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diff --git a/23992.txt b/23992.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e854b31 --- /dev/null +++ b/23992.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5516 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Missionary Twig, by Emma L. Burnett + + +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: A Missionary Twig + + +Author: Emma L. Burnett + + + +Release Date: December 25, 2007 [eBook #23992] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MISSIONARY TWIG*** + + +E-text prepared by David E. Siegel, Marcia Brooks, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 23992-h.htm or 23992-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/9/9/23992/23992-h/23992-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/9/9/23992/23992-h.zip) + + + + + +A MISSIONARY TWIG. + +by + +EMMA L. BURNETT. + + + + + + + +[Illustration: A Missionary Twig. FRONTISPIECE.] + + +[Illustration: Editor's arm] + + +American Tract Society, +150 Nassau Street, New York. + +Copyright, 1890, +American Tract Society. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I. + Edith Tries to Explain 5 + + CHAPTER II. + What Mrs. Howell told them 14 + + CHAPTER III. + Marty Gets Started 21 + + CHAPTER IV. + Wholes instead of Tenths 29 + + CHAPTER V. + The Ebony Chair 39 + + CHAPTER VI. + The Empty Box 46 + + CHAPTER VII. + How Missions Helped the Home Folks 54 + + CHAPTER VIII. + "Not in the Good Times" 61 + + CHAPTER IX. + Jennie 72 + + CHAPTER X. + Laura Amelia 82 + + CHAPTER XI. + The Good Shepherd 91 + + CHAPTER XII. + "Now Don't Forget!" 99 + + CHAPTER XIII. + Off to the Mountains 108 + + CHAPTER XIV. + A Plan and a Talk 115 + + CHAPTER XV. + The Mountain Mission-Band 126 + + CHAPTER XVI. + A Flower Sale 135 + + CHAPTER XVII. + Weeding 144 + + CHAPTER XVIII. + The Hotel Missionary Meeting 156 + + CHAPTER XIX. + The Garden Missionary Meeting 166 + + CHAPTER XX. + Cousin Alice's Zenana Work 177 + + CHAPTER XXI. + Rosa Stevenson's Sister 189 + + + + +A MISSIONARY TWIG. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +EDITH TRIES TO EXPLAIN. + + +"I do think Edith is the queerest girl I ever saw in all my life!" said +Marty Ashford. + +"Don't jump up and down behind my chair that way, Marty," said her +mother; "you shake me so that I can scarcely hold my needle. What does +Edith do that is so queer?" + +"Oh, she's always putting ten into things." + +"Putting ten into things?" + +"Yes'm. I mean when she gets any money she always says ten will go into +it so many times, and then she takes a tenth of it--you know we learn +about tenths in fractions at school--and goes and puts it in a blue box +she has." + +"I should call that taking ten out of things." + +"Well, whatever it is, that's what she does. Every time she gets ten +cents she puts one cent in her blue box." + +"What does she do if she only gets five cents?" + +"Oh, she keeps it very carefully till she gets another five, and then +she takes her tenth out of it. And would you believe it, when we were +all at Asbury Park last summer--" + +"Marty," interrupted her mother, "can't you tell me just as well sitting +still? You fidget so that you make me dreadfully nervous. Can't you sit +still?" + +"I don't believe I can, but I'll try real hard," said Marty, crowding +herself into Freddie's little rocking-chair and clasping her arms around +her knees, as if to hold herself still. + +"Well, what about Asbury Park?" Mrs. Ashford asked. + +"Why, when we were at Asbury Park and Edith's father was going to New +York, he gave her a whole dollar to do what she pleased with. Now you +know it would be the easiest thing in the world to spend a dollar there. +I could spend it just as easy as anything." + +"I dare say you could," said Mrs. Ashford, laughing. + +"And any way you know it was vacation, and even if you save tenths other +times you oughtn't to feel as if you must do it in vacation. But Edith +had to go and get her dollar changed and put ten cents of it in the old +blue box." + +"So she would not take a vacation from her tenths?" + +"No, indeed. And the other day when her uncle from Baltimore was here, +he gave her fifty cents, and it would just pay for a perfectly lovely +paintbox that she wants; but she couldn't buy it because five cents of +the fifty was tenths; and now she'll have to wait till she gets some +more money." + +"What does she do with all the money in the blue box?" Mrs. Ashford +inquired. + +"Oh, she gives it to some mission-band!" replied Marty in a tone of +disgust. + +"Is that the mission-band Miss Agnes Walsh wanted you to join?" + +"Yes, ma'am; but I didn't want to take up my Saturdays going to a thing +like that, I'd rather play." + +"Let me see," said Mrs. Ashford, "what is the name of that band?" + +"_Missionary Twigs_," replied Marty. "Funny kind of a name, isn't it?" + +Then presently she said, "I don't think Edith always takes the tenths +out fair; for when her grandma was away lately for six days she paid +Edith three cents a day for watering her plants, and of course that was +eighteen cents. So the tenth was a good deal over one cent and not +quite two, and yet Edith put two cents of it away." + +"I think that was more than fair." + +"Well, I suppose it was," Marty admitted. She actually sat quite still +for two or three minutes thinking, and then asked, + +"Mamma--I never thought of this before but what do you suppose is the +reason she saves _tenths_? Why doesn't she save ninths or elevenths or +something else?" + +"Why don't you ask her?" suggested Mrs. Ashford. + +"I will," exclaimed Marty. "I'll ask her the very next time I go over +there." + +Which was in about five minutes, for Edith lived in the same block and +the little girls were constantly visiting each other. This being +Saturday, of course there was no school. Marty ran in at the side gate +and through the kitchen with a "How do, Mary?" to the cook. Edith heard +her coming and called over the stairs, + +"O Marty, come right up! I was just wishing you would come over and help +me." + +Marty flew up stairs and into the nursery. Edith's dolls were sitting in +a row on the little bureau, some dressed and some undressed, and Edith +was standing in front of them looking very much perplexed. + +"Oh! I'm so glad you've come," she said. "Now you can help me with these +troublesome dolls." + +"What's the matter with them?" + +"Why, we've just heard that Aunt Julia and Fanny are coming to tea this +evening, and of course I want the dolls to look decent. I wouldn't have +Fanny see them in their everyday clothes for anything; and they don't +seem to have enough good clothes to go around." + +"Let's see what they've got," said Marty, plunging into business with +her usual energy. + +"Well," said Edith, "Queenie has her new white Swiss, so she's all +right, and she can have Virginia's surah sash. Louisa Alcott can wear +her black silk skirt and borrow Queenie's blue cashmere waist. But +Harriet has nothing fit for an evening." + +"Let her wear the sailor suit she came in, and say she's just home from +the seaside," suggested Marty, after a moment's meditation. + +"Yes, that will do," replied Edith. "But what about Virginia? Her white +dress is soiled, her red gauze is badly torn, and she can't borrow from +the others because she's so much larger. To be sure she has this pale +blue tea-gown I made myself. Do you think it would be good enough?" and +she held it up doubtfully. + +"No," said Marty candidly, "I don't think it would. It isn't made very +well. It's kind of baggy. Hasn't she anything else?" + +"Nothing but a brown woollen walking dress and a Mother Hubbard +wrapper." + +"Neither of those will do," Marty decided. + +Then she put her finger to her lip and thought. + +A bright idea occurred to her presently. + +"Put her to bed and make believe she's sick. She can wear the best +nightdress, trimmed with lace, and we can put on the ruffled +pillow-cases and fix up the bed real nice." + +"That will be splendid!" cried Edith. "I knew you'd think of something!" + +They went to work on the plans proposed, and soon had the whole family +in presentable condition. So busy were they with the dolls that Marty +would have forgotten the errand she came on, had she not happened to +catch a glimpse of the blue box when Edith opened a drawer. Then she +exclaimed, + +"Oh! Edie, what I came over for was to ask you why you save tenths." + +"Why I do what?" said Edith, wondering. + +"Why you put tenths away in your box. Why don't you save eighths or +ninths or something else?" + +"Because the Bible says tenths," Edith replied. + +"The Bible!" cried Marty. "Does the Bible say anything about saving +tenths for a mission-band?" + +"No, not just that; but it says--wait, I'll get my Bible and show you +what it does say." + +She ran into her room, and bringing her Bible, sat down on a low chair +and eagerly turned the leaves. Marty knelt close beside her, bending +over the book also, so that her brown curls pressed against Edith's wavy +golden hair. + +"Here's one of the verses," said Edith. "Leviticus twenty-seventh +chapter and thirtieth verse: 'And all the tithe of the land, whether of +the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is +holy unto the Lord.'" + +"There's nothing about tenths in that," said Marty. + +"Tithes means tenths--the tenth part," Edith explained. + +"Oh! does it? Well, you see, I didn't know." + +"Yes; here it is in the thirty-second verse: 'And concerning the tithe +of the herd or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, +the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.'" + +"But there's nothing in all that about money," Marty objected. "It's all +fruit and flocks and herds." + +"I know," Edith replied, "but mamma says that flocks and herds and money +are all different kinds of property. The Jews hadn't much money; their +property was flocks and herds and such things. Giving tenths of what +they had for the Lord's service was a very important part of their +religion." + +"Yes, but you are not a Jew," said Marty. "Besides, you give your tenths +to a mission-band." + +"But the mission-band sends the money to a big society that uses it to +send people to tell the heathen about God." + +"Is that what mission-bands are for--to send people to teach the +heathen?" asked Marty. + +"Yes, and to tell us about the heathen, so that we shall want to send +the gospel to them," said Edith. "Giving to help teach people about God +is giving to him, isn't it?" + +"And does the Bible say that everybody must give tenths?" asked Marty. + +"No," said Edith, "there is another plan in the New Testament. Mamma +says that it is good for older people, but for little children who +haven't good judgment, the Jewish plan of giving tenths is better." + +"It must be pretty hard to have to give some of your money away, whether +you want to or not," said Marty. + +"Oh! but I always want to," Edith declared. "The longer I do this way +the better I like it." + +"Well," remarked Marty consolingly, "a tenth isn't much any way; you'd +hardly miss it. Neither would the Jews, for I guess they were pretty +rich." + +"Oh! the tenth wasn't all they gave, and it isn't all I give. For me it +is just the--the--beginning, the _sure_ thing. The Jews had other ways +of giving--first-fruits and thank-offerings and praise-offerings and +free-will-offerings. And sometimes I give thank-offerings and +praise-offerings too, but they are extra; the tenths I give always." + +"It's all dreadfully mixed up," said poor Marty. + +"I suppose it is, the way I tell it," Edith candidly admitted. "Let us +go and get mamma to tell you, the way she told me." + +Marty willingly agreed, and they went into the sitting-room where Mrs. +Howell was sewing. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +WHAT MRS. HOWELL TOLD THEM. + + +"Mamma," cried Edith, "I've been trying to tell Marty about tenths and +offerings, and why I give my money that way, but I can't do it so that +she can understand. Wont you tell her, and show her some of the verses +you showed me?" + +"Good-morning, Marty," said Mrs. Howell pleasantly to the little girl +who ran to kiss her. "What is it you don't understand?" + +"I don't quite understand why the Jews gave tenths, nor why Edith has to +do what the Jews did." + +"Well, bring your Bible, Edith, and give Marty mine, and I will show you +some of the passages about giving. The first mention in the Bible of +giving tithes to the Lord is when Jacob was at Bethel." + +"Wasn't that when he slept on a stone pillow, and had the beautiful +dream of angels going up and down a ladder that reached to heaven?" +Edith asked. + +"Yes; and you remember the Lord appeared to him in the dream, and +promised to be with him wherever he went. And Jacob made a vow to the +Lord, in which he said, 'And of all that thou shalt give me, I will +surely give the tenth unto thee.' You will find it all in the +twenty-eighth chapter of Genesis." + +"Yes," said Marty, after turning the leaves a few minutes. "Here it is: +I never noticed it before." + +"Then," Mrs. Howell went on, "you know when God brought the children of +Israel out of Egypt into the promised land, he gave them a great many +laws, for they were just like children, and had to be told exactly what +to do on every occasion. Among other things he told them how to give. +Edith, find the eighteenth chapter of Numbers and the twenty-first +verse." + +Edith found the place and read, "And behold, I have given the children +of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for the service +which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the +congregation." + +"Why should the children of Levi have it?" asked Marty. + +"Because the tribe of Levi was set apart for the service of God in the +tabernacle, and afterward the temple, and had no 'inheritance' of land +to till and pasture flocks upon like the other tribes; so the rest of +the nation was instructed to provide for them. So you see these tithes +were for what we should call the support of the gospel; and Levi was the +ministering tribe." + +Then Mrs. Howell showed the children passages in Second Chronicles and +Nehemiah where bringing tithes is spoken of, and in Malachi where the +people are rebuked for not bringing them. Then she bade them turn to +places in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke where our Saviour commends the +giving of tithes, though he says that there are "weightier matters of +the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." + +"But tithes were not all the Israelites gave," Mrs. Howell resumed, +after the little girls had read the verses. "They gave in many other +ways. Let me take that Bible a moment, Marty. Here in Deuteronomy, +twelfth chapter and sixth verse, you see that many things are mentioned +besides tithes--vows and free-will-offerings and the firstlings of the +herds and of the flocks. Then at their feast times, three times in the +year, they were told, in the sixteenth chapter of the same book, the +sixteenth and seventeenth verses, that every man was to give as he was +able." + +"Seems to me they must have been giving all the time," observed Marty. + +"Yes, it has been estimated that a truly devout Jew gave away about a +third of his income. That is more than three-tenths, you know. Giving +freely to the Lord's service and to the poor was part of a Jew's +religion." + +"That's what Edith says," Marty remarked. "'Tisn't part of ours, is it?" + +"Oh, yes it is," said Mrs. Howell, smiling a little; "though perhaps not +as much as it should be. All through the Bible we are taught the duty of +giving, and though, of course, those particular directions in the Old +Testament were intended especially for the Jews, we may learn from them +that the best way of giving is to give systematically." + +"What do you mean by systematically?" asked Marty. + +"I mean not giving just when we happen to feel particularly interested +in some object, or when we don't want the money for something else, but +having some plan about it and giving regularly, intelligently, and, +above all, prayerfully." + +"Tell Marty the New Testament plan for giving, mamma," Edith requested. + +"St. Paul tells the Corinthians in the sixteenth chapter and second +verse of the first epistle: 'Upon the first day of the week let every +one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.' You see that +is somewhat different from tenths. No particular portion is mentioned, +but we are to regularly set aside for religious purposes as much as we +can afford, and the amount is to be increased as our means increase." + +"Why doesn't Edith do that way?" Marty inquired. + +"When she is older and better able to judge how much she ought to give, +she may adopt that plan. But it is simpler and easier just to give a +tenth, and it is well for little people who are learning to have a plain +and easy rule to go by." + +"And why does Edith give her tenths to foreign missionary work instead +of to something else?" asked Marty. + +This led to a long talk about the duty of obeying Christ's last command +to carry the gospel to all nations; and Mrs. Howell explained how +missionary societies are trying to obey this command, and how important +it is that Christians should be very prompt and regular with their +contributions, so that the good work may not be hindered. + +"You see," said Mrs. Howell, "in order to send the gospel to these +far-away people, we must send missionaries to them. There is no other +way, while there are a good many ways in which even children may help +people near by. For instance, they can persuade other children to go to +church and Sunday-school. And then they can be kind to the poor, and +can help them in other ways beside giving money to them. Edith mends her +old toys for poor children. She keeps her bright cards and picture books +as nice as possible, and when done with them carries them to the +Children's Hospital or to the Almshouse; and she is very careful of her +clothes, so that when she has outgrown them they will do for poor little +girls. There are children now down town going to Sunday-school in her +clothes. So you see that even if your money goes to the missionary work, +you need not neglect other ways of doing good." + +"I think it's grand!" said Marty with long-drawn breath. "I've a great +mind to begin trying to do somebody some good, and not keep everything +myself. I have a dime every week to do what I please with, and sometimes +I get other money besides." + +"I am sure you would find a great deal of satisfaction in helping +others," said Mrs. Howell. + +"Mrs. Howell," asked Marty, after studying the verse in First +Corinthians for some time, "what does it mean about laying by in store +the first day of the week?" + +"The first day of the week is the Sabbath, and that is a fitting time to +consider how God has prospered you and to lay aside your offering." + +"I think if I had a box and saved tenths I'd like to do that way," said +Marty. "I suppose papa could give me my dime just as well Saturday as +Monday. I do believe I'd like to belong to that band and give some money +to send Bibles and teachers to the heathen." + +"Oh! do, do join our mission-band," urged Edith. "You'll like it ever so +much," and she went on so enthusiastically telling how delightful it +was, that Marty at once decided, if her mamma approved, she would "join" +at the very next meeting. Of course she could not have been so +constantly with Edith without already having heard much about the band, +but she had never been so interested in it as this morning, and was now +very anxious to go to the meeting the coming Saturday. + +"I'll run right home and ask mamma," she said. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MARTY GETS STARTED. + + +"O Mamma!" cried Marty, bursting into her mother's room, "may I have--" + +Then she stopped suddenly, for she saw her mother was sitting in the +rocking-chair with Freddie in her arms, evidently trying to put him to +sleep. He looked around when Marty came in so noisily, and Mrs. Ashford +said, in a vexed tone, + +"O Marty! why do you rush in that way? I have been trying for half an +hour to put Freddie to sleep, and have just got him to lay his head +down." + +"Now I will lay my head up," Freddie announced, and sat up with his eyes +as wide open as if he never meant to go to sleep in his life. + +"I'm so sorry, mamma," said Marty, "but I didn't know he'd be going to +sleep at this time." + +"It is sooner than usual, but he seemed so sleepy and was so fretful, I +thought I would just give him his dinner early, and put him to sleep +before our lunch." + +"Maybe he will lie on the bed with me, and go to sleep that way, as he +did the other day," suggested Marty, who was always very ready to make +amends for any mischief she had caused. "Wont Freddie come and lie down +beside sister?" + +"No, no, no!" said Freddie, shaking his curly head and pushing Marty +away with his foot. + +"I'll tell you a pretty story," said Marty coaxingly. + +"No, no," said the little boy. + +"Pretty story about the three bears." + +At this mention of his favorite story Freddie began to relent, and +presently stretched out his arms to Marty. Mrs. Ashford put him on the +bed, and he cuddled up to Marty while she told him the thrilling story +of the Great Huge Bear, the Middle-sized Bear, and the Little Small Wee +Bear; but long before she came to the place where little Silver Hair was +found, Freddie was fast asleep. + +"What were you going to ask me, Marty?" inquired her mamma, when they +were seated at lunch. + +"Oh, yes!" said Marty, in her excitement laying down her fork and +twisting her napkin. "I was going to ask you if I might have a box to +put tenths in, and if I mayn't belong to the mission-band." + +"I thought you didn't want to belong to the band." + +"Well, I didn't before, but I do now. I didn't know till this morning +how nice