadily, and every now and then casting an anxious +eye upon her babe. She arose when Mr Maurice and Harry entered, and her +reception of the boy was truly affecting. She told again and again of +his following her the day before, and how kindly he had inquired if he +could do anything for her, and then bursting into loud sobs, and leaning +over the bed, she said nobody could do anything unless it was to cure +her baby. Mr Maurice took the hand of the little sufferer, but it was +burning hot, and the face, which was the day before pale, was now so +flushed that Harry could scarcely recognise it. + +'He has a fever,' said Mr Maurice. + +'A fever! oh don't say so,' shrieked the poor woman, 'it was of that his +father died--it is a cold, nothing but a cold! Oh, how could I be so +foolish as to take him out!' + +What could Mr Maurice do, but soothe her, and promise to be the child's +physician? In a few moments she became calmer, and then she told him +that her baby had been failing for a long time--day by day she could see +that he grew poorer, but she could not tell why, till at last a cough +had come, and concluding that it was occasioned by a cold, she had given +the usual remedies, but without effect. The day before, having no one +with whom to leave him, she had taken him out, and the fever that ensued +was the result. + +'Do you think I have killed my baby, sir?' she inquired mournfully; and +she looked so long and earnestly into Mr Maurice's face for an answer, +that he was obliged to reply 'No.' It was easy for him to discern that +the death-blow was before received. + +'Oh thank you,' replied the poor mother, joyfully, 'I was sure he must +get well.' Mr Maurice was about to speak, but interrupted +himself--should he undeceive her? Should he tear from her her last hope? +perhaps it was weakness, but he could not do it. The blow was too +sudden, too heavy, and it must be softened to her. She said nothing of +poverty, but he knew by the rapidity with which she plied her needle in +the intervals of conversation that she was toiling for her bread and +fuel, and he secretly resolved to place her in a condition to devote +herself entirely to the care of the child. + +As Mr Maurice glanced around the room, noting each article it +contained, and gaining from thence some item of knowledge concerning the +character of its owner, his eye fell upon a shelf on which lay a few +tracts, a Bible, and a hymn-book. 'I see,' said he, pointing to them, +'that whatever trial you may be called to pass through, you are provided +with a better comforter than any earthly friend.' + +The poor woman shook her head, 'They were my husband's, sir.' + +'Your husband was a pious man, then?' + +'He used to read the Bible and have family worship. Sometimes I went +with him on Sunday to hear the minister, but I was always tired and +drowsy, and could not keep awake.' + +'I suppose you don't go at all now?' + +'No, sir' + +'Nor read the Bible?' + +'No, not very often--I don't get time.' + +'You surely have time on the Sabbath-day?' + +'Oh, sir, that is the only leisure day I have, and then I like to take +little James, and go with him to his father's grave, and when I get +back, there's tea to make, (I never have tea but on Sundays, sir,) and +somehow the time slips away till dark, when I go to bed. I can't afford +to light a candle on Sunday nights.' + +'Do you never visit your neighbours on that day?' + +'Oh no, sir, since my husband died, I have not cared for going out, and +a lone woman like me is but poor company for others, so they never come +to see me.' + +'You tell me of visiting your husband's grave--when you stand over it, +do you ever think of the time you will meet him again?' + +'Not often; he used to talk to me about it, but I never can think of +anything but _him_, just as he lived, and I remember a great many kind +things he used to say, and speak them over to the baby (little James--he +was named for his father, sir,) in his own words.' And the poor woman +bent over her work, and plied her needle faster than ever. + +'It is natural,' said Mr Maurice, kindly, 'that you should remember your +husband as he was when living, but it is strange that you so seldom +think of seeing him again.' + +'Oh, sir, that looks like a dream to me, I can't more than half believe +it, but I know the other to be reality.' + +'Yet one is as true as the other.' The woman sighed, and her countenance +looked troubled, but she made no answer. + +'You believe the Bible?' + +'Ye-es, sir--my James believed it, and so it must be true.' + +'Then you will allow me to read you a chapter, I suppose.' + +'If you please, sir, but it always seemed to me a very gloomy book, and +I am afraid it will make me low-spirited.' + +'No, I think not, it may raise your spirits.' Mr Maurice took down the +Bible, and opened it at the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. A +piece of torn paper lay between the opened leaves, and a few of the +verses were marked with a pencil. As Mr Maurice proceeded to read, the +face of the poor woman was gradually lowered till it almost rested on +her bosom, and at last, yielding to