it is. Mrs. Howell and Edith have been telling me all about +giving money systematically, and showing me verses in the Bible; and so +I thought I'd like to give some of my money, and go with Edith to the +mission meeting next Saturday, if you will let me." + +"Of course you may go if you wish." + +"And may I have a box to put my money in?" + +"Yes." + +"Where shall I get it?" + +"I'll give you one," said Mrs. Ashford, laughing. "Will that cardinal +and gilt one of mine be suitable for the purpose?" + +"_Will_ you give me that beauty? Thank you ever so much," and Marty flew +around the table to kiss her mother. + +When they went up stairs Mrs. Ashford got out the pretty box, and, at +Marty's desire, wrote on the bottom of it, "Martha Ashford," and the +date. Marty, after excessively admiring and rejoicing over it, made a +place for it in the corner of one of her drawers. Then she consulted her +mother how to begin with the tenths. + +"I haven't any of this week's money left," she said--in fact she seldom +had any of her weekly allowance over--"but I have twenty-seven cents of +my Christmas money yet. Had I better take a tenth of that, or wait and +begin with my next ten cents?" + +Her mother thought it would be best, perhaps, to keep the twenty-seven +cents for "emergencies," and begin the tenths with the next week's +money. + +"But one penny will be very little to take to the meeting," said Marty. +"How would it do to put in two more as a thank-offering for something or +other?" + +"That is a very good idea." + +In the evening her father came in for his share of the requests. + +"Papa," she asked, "would you just as soon give me my ten cents this +evening as Monday?" + +"Certainly," he replied, taking a dime out of his pocket. "What's going +on this evening?" + +"Oh, nothing's going on, but I've begun to have a box for missionary +money--that lovely cardinal one of mamma's with gilt spots on it--and +I'm going to put tenths and offerings in it and take them to the +mission-band to help send missionaries to the heathen." + +"Well, that's good. But what are you going to do about candy and such +things?" + +"Oh, I don't put all my money in the box; just some of it. I'm going to +learn to give--what was it I told you mamma?" + +"Systematically?" + +"Yes, ma'am, that's it. You know, papa, that means giving just so much +of your money and giving it at a certain time and never forgetting to +give it. That's the reason I wanted my ten cents now, so that I can put +some of it in the box to-morrow morning. And, O papa! would it trouble +you to give it to me all in pennies?" + +"Not at all," said her father gravely, and he counted out ten pennies, +taking back the dime. "Now how much of that goes in the cardinal box?" + +"One penny for tenths and two as a thank-offering, because I'm thankful +that I've got started. So to-morrow morning three pennies will rattle +into the box." + +"Why to-morrow?" + +"Because it's the first day of the week. That's the New Testament plan, +'lay by in store on the first day of the week.'" + +Then she climbed on her father's knee and told him all her day's +experience. He approved of her plans and said he hoped she would be able +to carry them out. + +"I think," he said, "it is a very good thing for small folks to learn to +spend their money wisely, and a better thing to learn to be willing to +share the good they have with those not so well off. But you will have +to watch yourself very carefully, for it wont be so easy to do all this +when the novelty wears off as it is now." + +"Oh! I'm always going to do this way," said Marty very determinedly, +"all my life." + +She always entered with heart and soul into whatever interested her, and +all that week she could hardly think of anything but the mission-band +and the money she was saving for it. By Wednesday she had dropped two +more pennies into the box--a free-will-offering she told her mother--and +did not spend a cent for anything, though one of her dolls was really +suffering for a pink sash. + +She was a great deal of the time with Edith, who gave her the most +glowing accounts of what they did at the band--how they had recitations +and dialogues and items, how they made aprons and kettle-holders and +sold them, and how Miss Agnes read most interesting missionary stories +to them while they sewed. She also told of a beautiful letter the +secretary, Mary Cresswell, had written to the lady missionary in the +school in Lahore, India, which the Twigs supported, and how they were +anxiously looking for a reply. Miss Agnes said they must not expect a +reply very soon, for missionaries were very busy people and had not +much time for letter-writing. But the girls thought that Mrs. C----, the +missionary, would be so pleased with Mary's letter she would certainly +make time to write, at least a tiny answer. + +"Does the band support a whole school?" Marty inquired in surprise. "It +must take a lot of money." + +"What we do is to pay the teacher's salary, and that's only about twenty +or twenty-five dollars a year," Edith replied. "You see it's this kind +of a school: the missionary ladies rent a little room for a school and +hire a native teacher, somebody perhaps who attends one of the mission +churches." + +"But how can any one afford to teach for so little money?" + +"Oh, that's a good deal for them, for the natives of those countries can +live on very little, Miss Agnes says. So the missionaries sometimes have +a good many of these schools in different parts of the city, and they +visit each one every two or three days to see how the children are +getting on and to give them religious instruction. Miss Agnes says in +that way the missionaries can do something for a great many children, +and the more money we bands send to pay teachers the more of these +little schools there may be." + +Marty could hardly wait for Saturday to come. She asked her mother to +select a verse for her to say at the meeting. + +"For Edith says they all repeat verses when their names are called." + +Her mother chose this one for her: "The silver is mine, and the gold is +mine, saith the Lord of hosts." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +WHOLES INSTEAD OF TENTHS. + + +When Marty came home from the meeting the next Saturday evening, and +entered the sitting-room in her usual whirlwind style, she found her +father there having a romp with Freddie. + +"Why, here is little sister! Well, missy, where have you been?" he +asked. + +"Why, papa!" exclaimed Marty reproachfully. "To the mission meeting, of +course. I told you this morning I was going." + +"So you did; and you have told me every morning this week that this was +the important day. I don't know how I came to forget it. Well, how did +you like the meeting?" + +"Oh, ever so much! I heard a great many sad things." + +"That's a new reason for liking a thing," said her father. + +"I mean," replied Marty, "I liked it because it was so nice and +interesting, but I did hear some sad things. Don't you think it's sad to +hear of a little school in one of those big, bad Chinese cities, where +the children were beginning to learn about Jesus, being broken up +because the folks in this country don't send money enough to pay a +teacher? And it would only take a little money, too." + +"That is certainly very sad." + +"Yes; and Miss Agnes told us of other schools that have to send the +girls and boys away because there isn't possibly room for them, and +there is no money to make the buildings larger. I asked her why the big +society in this country--the one where the money from all the bands is +sent, you know--didn't just take hold and build plenty of schools, so +that all the heathen children might be taught; and she said that the +Board--that's the big society--has no money to send but what the +churches and Sunday-schools give them, and lately they haven't been +giving enough to build all the schools that are wanted. Isn't it awful!" + +"A very sad state of affairs," said Mr. Ashford, but he could hardly +help smiling a little at Marty's profound indignation. + +"I should think the people in this country couldn't sit still and see +things going on in such a way," she said. "Why, do you know, Miss Agnes +says there are places where the poor people are asking for missionaries, +and there are none to send, because there's not money enough to support +them. I should think that people would just go and take all their money +out of the banks and send it to the Board. Then there would be so much +money pouring in that the Board would have to sit up nights to count +it." + +"No, no; that wouldn't do," said her father. "Little girls don't +understand these matters." + +"Well, but, papa," she said, coming close to him, dragging her coat +after her by one sleeve, "don't you think if everybody were to give as +the Lord has prospered them, there would be nearly enough money to do +the right thing by the heathen?" + +"Yes, there's something in that," answered Mr. Ashford, looking with a +queer kind of a smile at his wife, over Marty's head. "But you can't +compel every one to do what is right. All you can do is to attend to +your own contributions." + +"Well," said Marty, half crying in her earnestness, "I started out to +give tenths; but as long as there are so many heathen, and so few +missionaries, I'm going to give halves or wholes. I can't stand tenths." + +And she marched off and put every cent she had in the red box. When she +got her weekly allowance, that also went in. Her mother suggested that +she would better not give all her money away at once. + +"I think," she said, "it would be much better to do as you started to +do, and not give in that impulsive way." + +But Marty was sure she should not regret it, and declared she was going +to give every bit of money she ever should have to send missionaries to +the heathen. She was very full of ardor for about two days, though on +Monday something occurred that made her feel very bad. She was playing +with Freddie in the morning, and when schooltime came he began to +whimper, and holding her dress, pleaded, + +"Don't go, Marty; play wis me." + +She was very fond of her little brother, and proud that he seemed to +think more of her than he did of any one else, so she was usually quite +gentle with him. She now petted him and coaxed him to let her go, saying +when she came home she would bring him a pretty little sponge cake. She +often brought these tasty little cakes to Freddie, and he considered +them a great treat. The prospect of one quite satisfied him, and after +many last kisses he let her go peaceably. + +On the way home from school she stopped at the bakery, and it was not +until the cake was selected and wrapped up that she remembered she had +no money. It was all in her missionary box. + +"Oh! I can't take it after all," she said regretfully. "I forgot I have +no money." + +"That makes no difference at all," said the kindly German woman, who +knew Marty, as Mrs. Ashford