the intensity of her feelings, she +buried her face in the bed-clothes, and did not raise it again till the +chapter was finished. + +'Oh, many and many is the time he has read it to me!' she exclaimed, +'and he put in the mark only the day before he died, so that I might +find it; but I could not, oh I couldn't bear to read it!' + +'And why not?' + +'Oh, I know it is true! I know I shall see him again! but, sir, he was a +_Christian_.' + +'And so prepared to die, was he not?' + +'Yes, sir, and my poor baby--' + +'If it is taken away it will go to him in heaven.' + +'Oh no, oh no! my baby must not die! My James was good, and has talked +to me hours, and hours, about being ready to die, but I used to laugh at +him--_that_ goes to my heart the worst, sir, to laugh at _him_ who was +as gentle as that baby, _him_ who is in his grave now. Oh if I could +forget _that_! He is in heaven, sir, but I--I shall never get there! +It's of no use to read the Bible to me, and talk to me--James used to +pray for me, but it was of no use, I am too wicked. But if you can save +the baby, sir, if God will let the child live, I shall have a little +comfort.' + +Mr Maurice had succeeded in rousing the poor woman's feelings, but he +found that she felt more acutely than he imagined, and he now brought to +his aid the still small voice of the Gospel. He told her of the fountain +in which sin might be washed away, he told her of the place where the +weary might find rest, and pointed her to the Lord Jesus Christ, for +mercy; but though she appeared to listen, her thoughts were evidently +fixed upon her husband and child, and the truths he uttered fell +unheeded on her ear. After talking some time, he again read a portion of +the Bible, prayed with the poor woman, and went away. + +'Oh, how I pity her, father,' said Harry, when they were on their way +home. 'Do you really think the little baby will get well?--I do hope it +will.' + +'That is a natural wish, my child; but God knows what is best, and if He +should see fit to remove it, we have no right to murmur.' + +'No, father, but poor Mrs Gilman will feel so dreadfully, for then she +will be entirely alone. She told us, you know, that before she married +James Gilman she was a poor servant girl, and an orphan, and she don't +know whether she has any relatives or not. It will be very hard for her +to see everything she loves taken from her and buried in the grave.' + +'So it will, my dear boy, and she deserves all our sympathy; but it may +be that a kind Heavenly Parent, since she has no earthly ones to guide +her, is using these means to draw the poor widow nearer to Him. If this +chastisement is sent by His hand, it will undoubtedly be in love and +mercy.' + +'Do you think, father, that Mrs Gilman loves her little James too well?' + +'I will answer your question by asking another, Harry. Do you think her +love for the child interferes with that she owes to God?' + +Harry was for a few moments silent. At last he answered, 'She certainly +loves him better than she does God, and that is not right; but you +always told Effie and me that we could not love each other too well.' + +'And I told you right, provided _that_ love is made subservient to a +holier one. But your first duty is, in the words of our Saviour, "to +love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Obedience to this precept +involves a great many other duties, but none of these should interfere +with the great first command.' + +'But, father,' inquired Harry, 'if Mrs Gilman should become a Christian, +would she love her baby less.' + +'No, she might love it more, but not with the same kind of affection +she bears it now. This is a blind idolatry--her child is her all, and +she cannot bear to part with it, even though it should join her lost +husband, and wear a crown in glory. If she were a Christian, she would +be able to say, "Thy will be done," and to place entire confidence in +the Divine Master, and bow in submission to His requirements, even +though they should call on her to resign this treasure.' + +'Oh, how happy we should be, if we loved God better than anything else!' +said Harry. + +After they had arrived at home, and while Mrs Maurice was engaged in +preparing some comfortable things for the poor woman, Harry was heard to +whisper in his sister's ear, 'Poor Mrs Gilman makes a god of her baby, +Effie.' + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +GENEROSITY AND JUSTICE. + + +Several days passed away, and little Effie was watching every +opportunity for making applications of the truth her mother had taught +her, but yet, (such is the deceitfulness of the human heart,) she still +considered herself out of danger. If any little boys or girls who may +perchance read this story, are as confident as Effie, we only ask them +to watch over their thoughts and actions for as long a time as she did, +and see if they do not discover their mistake. One day Mrs Maurice went +to make a call on a lady of her acquaintance, and as Harry was engaged +with his father, she allowed Effie to accompany her. It was a beautiful +parlour into which they were ushered, and Mrs Town received them with +due politeness. They were scarce seated when the servant announced +another visitor, and a lady with whom Mrs Maurice was very well +acquainted entered, and immediately stated the object of her call--to +obtain subscriptions for a charitable society. + +'I am tired of these societies,' said Mrs Town, 'do not you think, Mrs +Maurice, that individual charity is preferable?' + +'Undoubtedly, in many instances, but societies have done much good, and +I am therefore disposed to countenance them.' + +'But don't you think,' said Mrs Town, 'that a person is very apt to +think by being a member of a society she is freed from individual +responsibility?' + +'There may be such people,' was the reply, 'and undoubtedly are, but +they are those who give merely because they are expected to do so, and +this is the easiest mode of cheating the world and themselves that could +be devised.' + +'Well,' replied Mrs Town, 'I have always made it a point never to place +my name on a subscription list, so I shall be obliged to decline. I +hope,' she said to the disappointed lady, who had been advised to call +upon her because she was rich, 'I hope you will meet with better success +elsewhere.' + +'I hope I shall,' the lady could scarce forbear saying, as Mrs Town +curtsied gracefully in answer to her embarrassed nod, but she soon +calmed her excited feelings and passed on. + +'Poor Mrs D.!' said Mrs Town. 'This must be very unpleasant business. I +can't see what could induce a lady of her respectability to engage in +it.' + +'I know of no one who could perform the task better,' said Mrs Maurice. + +'Certainly not, but--' Mrs Town paused, and then added, hesitatingly, +'it seems a little too much like begging.' + +'It surely is begging,' said Mrs Maurice, with much animation, 'begging +for the poor, the weak, the desolate, the unfriended--these have claims +upon those who to-morrow may be in their places--and more, Mrs Town, it +is begging for our brethren, our sisters--these have claims upon us that +cannot be waived--but above all, it is begging for the King of kings, +Him who hesitated not to give His own Son for us, and His claims cover +all others. Not only our gold and silver are His, but ourselves.' + +'Oh, my dear Mrs Maurice, I would not have you to suppose that I object +to _giving_--by no means--it is only from an ostentatious display of +charity that I shrink--this is a duty that should be exercised in +private, a--' Mrs Town was interrupted in the midst of her vindication +by a servant who entered and placed a note in her hand, which she folded +closer and was about putting in her pocket--'Please, ma'am,' said the +servant, 'she wishes you to read it now, and say if you can see her.' + +Mrs Town glanced at the note and coloured slightly, but she had been too +long accustomed to concealing her feelings for a stronger manifestation. +'Tell her to come to-morrow,' said she. + +The servant was gone a moment and again returned, 'Please, ma'am,' said +he, 'the woman won't go away, she says she _will_ see you, for her +husband is sick, and her children starving, and she must have her +_pay_.' Mrs Town started from her seat: this was a strange comment upon +her beautiful theory of individual charity. Mrs Maurice retired as soon +as possible, and as she passed through the hall she saw a miserably-clad +woman with a face extremely haggard and care-worn, whom she supposed to +be the person claiming--not _charity_, but _justice_, of Mrs Town. Effie +saw that her mother's face was unusually clouded, and she did not +venture to comment upon the past scene, but she said to her brother as +soon as they were alone, 'I am glad we are not rich like Mrs Town, +Harry, lest we should make a _god_ of our money.' + +Mrs Maurice did not, however, neglect at a suitable time to fix upon +Effie's mind the impression she had received from the scene at Mrs +Town's. 'Remember, my child,' she said, 'if you should ever live to +become a woman, that _justice_ should be preferred to _generosity_, and +never talk of _giving_ while some poor person may be suffering for that +which is her just due.' + +'Mother,' said Harry, 'Elisha Otis told me to-day that his father thinks +people who talk so much of giving, are all hypocrites.' + +'People who make a great noise about any good act which they perform +appear somewhat pharisaical, but we have no right to condemn them upon +that score _alone_, for it often proceeds from a great desire to do +good. You know we are very apt to talk of that which most occupies our +thoughts, Harry. But where did Elisha Otis's father get such notions of +charitable people?' + +'That is what I was going to tell you about, mother. You know how much +Deacon Brown, gives--he heads all the subscription papers, and I heard +father say the other day that he was a great help to the church; but Mr +Otis says that he is never willing to pay people that work for him their +full price, and then they have to wait, and dun, and dun, before they +can get anything.' + +'I am sorry to hear this, my son, very sorry.' + +'Isn't it true mother?' + +'It is true that Deacon Brown in some