generally dealt at the shop: "you take it +all the same, and bring the penny to-morrow--any day." + +"No, thank you, mamma wouldn't like me to do that," answered Marty, +hastening out to hide her tears. She was so sorry for Freddie's +disappointment; and disappointed he was, for he had a good memory and +immediately asked for his cake. Then there was a great crying scene, for +Marty cried as heartily as he did, and their mamma had to comfort them +both. + +"I think, mamma," said Marty, when Freddie had condescended to eat a +piece of another kind of cake and quiet was restored, "I think, after +all, I'll not put _every_ cent of my money in the box, but will keep a +little to buy things for dear little Freddie--and you," giving her +mother a squeeze. + +"That will be best," said Mrs. Ashford. "I know you enjoy bringing us +things sometimes." + +This was quite true. Marty was very generous, and nothing pleased her +more than to bring home some modest dainty, such as her small purse +would buy, and share it with everybody in the house, not forgetting +Katie in the kitchen. + +But her penniless condition brought her a harder time yet. The next day +in school a sudden recollection flashed upon her that nearly took her +breath away. She could hardly wait until school was dismissed to race +home to her mother, to whom she managed to gasp, + +"Oh, mamma! next Friday is Cousin Alice's birthday!" + +"Is it?" said Mrs. Ashford calmly. "What then?" + +"Why, you know that letter-rack of silver cardboard that I have been +making for her birthday, and counted so on giving her, isn't finished." + +"It is all ready but the ribbon, isn't it? It wont take long to finish. +I will make the bows for you." + +"But the ribbon isn't bought yet, and I haven't got a cent!" exclaimed +Marty despairingly. + +There were two very strict rules in connection with the money Marty +received each week. One was she was never to ask for it in advance, and +the other that she was not to borrow from any one, expecting to pay when +she got her dime. If she spent all her money the first of the week, she +had to do without things, no matter how badly she wanted them, till the +next allowance came in. This was to teach her foresight and carefulness, +her father said. Now she had no money and no expectation of any until +Saturday, when the birthday would be over. Of course there was all the +money in the red box, but she did not dream of touching that. It was +just as much missionary money as if it was already in the hands of the +Board that Miss Agnes talked about. + +"If I had any ribbon that would suit," said Mrs. Ashford, "I would give +it to you; but I haven't. Besides, for a present it would be better to +have new ribbon. How much would it cost?" + +"Rosa Stevenson paid eight cents a yard for hers, and it takes a yard +and a half--narrow ribbon, you know." + +"Then you will want twelve cents. I am sorry I cannot lend you the +money, but it is against the rule, you know." + +"Yes, ma'am, I know," Marty replied sorrowfully. + +She was sadly disappointed, as she had been looking forward for several +weeks to the time when she should have the pleasure of presenting the +nicely-made letter-rack to her cousin. She did not grudge the money she +had devoted to missions; she would like to have given much more if she +could; but she began to see that Edith's way of giving according to +system was the best. She was still very much interested in the heathen, +but they seemed a little farther off than on Saturday, while Cousin +Alice and the letter-rack now absorbed most of her thoughts. She stood +dolefully gazing out the window, not paying any attention to Freddie's +invitation to come and play cable cars. + +"Well, cheer up!" said her mother. "We will find some way out of the +difficulty. You try to think of some plan to get twelve cents, and so +will I. Between us we ought to devise something." + +Marty brightened up instantly and looked eagerly at her mother, sure +that relief was coming immediately. "What is your plan, mamma?" she +asked. + +"Oh! I didn't say I had one yet," said Mrs. Ashford, laughing. "You must +give me time to think; and you must think yourself." + +That was all she would say then, and Marty spent a very restless +afternoon and evening trying to think of some way to earn or save that +money, but could think of nothing that would bring it in time for +Friday. At bedtime her mother inquired, "Have you got a plan yet?" + +"No, indeed. I can't think of a thing," answered Marty, nearly as +doleful as ever. + +"How do you like this plan?" said Mrs. Ashford. "I have some rags up in +the storeroom that I want picked over, the white separated from the +colored, and if you will do it to-morrow afternoon, I will give you +fifteen cents." + +"Oh, I'll do it! I'll do it!" cried Marty in delight, kissing her +mother. "You're the best mamma that ever was!" + +"It is not pleasant work, and will probably take all your playtime," +cautioned her mother. + +"Oh! I don't mind that," said Marty. + +So, although the next afternoon was remarkably pleasant, and it would +have been delightful to be playing with her sled in the snow-heaped +little park near by, where the other girls were, she very cheerfully +spent it in the dull storeroom with an old calico wrapper over her +dress, sorting rags. There were a good many to do--though she candidly +said she didn't think there was more than fifteen cents' worth--and she +got pretty tired. Katie offered to help, but Marty heroically refused, +and earned her money fairly. + +The letter-rack was completed in good time, and presented. Cousin Alice +said it was the very prettiest of all her gifts, besides being extremely +useful. + +"Mamma," said Marty that evening, "I believe after all I'll go back to +Edith's plan of giving 'tenths' and 'offerings' to missions." + +"I think that would be the better way," said her mother. + +"Not that I'm tired of the heathen or the mission-band, or of giving, +you know, but just because--" + +"Yes, I understand," said her mother, as she hesitated; "you are just as +much interested in the matter as ever, but you now see that there are +more ways than one of doing good with money, and that it is better to +give systematically, as Mrs. Howell says. Then you know what you are +doing, and I dare say, taking it all in all, you will give more that way +than by giving a good deal one time and nothing at all another." + +"Oh! I'll _never_ come to the time when I wont give anything," Marty +declared emphatically. + +And she then truly believed she never should. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE EBONY CHAIR. + + +For a few weeks everything went smoothly. Marty attended the meetings of +the band, in which she took great interest, and put two or three pennies +in her box every Sunday morning. But there came a time when she began to +find it hard to give even that much. There seemed to be so many little +things she wanted, and it was just the season of the year when she had +very few presents of money. She generally got some on her birthday, in +August, and again at Christmas; but as she could not keep money very +well, that was soon spent, and during the latter part of the winter she +was very poor. Once or twice nothing went in the box but the strict +tenth, and once she had a hard struggle with herself before even that +went in; in fact, she had a very bad time altogether. It was all owing +to a tiny chair. + +"O girls!" exclaimed Hattie Green, one day at recess, "have you seen +those lovely chairs in Harrison's window?" + +"What chairs?" inquired the girls. + +"Oh, such lovely little dolls' chairs! Carved, you know, and with +_beautiful_ red cushions. I came by there this morning, and that's the +reason I was late at school, I stopped so long to look at those cunning +chairs." + +"Let's all go home that way," suggested Marty, "and then we can see +them." + +"All right," said Hattie. + +So after school quite a crowd went around by Harrison's toy-store to see +the wonderful chairs. + +There they were, rather small, to be sure, but ebony--at least they +looked like ebony--and crimson satin. The girls were in raptures with +them. + +"They are beauties!" cried Edith. + +"How I should love to have one!" said Marty. + +"I wonder how much they are," said Rosa Stevenson. + +"You go in and ask, Rosa," said Edith. + +"Yes, do, do," urged the others. + +Rosa went, and came back with the information that they were twelve +cents apiece. + +"Well, that isn't so much," said Edith. "I think I can afford to get +one. I'll see when I go home." + +"I know I have enough money to buy one," said Rosa, "but I never buy +anything without asking mamma about it first." + +"She'll let you get it," said Edith. + +"Oh, you girls always have some money saved up, and I never have," +sighed Marty. "And I do want one of those chairs so badly." + +"So do I," said Hattie, "and I haven't any money either, but I'm going +to tease mamma night and day till she gives me twelve cents." + +"It's no use to tease my mamma," said Marty. "If she wont let me do a +thing, she wont, and that's the end of it. But of course I'll tell her +about the chairs, and see what she says. Maybe she'll let me have one." + +As soon as she reached home Marty gave her mother a glowing description +of the chairs, winding up with, + +"And, O mamma! I do want one awfully." + +"But you have so many playthings already, Marty," objected her mother. +"Just look at those closet shelves! Besides, you got a complete set of +dolls' furniture Christmas." + +"Oh, I know I don't _need_ another chair at all, but those red ones are +so cunning, and one would look so well mixed in among my blue ones. I +should _love_ to have one." + +"I am sorry your mind is so set on it," said Mrs. Ashford, "for I +dislike to have you disappointed, but when you have so many playthings, +I really don't feel like giving you money, even if it is only a +trifle." + +"May I buy a chair if I have money enough of my own?" Marty asked. + +"Oh, yes--if you wish to spend your money that way; but I would rather +save it for something else if I were you." + +Marty had no very clear idea where "money of her own" was to come from +just at that time, but thought it possible the necessary amount might +appear before the chairs were all sold. + +The next morning Rosa and Edith came to school with money to buy chairs, +and at recess all their special friends went with them to Harrison's to +make the purchase. When Marty had a nearer view of the chairs and +handled them, she was more anxious than ever to possess one. This +anxiety increased as the days passed and the chairs gradually +disappeared. + +Nobody gave her any money and her mother did not offer her any more +"paid" work. She was very, very sorry that she had spent all of her +allowance on Monday morning--at least all but two cents and the one in +the red box. That, of course, she took with her to the meeting Saturday +afternoon. + +Saturday evening she