instances has seemed more generous +than just, and this case is very good to illustrate what I before said; +but Mr Otis makes it appear much worse than it is.' + +'Then he don't cheat his workmen, mother?' + +'No; but, by procrastination, thoughtlessness, or even perhaps the +desire which business men may have to make a good bargain, he may do +wrong, and so lay himself open to all these remarks. Bad qualities, you +know, shew much plainer in a good man than a bad one, and are almost +always made to appear worse than they really are. But let this be a +warning to you, my boy--remember that _good_ (not _great_) actions +seldom cover faults, but faults obscure the lustre of many good actions, +and destroy the usefulness of thousands of really good and pious +people.' + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE NEW BOOK. + + +'A present for you, Effie,' said Mr Maurice, a few days after the +foregoing conversation, 'a present from your uncle William! it is in +this nice little packet, now guess what it is.' + +'O father--' + +'No, but you must guess.' + +'Why it's a book--say a book, Effie,' interposed Harry, 'with sights of +pictures, I dare say, and may be pretty gilt letters on the back, too.' + +'Is it a book?' inquired Effie, her little eyes dancing with pleasure, +'and from uncle William, too? Oh how good he is to remember a little +girl like me!' + +By this time Mr Maurice had unwound the cord and unfolded the paper, and +displayed a neat little book--what think you it was? 'Peter Parley's +Stories,' says one, 'The Love Token,' says another. No, you are both +wrong. Effie Maurice was almost a woman before these books were written. +Mrs Sherwood was then the children's friend, and some beautiful stories +she told them, too. The book had neither pictures, nor gilt letters, but +this did not spoil it for Effie, and she was soon so busily engaged in +reading that she forgot that there was anything in the world but herself +and the delightful book--more still, she forgot even her own existence, +and thought only of the people about whom she was reading. A half-hour +passed away and then Mrs Maurice reminded Effie of her room, and told +her it had better be put in order. + +'Yes, mother, in a few minutes.' The few minutes passed away, and Mrs +Maurice spoke again. + +'I will, mother.' Mrs Maurice saw that Effie forgot these words almost +as soon as spoken, but instead of telling her at once to put up the +book, and do as she was bidden, she allowed her to pursue her own course +for this once, hoping by this means to cure her of a very bad habit. + +Soon after, Mrs Maurice descended to the kitchen to give some +directions, and Effie was left alone. Once the thought entered her mind +that she had promised to visit Mrs Gilman that day, but she immediately +concluded another time would do as well, and so continued her reading. +After a while Harry, who had been out with his father, entered in great +haste, with a packet of medicine in his hand. + +'Effie,' he said, 'father wants you to take this to Mrs Gilman's when +you go, it is for her little James, and I--' + +'I am not going to-day, Harry.' + +'Can't you go? Oh do! don't mind the book! you can read it another +time.' + +'So I can go to Mrs Gilman's another time.' + +'Oh, but the medicine, Effie.' + +'Can't you take it as well as I? It is too bad for me to have to be +running there all the time.' It was very unusual for Effie to speak so +peevishly, but Harry was in a very happy mood, so he merely exclaimed, +'Why, Effie!' and glanced at the book as much as to say, 'did you learn +it there!' Effie saw the glance, and ashamed of her ill nature said, 'Oh +it is such a good story, Harry! but if you can't go to Mrs Gilman's, why +not send a servant?' + +'Father said some of _us_ ought to go; so do, Effie, just put up your +book for this once. The medicine is to prevent the convulsions that +frightened us so yesterday, but father is going out into the country (it +is delightful sleighing!) and he says I may go. You know it isn't every +day I can get a sleigh-ride, Effie.' And the delighted boy gave his +sister such a very hearty kiss that she could not forbear answering good +humouredly, especially as she had some suspicion that she had not spoken +pleasantly at first, 'Well, I will go, Harry, but don't hinder me now, I +shall get through the chapter in a few minutes.' 'Well, don't forget, +and when I come back I will tell you about all I see.' + +Effie finished her chapter and thought of the medicine, and wondered if +it was really so important that it should go immediately; but she was +now in the most interesting part of the story, and she continued to read +a little farther. So the time stole away--I can't exactly tell how, but +perhaps some of my little readers (especially if they have read the +little book that delighted Effie so much) can imagine--till the dinner +hour. By this time Effie had finished her book, and her father and Harry +had returned from the sleigh-ride, the latter particularly in excellent +spirits. Effie thought of the medicine as she sat down to the table, and +in a moment all her enjoyment vanished; for she had been guilty of +procrastination, she had broken her word, and what excuse had she to +offer for her neglect? That she had scarcely known what she was about, +was no excuse at all, for she knew she ought to have known. She could +not, however, prevail upon herself to confess her fault, until after she +had repaired it, and so decided to go to Mrs Gilman's immediately after +dinner, and when she had set all right again, to tell the whole affair +to her parents and brother. + +Harry was full of stories about his ride, and she heard as well as she +could about the farmer's big dog that at first wouldn't let them come +in, and afterwards shook hands with them, and the cat that could open +doors, and the hens and rabbits, but she forgot all about them in a +moment, and only wished she could slide away from the table and nobody +see her. At last the meal was ended, and they were about rising from the +table when they were startled by a message from Mrs Gilman's. Her little +boy was in convulsions. + +'I will go immediately,' said Mr Maurice, 'poor little fellow! nothing +can save him now--that medicine was my last hope.' + +'Oh, father!' exclaimed Effie. + +'Nay, my child--' Mr Maurice began, but he saw that it was not mere pity +that produced so much agitation, and inquired hastily 'what is the +matter?' Poor Effie attempted to speak, but burst into tears. + +'Oh, Effie!' exclaimed her brother, grasping her arm, 'you couldn't have +forgotten the medicine.' The poor child only sobbed the harder, and +Harry, turning to the table, pointed to the little packet, thus +explaining the mystery! + +'And so for a selfish gratification you have endangered a +fellow-creature's life,' said Mr Maurice, sternly. + +'Oh, father!' exclaimed Harry, 'she's so sorry! Don't cry, Effie, don't +cry!' he whispered, at the same time passing his arm around her neck, +'father didn't mean to be so severe, he is only frightened about little +James--I am very sorry I didn't go, for it was too bad to make you leave +the book.' + +But all Harry's soothing words could not make Effie blind to her own +neglect, and when she saw her father go out with an anxious, troubled +face, and her mother looked so sorrowful without saying a single word to +her, she could not help going back in her thoughts to Mrs Town, Rosa +Lynmore, and even the miser, and thinking she was worse than any of +them. + +Her brother Harry still clung around her neck, and kept whispering she +was not to blame, the fault was his, till Mrs Maurice called him away, +and then very reluctantly he quitted her side. Poor Effie, thus left +without sympathy, crept away to her own little room, and sat down, not +merely to weep, but to enter into a regular self-examination. The truths +she thus discovered were exceedingly humiliating, but the child began to +feel that she needed humbling, and she did not shrink from the task. I +do not know but Effie's self-condemnation was greater than the fault +really called for, but it certainly was of great use to her, and made +her humbler, and gentler, and more forgiving than she ever was before. + +Effie did not see her father or Harry again that night, but when her +mother came to see if she was warm in her little bed, she whispered in +her ear, 'Oh, I have so many faults: and my heart is full of false gods. +I am afraid I never really loved my Heavenly Father.' + +'Yet, Effie, a great many children, and some grown people, would +consider this neglect of yours to-day a very small thing.' + +'Oh, mother! I know it is not small, though I never thought it was so +very wicked before.' + +'And what makes you think it is wicked now?' + +'Because it has led me to do so many wicked things. In the first place, +it was wrong to read immediately after breakfast, for then is the time +that you desire me to work.' + +'Well, do you see any bad effect that the neglect of this rule may have +on your future life?' + +'I suppose I should make a very useless woman, if I should grow up in +ignorance of work.' + +'Yes, certainly you would; when I insist upon your attending to your few +duties at a particular time--can you imagine the reason of this? Why not +read the book this morning, and make up the lost time this evening?' +Effie could not tell, and Mrs Maurice went on to explain the necessity +of _order_ in the distribution of time, and shewed her little daughter, +that it was as necessary in the government of a house as in the +government of a nation. 