received her next week's supply, and that, with the +two cents she had over, was exactly enough to get the longed-for toy. +But one cent was tenths. + +"That just spoils the whole thing," she said to herself. "I might as +well have none at all as only eleven cents." + +Then she wondered if it would not do to borrow that tenth. She had not +thought of taking out any of the money when she was in such straits +about Cousin Alice's ribbon, but this seemed different. It was only one +penny, and she was sure of being able to replace it. + +But borrowing was against the rule, and it must be especially wrong to +borrow missionary money. She felt ashamed and her cheeks burned when the +thought came to her. + +"I s'pose I'll have to give up the chair," she sighed; "at least unless +I get a little more money somehow. I wish papa wasn't so strict about +borrowing. A penny wouldn't be much to borrow." + +Sunday morning she took out her money and counted it over again very +carefully. Yes, there was exactly twelve cents. Then she slowly took up +one cent to drop in the box. As she did so the temptation to borrow it +came again. + +"No, I wont do that," she said resolutely, but after looking at the +penny for a while, concluded not to put it in the box until after she +came from Sunday-school. + +After Sunday-school she tried it again, but still hesitated. + +"I'll wait till bedtime," she thought. + +By bedtime she had decided not to put it in at all. + +"I b'lieve I'll borrow it. It wont do any harm to let the box go empty +for one week. I'll get the chair to-morrow, and make the tenth all right +next Sunday." + +So she got into bed and covered herself up, but she could not go to +sleep. She tossed and tumbled for what seemed to her a long time. "It's +all because that penny isn't in the box," she thought. Finally she could +stand it no longer. She got up, and feeling around in the drawer, found +the penny and put it in the box. Then she went to bed, and was soon +asleep. + +Having decided she could not have what she so ardently desired, Marty +should have kept out of the way of temptation, but every day she went to +look at the chairs, and seeing them, she continued to want one. By +Thursday they were all gone but two, and Hattie triumphantly announced +that at last her mamma had given her money to buy one. Then Marty felt +that she _must_ have the other. + +When she had her wraps on that afternoon ready to go out to play, she +went to the missionary box, and, with hands trembling in her excitement, +took out the solitary penny. Then without stopping to think she ran down +stairs. Just as she was opening the street-door she repented, and after +meditating a while in the vestibule, standing first on one foot and then +on the other, she slowly retraced her steps and put the penny back. + +"Now it's safe," she said. "I'll just dash out without it, and of course +when I haven't got it, I can't spend it." + +She dashed about half way, when all at once the vision of the lovely +chair rose up before her, and the desire to possess it was greater than +ever. She stopped again to think, and the result was, she returned and +got the penny--it was not quite so hard to take it out the second time +as it was the first--and started for the street once more. + +Perhaps she might have repented and gone back again, had not her mother, +who was entertaining some ladies in the parlor, called to her, "Marty, +don't race up and down stairs so," and then Marty went out with the +penny in her hand. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE EMPTY BOX. + + +So the chair was bought and Marty tried to think she was perfectly +satisfied, but it was strange how little she cared for it after all. She +showed her purchase to her mother, who said it was quite pretty, but not +very substantial; that she feared it would not last long. + +Marty put it in her dolls' house and played with it, trying hard to +enjoy it, but her conscience was so ill at ease that she soon began to +hate the sight of the chair, and by Friday evening she had pushed it +away back on the shelf behind everything. The sight of the red box, too, +was more than she could stand, it seemed to look so reproachfully at +her; even after she had laid one of her white aprons over it she +disliked to open the drawer. + +There was a special meeting of the band that Saturday, as they were +getting ready for their anniversary. No contributions were expected, so +that it did not matter about Marty having no money; but she was feeling +so low-spirited and ashamed that she simply could not go among the +others nor take part in missionary exercises. + +"Are you going for Edith this afternoon or is she coming for you?" +inquired Mrs. Ashford. + +"I'm not going to the meeting," replied Marty in a low voice. "I told +Edith I wasn't going." + +"Not going!" exclaimed Mrs. Ashford in surprise. "Why, you are not tired +of it already, are you?" + +"No, ma'am," Marty answered, "but I don't want to go to-day." + +Mrs. Ashford thought perhaps Marty and Edith had had a little falling +out, though it must be said they very seldom quarreled; or that Marty +was beginning to tire a little of her new enterprise, for she was rather +in the habit of taking things up with great energy and soon becoming +weary of them. Mrs. Ashford had not expected her missionary enthusiasm +to last very long; and as she herself was not at that time much +interested in such matters, she was not prepared to keep up Marty's +zeal, but was inclined to allow her to go on with the work or give it +up, just as she chose, as she did in matters of less importance. + +However, Mrs. Ashford knew that, whatever the trouble was, it would all +come out sooner or later, for Marty always told her everything. So she +merely said, + +"Well, as it is so bleak to-day and you have a cold, perhaps it would +be just as well for you not to go out." + +Marty, disinclined to play, took one of her "Bessie Books" and sat down +by the window. Though so cheerless out-doors, with the wind whistling +among the leafless trees and blowing the dust about, that sitting room +was certainly very cosey and pleasant. + +Marty's "pretty mamma," as she often called her, in her becoming +afternoon gown of soft, dark red stuff, sat in a low rocker in front of +the bright fire busy with her embroidery and softly singing as she +worked. Freddie, on the rug at her feet, played quietly with a string of +buttons. The only sounds in the room were Mrs. Ashford's murmured song +and an occasional chirp from the canary. But all at once this cheerful +quietness was broken by loud sobbing. + +Poor Marty had been so unhappy the last two days, and now added to what +she felt to be the meanness of appropriating that missionary penny, was +the disappointment of not being at the meeting, for she was longing to +be there, though not feeling fit to go. Besides, it was a great load on +her mind that she had not told her mamma how she got the chair, nor what +was the reason she did not want to go to the meeting. And now she could +endure her wretchedness no longer. + +"What's the matter, Marty?" exclaimed Mrs. Ashford, much startled. "Are +you ill? Is your throat sore? Come here and tell me what ails you?" + +"Oh, mamma, I'm very, very wicked," sobbed Marty, and running to her +mother's arms she tried to tell her troubles, but cried so that she +could not be understood. + +"Never mind, never mind," said her mother soothingly. "Wait until you +can stop crying and then tell me all about it." + +Freddie was dreadfully distressed to see his sister in such a state and +did all he could to comfort her, bringing her his horse-reins and a +whole lapful of building-blocks, and was rather surprised that they did +not have the desired effect. + +When Marty became quieter she told the whole story of the dolls' chair +and the missionary penny. "That's the reason I didn't want to go to the +meeting," she said. "I don't feel fit to 'sociate with good missionary +children. I'm so sorry and so ashamed. I wish I had let the penny stay +in the box and the chair stay in the store." + +"We cannot undo what is done," said her mother gravely. "We can only +make all possible amends and try to do better in future. You can replace +the penny this evening, and this lesson you have had may teach you to +be more self-denying. You know you cannot spend all your money for +trifles and yet have some to give away. If you want to give you must +learn to do without some things. But, Marty, if it is going to be so +difficult to devote some of your money to missions, you had better just +give up the attempt and go back to your old way of doing." + +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Marty earnestly. "Please let me try again. I +know I'll do better now, and I do want to help in missionary work." + +"Well," said Mrs. Ashford, "just as you wish. I don't like to see you +beginning things and giving them up so soon, but at the same time I +don't think you need feel obliged to give to these things whether you +want to or not." + +"Oh, but I do want to ever so much," Marty protested. + +She felt better after telling her mother all about the matter, and now +was quite ready to brighten up and start afresh. The next morning +besides dropping in two pennies for tenths she put in another, which she +said was a "sorry" offering, but did not know the Bible name for it. She +would have liked to make amends by putting in the whole ten cents, but +her mother would not allow it. + +"Things would soon be as bad as ever," were her warning words, "if +that's the way you are going to do. The next thing you will want to +take some of it out, as you did the penny for the chair." + +"No, no, mamma! I don't b'lieve I ever _could_ be so mean again," Marty +declared. + +"I don't believe either that you would do it again. But you will +certainly save yourself a great deal of worry, and will be likely to do +more good in the work you have begun, by following Mrs. Howell's advice +of having a plan of giving and keeping to it." + +"Well, I'm going to try that way in real earnest now," said Marty; "but +I wish it was as easy for me to be steady about things as it is for +Edith. She never seems to get into trouble over her tenths." + +A few days after this, when she was spending the afternoon with Edith, +Marty told Mrs. Howell what a time she had had, and added, + +"Doesn't it seem strange that I can't give my money regularly?" + +"Perhaps," suggested Mrs. Howell, "you have not asked God to help you in +your new enterprise." + +"Why, no, I haven't," replied Marty. "I never thought of it." + +"My dear child, we are nothing in our own strength. We should always ask +God to help us, in what we attempt, and ask for his blessing. Unless he +blesses our work, it cannot prosper." + +"But I don't know how to ask him," said Marty, speaking softly. "The +prayers I say every night are 'Our Father,' and 'Now I lay me,' and +there's nothing in them about mission work. I