'But that is not the only bad effect,' she +added, 'of your self-indulgence.' + +'Oh no, mother, it made me disobedient to you, though I am sure I didn't +think of being so at the time.' + +'I dare say not, but you see when we once go wrong, we are like a +traveller who has lost his path, and can be certain of nothing.' + +'Then I forgot my duty to poor Mrs Gilman--I even made myself believe +that there was no need of going to see her; and I was cross to Harry, +and so selfish, that if I had not been ashamed to own it, I would have +had him give up his ride and go with the medicine.' + +'And he would rather have gone ten times than--' + +'I know it, mother, rather a hundred times than have the baby die.' + +'Or see you do so very wrong.' + +'Oh, Harry has been crying about it, I know, though he can't feel half +so badly as I do. But that was not all, mother--last of all, I broke my +promise. I told Harry I would go as soon as I finished the chapter.' + +'And all this,' said Mrs Maurice, 'is the result of what, under other +circumstances, would be a mere innocent gratification, a pleasant +pastime, and a useful exercise.' + +'But, mother, when I once begun, I thought I could not stop.' + +'Then that was the very moment when you should have stopped, and this +one victory would have made others easier. Now I am not afraid, my dear, +of your being led astray (at least at present) by things which you know +to be wrong; your danger lies on the unguarded side, and yet it is as +likely to prove fatal to your peace of mind, your piety, and your +usefulness.' + +'It never seemed to me before, that so much evil could come from such a +small thing.' + +'Then you have learned an all-important lesson, which I trust will not +be soon forgotten.' + +'But, mother, I shall always be afraid of doing wrong now--I don't even +know what is right.' + +'That shews me, Effie, that you begin to look upon yourself as you +really are. If you are left to yourself, you will do wrong; but if you +distrust self, and place all your confidence in God, and at the same +time study to do right, you will not, for any long time, be left in +darkness.' + +The conversation of Mrs Maurice continued to a late hour; but as the +remaining time was spent in encouraging poor Effie, who needed all that +could be said to her, we will pass it over, and merely inform our +readers that she awoke in the morning wiser, and even happier; for the +joy that is felt in heaven over a repenting sinner, is reflected upon +that sinner's own heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ANOTHER OF MR MAURICE'S LESSONS. + + +'Father,' said Harry, after the little family had gathered around the +fire as usual, on the ensuing evening, 'it seems strange that people can +love good books too well.' + +'I believe they are not very apt to, Harry, especially boys who are so +fond of snowballing and sliding, as a certain little fellow I met +to-day.' + +'Oh you mean me, now, father, but I thought you liked to have me play.' + +'So I do; only look out that the books and play go together. One is for +the mind, and the other is for the body, and both should be cared for.' + +'Well, father, Mr Titus tells the boys, that the mind is the only thing +worthy of attention, at least he talks as though he thought so; and so +some of the larger boys think it is not scholarlike to play, and sit +mewed up in the house from morning till night, like so many drones.' + +'And so grow pale and sickly-looking, do they not?' + +'Yes, sir; and what's more, I don't think they learn a bit faster than +some of the rest of us.' + +'Very likely, Harry--for whether they think proper attention to the body +important or not, the state of the mind depends very much upon it. A +healthy mind, that is, a perfectly sound, active, and energetic one, +cannot dwell in a diseased body; and so your play, while it amuses you, +and seems to others to be mere waste of time, invigorates the body, +affords rest to the mind, and is in reality as essential to your +well-being as the food you eat, or the clothing you wear in winter.' + +'I wish Mr Titus could hear you say that, father.' + +'Perhaps it would not be safe to talk so to all his boys, for I presume +the most of them would at present be more benefited by what he says. +Children seldom love study too well. Even our little book-worm, Effie, +would never become too much engaged in anything but a story.' + +'Father, Thomas Marvin says that he can't get to school for a while, +and he can't spend the time in exercise; as he says fun takes his mind +off his books, and makes him lose a great deal. He is intending to teach +a school when he goes away from here, but I don't believe he will, for +he looks sickly now. But he thinks it is very foolish to spend time in +jumping about, and all that, when there are things so much more +important to be done.' + +'The body, which God has so wonderfully made, and which He watches over +with such tender care, is very far from being beneath our notice, Harry; +and while we should give the greater care to the immortal part, we +should not neglect the other. I have been visiting a scholar to-day, who +I doubt not was once of young Marvin's opinion in these things, and, +poor fellow! he does not even see his folly now.' + +'Please tell us about him, father,' said Effie, with interest, 'did he +study so much to make him selfish and wicked?' + +'I will tell you the story, and then you must be the judge,' returned +Mr Maurice. 'I believe, however, that in this case selfishness was more +out of the question than usual; he had too much zeal, "a zeal not +according to knowledge." Lewis Varden was the son of a poor widow, who +contrived to support a large family in comfort and to give them a good +education. He was the youngest son, and perhaps from the circumstance of +being too tenderly nurtured, and perhaps from some constitutional +defect, was never so strong and muscular as his brothers, and so his +mother determined that he should study a profession. + +'Lewis was particularly pleased with the arrangement, as he had a +natural fondness for sedentary employments, and at sixteen had become so +extensive a reader, as to be a kind of family encyclopedia. The +question, however, remained to be decided whether he should study law or +medicine, the only professions which among us are at all lucrative. + +'While he was yet wavering between the two, he lost his mother, and +suddenly the whole object of his life, even his own character, became +changed. Mrs Varden was what is usually called a good woman, that is, +with a sharp eye upon her worldly interests, she maintained her standing +in the church, and bore a fair reputation; but she was a worldly-minded +Christian, and as such had not sufficiently encouraged in her children +any peculiar love for holiness. She was, however, a devoted, +self-sacrificing mother, as far as their worldly interests were +concerned: and never was a lost parent more sincerely mourned. + +'From that time forth, Lewis seemed to lose all connection with the +business part of the world, and he devoted himself more closely than +ever to his books. + +'Yet among these books, the Bible now found a place, and occupied a +large share of his attention. From reading it, because it suited his now +serious thoughts, he began to love its contents, and finally he made +them the guide of his life. He became a member of the church in the +little village where he resided, and was soon regarded as a very +promising young man. + +'His new friends were exceedingly anxious that he should study for the +ministry, and he entered with alacrity upon his new duties. But not +content with what he considered the circuitous way to usefulness usually +taken, he determined by industry to cut it short, and so the noonday sun +and midnight lamp found him at the same task. When worn out by his +incessant mental labours, he would throw himself down and sleep for a +little time; but his dreams were only a continuation of his waking +thoughts, so that even in sleep he was studying still. + +'When his fellow-students expostulated, he laughed at the idea of his +health being injured by incessant application, and seemed to be afraid +that variety of employment would distract his attention. So he went on +from week to week, and month to month, preparing his mind for +usefulness, but his body for the grave. His pale brow grew yet paler, +his cheek hollow, and his hand thin and colourless, but still he +declared himself to be in perfect health, and no one knew his danger. + +'Finally, he was attacked by a cold, a very slight one, he at first +thought, but it clung to him, and could not be shaken off. The poor +fellow is now wasting away by consumption, but I cannot convince him of +his danger, and to-day when I called on him at the house of his brother, +I found him surrounded by books and papers, his large dark eye +absolutely glowing with enthusiasm, and a deep red spot burning on +either cheek.' + +'Oh, father, what did you say to him?' inquired Harry, earnestly. + +'A short time ago I recommended quiet and relaxation, telling him +plainly that his disease was beyond the reach of medicine, so he +understood my look of painful surprise at once. + +'He only shook his head, laughingly, and said, "Ah, Doctor, this life is +too short to throw away, and so I have gone to work. But you must not +blame me," he said, observing that I was about to speak, "I am only +planning a few sermons I intend to preach next summer." + +'And then he went on to talk about his intentions, and inquired my +opinion of some particular sentiments that he had been writing down, +until he became so much excited that I was obliged to order the removal +of all his papers. Poor fellow! he will never preach a sermon. In his +impatience to become useful, he has destroyed his power to do good.' + +'I don't think,' said Effie, 'that poor Mr Varden makes knowledge his +_god_ exactly, because he does it all for good; but it would be very +wicked for Harry or me to do so, because we know how wrong it is. I wish +everybody that praised people for studying too hard could know it is +wicked.' + +'But remember,' said Mr Maurice, 'that where one person's cheek is +paled by hard study, fifty make themselves utterly useless by neglecting +the bodily exercise which _moderate_ mental effort demands. It is +aversion to active employment, and not the love of knowledge, that has +slain its hundreds and crippled its thousands.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE FUNERAL. + + +It was a bright and sunshiny day, and so warm as to make the snow moist +and yielding beneath the foot--such a day as children love and choose +for their happiest sports; but to at least two children it was anything +but a day of pleasure. Poor Mrs Gilman's little James had lingered on +beyond all expectation, and finally died, calmly and quietly, as if he +had been composing himself for sleep. And so it was--a long sleep. + +This was the day on which the little one was to be buried, and Harry +and Effie were sincere mourners. Not like the poor mother--oh no, no one +could feel like her--but they wept as one child of adversity weeps for +another, all through life, from the cradle to the grave. + +Children are sad when they see those of their own age falling like the +spring flowers around them; and when the little infant grows cold and +lifeless in its cradle, beneath a loving mother's eye, and is borne away +to the silent, lonely graveyard, they insensibly grow thoughtful, and if +they have been deprived of previous instructions, death becomes their +teacher, and for a little time they grow wise beneath the influence of +his lessons. + +But Harry and Effie had not been thus deprived, and as hand in hand +they followed the little coffin to the grave, through their tears of +sadness and sympathy there gleamed out a bright and elevated expression, +almost a happy one, which shewed that they looked beyond these +sorrow-claiming objects, and saw the suffering child they had loved and +pitied a redeemed spirit of light. They could see that the little +flower, which had drooped and faded in the atmosphere of this world, +grew bright and beautiful in the sunshine of immortal love. They knew +that the kingdom of God was made up of just such little children--those +who had died before they knew anything of the sin and wickedness of this +world; or having known it, having grown old and gray beneath its heavy +burden, had laid all at the feet of Jesus, and in spirit gone back to +helpless, guileless infancy again. + +They knew that their little friend now dwelt with that dear Saviour, +who, when on earth, blessed little children, who gathers the lambs in +His arms, and carries them in His bosom. Yet it was a sad day for them, +for they mourned the dead, as mortals always mourn when mortals die, +although they did not wish him back, and they pitied the living. More +tears were indeed shed for Mrs Gilman, than for the child. + +The contents of Rosa Lynmore's purse had been reserved by Mr Maurice for +this sad occasion, he having supplied all previous wants; and it had +been sufficient to give a decent burial to the little boy, who slept +quietly at his father's side--to be awakened only when you and I, my +dear reader, shall be aroused from the same slumber. + +Mr Maurice was right when he said if Mrs Gilman was stricken, it would +be in mercy; for her heart being weaned from the world, at last found a +refuge from its loneliness in the consolations of religion, and left the +broken reed of earthly love, on which it had leaned too confidently, for +the Rock, Christ Jesus, the friend that never fails. + +She entered Mr Maurice's family as a domestic, and has grown gray in its +service. + +Harry Maurice, it was for a long time thought, would become a preacher +of the Gospel; but when he became old enough to judge, he decided in +favour of his father's profession, declaring that he who fails to do +good in one situation in life, would most decidedly fail in another. + +Sweet little Effie! Her struggle with her heart on the occasion of the +book was not the last; it was difficult for her to learn its +deceitfulness, and she required repeated lessons. + +As she grew older, however, she was always complaining of her own +sinfulness, while every one else thought her the meekest, the gentlest, +and most self-sacrificing being that ever lived. She had, indeed, become +remarkably sharp-sighted to her own faults, and, in proportion, +forgiving to those of others. + +But at last a trial came. She was called on to leave all she loved on +earth, and carry the Gospel to a far off benighted land. + +She wept at parting with her parents, but even then she whispered in her +mother's ear thanks for the early lessons she had received, and added, +'But for these I might never have learned true self-denial, and might +have preferred my dear home to the service of my Master.' + +Effie loved her home sincerely, but she loved her Saviour who gave it to +her better, and she will have her reward. + +And now, my little readers, I have not told you this story simply to +amuse you, although I should like to see you interested in its perusal, +but I had a better object. + +It is not enough that you should see your own faults, and try to mend +them yourself; neither is it enough that you should pray, 'lead us not +into temptation;' but you must '_watch and pray_' also, always +remembering that however pleasant and beautiful this world is, there is +a brighter and a better, where little children and old men may equally +sit down together in happiness, having one God and one Father. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Effie Maurice, by Fanny Forester + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EFFIE MAURICE *** + +***** This file should be named 17467.txt or 17467.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/4/6/17467/ + +Produced by David Clarke and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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