should have to say another +prayer, shouldn't I?" + +"If you more fully understood the Lord's Prayer, you would know that +exactly what you want is included in it. But why cannot you ask for what +you desire in your own words? Just go to God as trustingly as you would +to your mother, when you want something you know she will let you have, +if it is good for you to have it. And that would be really praying, for, +Marty, don't you know there's a great difference between saying prayers +and praying? You may say a dozen prayers and not pray at all." + +"Don't I pray when I kneel beside the bed and say those two prayers?" + +"You do if you make the petitions your own, and really desire what you +ask for, and if you ask in the right spirit. But if you just say the +words over without thinking what you are saying, or whom you are +speaking to, it is not praying at all. It is mocking God." + +"I'm sure I wouldn't do that," said Marty, looking frightened. + +"I know you would not willfully, my dear, but I just want to show you +that saying over certain words is not praying. We don't realize what a +blessed privilege it is to pray. God's ear is open night and day to any +of us, even the smallest child. He is as ready to hear anything you may +have to say as he is to hear Dr. Edgar when he gets up in his pulpit and +prays." + +"Then it wouldn't be wrong to ask God to help me give missionary money +regularly, would it?" + +"It would be very right." + +That night when Marty knelt beside her bed she really prayed. She felt +that God was listening to her, and when she came to the words, "Now I +lay me down to sleep," she realized that she was committing herself to +his care, and was sure that in that care she was safe. After her usual +prayers she paused a moment and then added, "And, O Lord, please help me +to be steady in giving missionary money." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HOW MISSIONS HELPED THE HOME FOLKS. + + +The mission work that Marty had entered upon was teaching her to pray. + +She really wished to be a mission worker in her small way and she tried +hard to be faithful, but owing to her forgetfulness or impatience or +selfishness, things sometimes went wrong. Once or twice she forgot to +learn a verse to say at the meeting, and was much mortified. Once she +got very impatient with a piece of sewing and spoiled it, and then was +angry because some of the girls laughed at her. And she still found it +hard to give her money regularly; some weeks she wanted it so much for +something else. + +But all these little trials she carried to God and was helped. This led +to the habit of bringing all her little troubles to him. + +One day Miss Agnes remarked that we don't put enough thanks in our +prayers. We ask that such and such things may be done, but we don't +thank God half enough for what he has done and is constantly doing for +us. We come to him with all the miseries of our lives, but don't tell +him about the happy and joyous things. Afterward Marty put more thanks +in her prayers, and she told Miss Agnes that it was astonishing how many +thankful things there were to say. + +Marty also used her Bible a great deal more after she joined the band +than before. + +Besides the verse they were expected to repeat at roll-call, Miss Agnes +sometimes asked them to bring all the texts they could find bearing upon +a certain subject. The golden text for Sunday-school might be learned +from the lesson-paper, but it was necessary to search the Bible for +these other verses. At first Marty did not know how to begin to find +them and appealed to her mother for help. Mrs. Ashford gave all the +assistance in her power, though saying with a half-sigh, + +"I'm afraid I don't know much about these things, Marty." + +One day Mrs. Ashford had been out shopping and in the evening several +parcels were sent home. These she opened in the sitting-room. As she +unwrapped quite a large one Mr. Ashford inquired, + +"What is that huge book?" + +When his wife handed it to him he whistled and exclaimed, + +"A concordance! What in the world do you want with this? Are you going +to study theology?" + +"No," replied Mrs. Ashford, laughing, "but Marty comes to me with so +many questions that I found I could not get on any longer without that." + +"What's a concordance, mamma?" asked Marty, "and has it anything to do +with me?" + +"It is a book to help us find all those verses in the Bible you have +been asking me about. You see I'm not as good and wise as your friend +Mrs. Howell, and don't know as much about the Bible as she does." + +"You're every bit as good," declared Marty, who by this time had got +both arms around her mother's waist as she stood on the rug, and was +looking up in her face lovingly, "and you will be as wise when you are +as old, for she is a great deal older than you." + +Her father and mother both laughed at Marty's earnestness, and Mr. +Ashford said, + +"That's right, Marty. Stand up for your mother." + +They found the concordance very useful, and from time to time spent many +happy hours searching the Scriptures with its aid, comparing passages +and talking them over. Not only did they find texts for the band, but +other subjects were traced through the sacred pages. Occasionally Marty +saw her mother busy with the concordance and Bible when she had not +asked her assistance about verses. + +It was while Marty was giving wholes instead of tenths and the red box +was so well filled, that it met with an accident that disfigured it for +life. Though the occurrence was a sad and humiliating one for Marty, it +led to good results. + +She had the box out one day and was counting the money, although she +knew precisely how much there was. As a good deal of it was in pennies +it made quite a noise, so that Freddie, attracted by the bright outside +and noisy inside, thought he would like to have the box to play with. He +asked Marty to give it to him, but she, busy with her counting, answered +rather sharply, + +"No, indeed; you can't have it. Go away, now. Don't touch!" + +But Freddie was very quick in his movements, and before she could get it +out of his reach he had seized it and shaken the contents all over the +floor. Marty, very angry at having her beautiful box treated so roughly, +and seeing the money rolling about in all directions, cried in loud +tones, + +"Let go, you naughty boy! You'll break it!" + +Freddie, now angry also, and determined to have what he wanted, held on +manfully, screaming, "Dive it to me! dive it to me!" and in the struggle +a small piece was broken off the lid. + +Mrs. Ashford, hearing the loud tones, hurried into the room, and arrived +in time to see Marty strike Freddie with one hand while she held the box +high above her head with the other. Freddie was pounding her with all +his little strength and crying uproariously. + +"Marty, Marty!" called Mrs. Ashford, "don't strike your little brother. +What is the matter? Come here, Freddie." + +But Freddie stamped his foot and screamed, "Will have it! Will have +pretty box!" and Marty wailed, "Oh! he's broken my lovely box and +spilled all my money." + +It was some time before peace was fully restored, though Marty was soon +very repentant for what she had done and Freddie's ill-temper never +lasted very long. After standing a while with his face to the wall, as +was his custom on such occasions, crying loudly, the little tempest was +all over. He turned around, and putting up his hands to wipe his eyes +said pitifully, + +"My teeks are so wet, and I have no hamititch to dry them." + +"Come here and I'll dry them," said his mother, taking him on her knee. + +[Illustration: Mrs. Ashford, hearing the loud tones, hurried into the +room. Page 58] + +"My chin is all wet," he said. + +"So it is, but we'll dry all your face." + +"And my hands are all wet." + +"What a poor little wet boy!" said his mother tenderly, but cheerfully +too. + +After making him comfortable she said, + +"Now are you sorry you were such a naughty boy?" + +He nodded his head, and turning to Marty, who was crawling around +gathering up her money, he said, "Sorry, Marty." + +Marty crept up to him, and kissing over and over the little arm she had +struck, said with eyes full of tears, + +"You dear little darling, you don't know how awfully sorry Marty is for +being so bad to you!" + +Then they rubbed their curly heads together until Freddie began to +laugh, and in a few moments he was playing with his tin horse as merrily +as if nothing had happened, while Marty gathered up and put away her +treasures. + +"Now, Marty," said her mother, "you must keep that out of Freddie's +sight. He is nothing but a baby, and doesn't know that it is any +different from any other box. Let me see where it is broken. Perhaps I +can mend it." + +"No, mamma," said Marty, "I don't want it mended. I am going to let it +be this way to remind me of how naughty I was to my dear little +brother, and maybe it will keep me from getting so angry with him again. +It does seem dreadful, too, to think that just when I'm trying to be +good to children away over the sea, I should be partic'lerly bad to my +own little brother, doesn't it?" + +"I sha'n't say a word," replied her mother, "for I see you can rebuke +yourself." + +So the broken missionary box was a constant reminder to Marty that her +work for those far away should make her all the more loving to the dear +ones at home. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"NOT IN THE GOOD TIMES." + + +One Saturday afternoon as Edith and Marty entered the room where the +meetings of the band were held, half a dozen girls rushed to them, +exclaiming, + +"Oh, what do you think! Mary Cresswell has a letter from Mrs. C----!" + +How eager they all were to hear that letter! As soon as the opening +exercises were over, Miss Walsh told Mary she might read it. The young +secretary looked quite proud and important as she unfolded the letter, +very tenderly, indeed, for it was written on thin paper, as foreign +letters are, and she was afraid of tearing it. + +After speaking very nicely of the letter she had received from them, +Mrs. C---- went on to tell them something about Lahore and about the +school they were interested in. She said: + +"You must not imagine a well-arranged schoolroom with desks, maps, +black-boards, and so on. We cannot afford anything like that, and in any +case it would be useless to the kind of pupils we have. We pay a woman a +little for the use of part of the room in which she lives, and while +the school is in session she goes on with her work in one corner. This +room is quite dark, as, having no windows, all the light it receives is +from the door. It has no furniture to speak of. The teacher and pupils +sit on the earth floor." + +She then described the dress of the little girls, which certainly did +not appear to be very comfortable for the cool weather they sometimes +have in North India, and said, "No matter how poor and scanty the +clothing, they must have some kind of jewelry, even if it is only glass +or brass bangles. They are anything but cleanly, as they are not taught +in their own homes to be so; besides, some of their customs are +considerably against cleanliness. For instance, they must not wash +themselves at all for a certain length of time after the death of +relatives. So it sometimes happens the children come to school in a very +dirty condition." + +These children, Mrs. C---- said, were bright and learned quite readily. +She mentioned some of the hymns and Scripture verses they knew, and some +of the answers they had given to questions she put to them. + +"But the great difficulty is," she wrote, "they are taken away from +school so young to be married and thus lost to us. Still it is good to +think that they receive some religious instruction, and matters in +regard to girls and women in India are gradually improving. Not quite so +much stress is laid on child-marriage; indeed, some native societies are +being formed for the purpose of opposing this custom, and many more +girls are allowed to attend school than used to be the case. + +"But there is room yet for great improvement. You, my young friends, in +your happy childhood and girlhood, cannot conceive the miseries of these +poor little creatures. Thank God your lot is cast in a Christian land, +and oh! do all you can to send the gospel light into these dark places +of the earth." + +The girls had a great deal to say about this letter, and as it was +sewing afternoon, Miss Walsh allowed them to talk over their work +instead of having any reading. + +"Somebody told me," said little Daisy Roberts, "that in India they don't +care as much about girls as boys, and sometimes they kill the girl +babies. Is that so?" + +"Yes," replied Miss Walsh. "It used to be a very common custom, and is +still so to some extent, though the British Government has done much to +stop it." + +"They must be very cruel to want to kill their own dear little babies. +Why, if anybody should hurt our little Nellie, we'd all fly at him and +nearly tear him to pieces," and Daisy's face got very red and she +doubled up her little fist at the very thought of such a thing. + +"It isn't always, nor perhaps often, done in a spirit of cruelty. +Sometimes it is because the parents are poor and cannot afford to marry +their daughters, for weddings cost a great deal, and according to the +notions of the country everybody must be married. Often it ruins a man +to get his daughters married, and he lives in poverty all the rest of +his life. Then very ignorant and superstitious parents sometimes +sacrifice their children to please their gods, and as girls are not as +much thought of as boys, it is frequently the girls who are killed. But, +as I told you, the Government does not allow such doings, and when +people are found breaking the law they are punished. Besides, as +Christianity spreads these wicked things cease." + +"I think that way they have of making little girls get married is +awful," said Edith. "Just think of being dragged off to be married when +you're only a little mite of a thing, and having to leave your own mamma +and live with a cross old mother-in-law who abuses you!" + +"Don't their fathers and mothers love them at all, Miss Agnes, that they +send them off that way and allow them to be miserable?" asked Marty, +who was ready to cry over the miseries of the poor little India girl. + +"Of course there are many cruel parents--heathenism, you know, does not +teach people to be kind and loving--but many love their children as much +as your parents love you. In fact they are over-indulgent to them, and +let them do just what they please when they are small. And you may +imagine that the mother especially has a very sore heart when her little +daughter is taken from her and when she hears of her being ill-treated +in her new home. But it is considered a disgrace if girls are not +married when mere children; and a loving mother wishes to keep her +daughters from disgrace." + +"And how if the little girl's husband dies?" Rosa Stevenson inquired. + +"Oh, then the poor little widow leads a miserable life." + +"Why, how?" Marty asked. "Can't she go back home then?" + +"No," Miss Walsh answered. "She has to live on in the father-in-law's +house, where she is treated shamefully, made to do hard work, is half +starved, and not allowed clothes enough to keep her comfortable. She is +not taken care of when sick, and is treated worse in every way than you +have any idea of or ever can have." + +"It's perfectly dreadful!" declared one of the girls. + +"Didn't they use to burn the widows on their husbands' funeral pile?" +asked another. + +"Yes, but the British Government put a stop to that." + +"I believe I'd rather be burnt up and done with it than have to lead +such a miserable life," said Mary Cresswell. + +"Oh, no, it would be dreadful to be burnt," said Rosa. + +"Seems to me it's dreadful all around," said Marty, sighing. + +"You may be thankful you don't have to make the choice," said Miss +Walsh. + +"Then the poor children are not even made comfortable when they go to +school," Rosa went on, "so dirty and forlorn!" + +"How queerly they're dressed," said Hannah Morton. + +"They seem to be dressed principally in earrings and bracelets," +remarked Marty. + +"Miss Agnes," inquired Mary, "aren't there other kinds of schools +besides these little day-schools?" + +"Oh, yes. One of the first things that the missionaries try to do is to +establish boarding-schools, so as to get the boys and girls altogether +away from the influence of their heathen homes. This is the way many +converts are made. There are now many such schools and much good has +been done by them. You remember we sent the extra ten dollars we had +last year to help build an addition to a boarding-school in China." + +"Are Chinese little girls treated as badly as the ones in India?" Marty +asked. + +"Why, yes," said Hannah, before Miss Walsh could reply. "Don't you +remember the 'Chinese Slave Girl,' that Miss Agnes read to us?--at least +read some of it. And don't you know how they are tortured by binding +their feet?" + +"That isn't done on _purpose_ to torture them," said Mary. "That's a +custom of the country." + +"Most of their customs appear to be tortures," said Marty. + +"Yes," said Miss Walsh, "the customs of barbarous and half-civilized +nations are very hard on the women and girls." + +"Well, it all makes me feel very sorrowful," Marty declared. "I never +thought before, when I've had such good times all my life, that there +are so many little girls who are not--a--" + +"Not in the good times?" said Miss Walsh, helping her out. + +"Yes, ma'am; and I do wish I could do something for some of them." + +"So do I," said several of the others. + +"I suppose," suggested Edith, "the faster we send the gospel to those +countries the better it will be for the girls and everybody." + +"Couldn't we raise more money this year, enough to support another +school, or to pay for a girl or boy in a boarding-school somewhere?" +Rosa proposed. + +"In that case we should have to double, or more than double, our usual +amount," said Miss Walsh. "The question is, can we do that?" + +"Oh, do let us try!" exclaimed several of the girls. + +Then they began forthwith to make plans for raising more money. + +"Of course the more members we have, the more money we'll raise," said +Mary Cresswell, "so I think we'd better try again to get others to join +our band. I have asked the Patterson girls two or three times, but I'm +going to ask them again." + +"Better not ask them _plump_ to join," suggested Bertie Lee. "Just get +them somehow to come to one meeting, and then they'll be sure to want to +belong." + +"There's some wisdom in that," said Miss Walsh, laughing. + +"Yes'm," said Bertie, "and I believe I'll try that way with Annie +Kelley." + +"I'm going to ask that new girl in our Sunday-school class," said +Hannah. + +"I'm going to try to get _somebody_ to come," said Marty. + +"So am I," "And I," cried the others. + +"That's right," said Miss Walsh. "We want to get as many people as +possible interested in missionary work, and, as Mary says, the more that +are interested and belong to societies, the more money will be raised, +and, of course, the more good will be done. So, don't you see, you are +aiding the cause very much when you try to make our meetings attractive, +and so induce others to join the band." + +"I've thought of a way to make some missionary money, if it would be +right to do it," said Edith. + +"What is it?" asked Miss Walsh. + +"Well--you know those prizes Dr. Edgar and Mr. Stevenson give at the +Sunday-school anniversary for learning the Psalms and chapters--would it +do to ask them to give us money instead of books or anything else, so +that we might have it for missions?" + +"We certainly might ask our pastor and superintendent what they think of +the plan. I have no doubt they would be willing to adopt it when they +know what the money is to be used for. I think myself, your idea is a +very good one." + +"Yes," said Rosa, "we should not only be studying the Bible for our own +sakes, but be helping missions at the same time." + +"We'd be working for our missionary money then, shouldn't we?" remarked +one of the girls. + +"Yes, _indeed_!" replied another, with a laugh and shrug. She was not +fond of committing to memory. + +"It's a good way, though," said Marty, standing up for Edith's +suggestion, "and I'm going to start right in and learn something. Miss +Agnes, I wonder how much they'd give for the 119th Psalm?" + +Marty asked this in real earnest, and although Miss Walsh felt like +smiling, she answered gravely, + +"I don't think it is quite the right spirit in which to study the Bible, +Marty--doing it only for the sake of the money, even if the money is for +missions." + +"Oh! I shouldn't do it _just_ for the money, but I thought if I could +get more for a long Psalm than for a short one, I'd rather learn the +long one, and have more missionary money. But I shouldn't want to do it +if it was wrong, you know," Marty added, looking distressed. + +"I know you would not," said Miss Walsh kindly. "I have no doubt your +motives are all right, though you can hardly explain them. I can +understand that you would be willing to do considerable hard work for +missions, and I am glad of your willingness and enthusiasm. They help +me." + +Then Marty looked radiant. + +There were other plans proposed, and every one had so much to say that +Miss Walsh had some trouble in getting the meeting to break up. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JENNIE. + + +"I do b'lieve," said Marty one day, after she had been a member of the +mission-band for several months, "I do b'lieve that hearing so much +about the poor little children in India and China and those places, and +trying to do something to help them, makes me feel far more like helping +poor children here at home. Now, there's Jennie--I know I shouldn't have +thought much about her if I hadn't been thinking of those far-away +children." + +This was after she had made some sacrifices for the benefit of poor +little Jennie, and this is the way she first came to know of her. + +When the spring house-cleaning was going on, Mrs. Ashford's regular +helper one day could not come and sent another woman. In the evening +when Mrs. Ashford went into the kitchen to pay this Mrs. Scott for her +day's work, Marty, who had a great habit of following her mother around +the house, went also. Mrs. Scott had just finished her supper, and after +receiving her money and replying to Mrs. Ashford's pleasant remarks, she +said hesitatingly, pointing to a saucer of very fine canned peaches +which was part of her supper, but which she had apparently only tasted, +"Please, mem, may I take them splendid peaches home to my sick little +girl? She can't eat nothin' at all hardly, and she would relish them, I +know. If you'd jist give me the loan of an old bowl or somethin--" + +"Oh! have you a sick child?" said Mrs. Ashford sympathizingly. "She +shall certainly have some peaches, but you must eat those yourself. +Katie, get--" + +"Oh! no, mem," protested Mrs. Scott, "that's too much like beggin'. I +jist wanted to take mine to her." + +"No, it isn't begging at all," said Mrs. Ashford. "I'm very glad you +told me about your little girl. Katie, fill one of those small jars with +peaches." + +Then Mrs. Ashford went into the pantry, and returning with two large +oranges and some Albert biscuit, asked, + +"Can you carry these also?" + +Mrs. Scott was full of thanks, and said she knew such nice things would +do Jennie a world of good. + +"I can make enough to keep her warm in winter and get her plain vittles, +but it isn't at all what she ought to have now, I know," she said +sorrowfully. + +Mrs. Ashford asked what was the matter with Jennie and how long she had +been ill. Mrs. Scott replied that she had hurt her back more than a year +ago; and though she had been "doctored" then and appeared to get a +little better, since they moved to their present abode--for they came +from a distant town--she had become worse and was now not able to walk +at all, but was obliged to lie in bed, sometimes suffering much pain. + +"How was she hurt?" Mrs. Ashford inquired. + +"She fell down the stair," was all the reply given, but Katie said +afterward that she had heard that Jennie was thrown or pushed down +stairs by her drunken father. She said poor Mrs. Scott had had a very +hard life with this shiftless, drunken husband, who abused her and the +children. All the children were dead now except Jennie, who was about a +year older than Marty, and early in the winter "old Scott," as Katie +called him, died himself from the effects of a hurt received in a fight +while "on a spree." As Mrs. Scott had been ill part of the winter and +unable to work much, she had got behind with her rent, and altogether +had been having a very hard time. + +Marty was very much interested in what Mrs. Scott said, and asked a +question or two on her own account. + +"Who stays with your little girl when you are away?" + +"Bless your sweet eyes! nobody stays with her. She just lies there her +lone self, unless some of the other children in the house run in and +out, but mostly she doesn't want their noise." + +"How long has she been in bed?" + +"Most of the time for eight months, miss," replied the poor mother with +a sigh. + +"Doesn't she ever sit up in the rocking-chair?" + +"We have no rocking-chair, but sometimes when I go home from work, or +the days I have no work, I hold her in my arms a bit to rest her." + +"Has she got anything to amuse her?" + +"Yes, she has a picture-book I got her last Christmas." + +"Mamma!" exclaimed Marty, as soon as the door closed behind Mrs. Scott, +"just think of lying in bed since Christmas, and now it's the first of +May, with nothing but _one_ picture-book!" + +"Ah! Marty," said her mother, "there are many people in the world who +have very hard times." + +"Well, I don't know them all, and I couldn't help them all if I did; but +I feel that I know Jennie real well, and mayn't I give her some of my +books and playthings? a whole lot, so that she wont be so lonesome when +her mother's away." + +"I was thinking of going to see her soon, and if you wish you may go too +and carry her a picture-book or something of the sort." + +Marty in her usual wholesale way would have carried half her possessions +to Jennie, but Mrs. Ashford prevailed upon her to limit her gift to a +small book and a few bright cards. + +"You would better see Jennie first," she said. "She may not care for +books and may be too miserable to care much for playthings." + +It happened the day they fixed upon to go Mrs. Ashford brought home from +market a small measure of strawberries, though they were yet somewhat +expensive. Marty, seeing them on the lunch-table, nearly went wild over +them, being very fond of the fruit, but her mother noticed that after +she was served she barely tasted them, and then sat with the spoon in +her hand gravely thinking. + +"Don't you like them after all, Marty?" + +"O mamma, they're perfectly delicious! I was just thinking how good they +would taste to Jennie. Can't we take her some of them?" + +"I am afraid there are none to spare. You know Katie must have some, and +I want to save a few for your papa." + +"I might take her mine," said Marty slowly. "I've only eaten one." But +she looked at the berries longingly. + +"That would be too much of a sacrifice, I fear," said Mrs. Ashford, "but +I'll tell you what we will do if you are willing. You set yours aside +for Jennie and I will give you half of mine, and then we will all have +some." + +Marty was afraid it would not be fair to have her mother make a +sacrifice also, but Mrs. Ashford declared she should like it of all +things, and was very glad Marty had thought of taking some berries to +Jennie. + +So the strawberries were put in a basket with two glasses of jelly, some +nice rusks that Katie was famous for making, and a closely-covered dish +of chicken broth. Marty had her parcel ready, and they set out on their +expedition. + +When they reached the house and knocked at the door of the room Mrs. +Scott had directed them to, a weak but shrill voice cried out, "Come!" + +They entered a neat but poorly furnished room, of which the only +occupant was a pale, thin girl, lying in what appeared to be a very +uncomfortable position in bed. + +"I suppose you are Jennie," said Mrs. Ashford, with her pleasant smile. + +"Yes, ma'am," answered the girl, staring. + +"I am Mrs. Ashford. My little girl and I have come to see you." + +Jennie probably had few visitors, and she certainly did not know how to +treat them. She did not ask her present ones to be seated, and merely +continued to stare at them as well as she could stare in the doubled-up +way she was lying. + +"Your mother is out to-day, is she?" said Mrs. Ashford. + +"Yes, but she's only gone for half a day. She ought to be home now," and +then the poor child broke into a whining cry, saying, + +"I wish she'd come and fix me, for I'm all slid down, and give me some +dinner." + +It is very hard to be polite and pleasant when you are faint, sick, and +generally miserable. + +"Wont you let me fix you?" asked Mrs. Ashford. She put the basket on the +table, and taking off her gloves, approached the bed. + +"Now, Marty," she said, "as I raise Jennie, you beat up the pillows." + +Marty beat them with a will, and the sick girl was soon comfortably +placed. She appeared greatly relieved and sighed from satisfaction. Mrs. +Ashford, seeing a tin plate on the shelf, covered it with one of the +napkins from her basket, and placing on it the small glass saucer of +strawberries and a rusk, gave it to Marty to carry to Jennie. The wan +face of the invalid flushed with pleasure when she saw the dainty food. + +"For me!" she exclaimed. + +"Of course it's for you," replied Marty, settling the plate on the bed. + +Just then Mrs. Scott entered, almost breathless from her hurried walk, +having been detained, and knowing Jennie would need her. She was +exceedingly grateful when she found Mrs. Ashford and Marty ministering +to her sick child. + +"O mother!" cried the latter. "The lady lifted me up in bed; and see the +strawberries! Some are for you." + +"No, no," protested her mother, but Jennie persisted in forcing at least +one upon her. When Marty saw how the berries were enjoyed she felt very +well repaid for having been satisfied with a smaller portion herself. + +Mrs. Ashford inquired what had been done for Jennie, and found she had +had no doctor since coming to the city. + +"I have no money to pay a doctor," said poor Mrs. Scott, wiping her +eyes, "and I can't go to a stranger and ask him to attend her for +nothing. I give her the medicine the doctor told me to get when she was +first hurt, but it don't seem to do any good now." + +Mrs. Ashford said she would speak to a doctor not far from there, with +whom she was well acquainted, and she was sure he would be willing to +come and see what could be done for the child. + +"It is very hard that you have to be away from her so much, when she is +sick, and almost helpless." + +"It is hard, mem, but what can I do? I must work to pay the rent and get +us bread, and glad enough I am to have the work. And she's not always so +forlorn as you found her, for mostly she can move herself. She's a bit +weak to-day. Then when I go for all day, I leave things handy on a chair +by the bed, and the people in the house are real kind, coming in to see +if she wants anything and to mend the fire." + +In the meantime the children were not saying much, for Jennie, besides +being somewhat shy, appeared tired and weak. She was greatly pleased +with the book and cards, holding them tenderly in her hands. Marty sat +in silence a while, and then asked, + +"Have you a doll?" + +"No," replied Jennie. "I never had one." + +"Never in your whole life!" exclaimed Marty, extremely astonished. + +"No," said Jennie quietly. "But wunst we lived next door to a girl who +had one, and sometimes she let me hold it. It was the very beautifulest +kind of a doll, _I_ think," she added with great animation: "had light +curly hair and big blue eyes." + +Marty was so overcome that she could do nothing but stand and gaze at +the little girl who never had a doll, and nothing more was said until +her mother was ready to go home. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +LAURA AMELIA. + + +On their way home Mrs. Ashford stopped at Dr. Fisher's, and finding him +in his office, made her plea, and readily obtained his promise to see +Jennie. + +All the way Marty was unusually silent and appeared to be thinking +intently. When they were nearly home she said impressively, + +"Mamma, do you know, Jennie never had a doll--never in her whole life!" + +"Indeed!" + +"No, ma'am; and I've been thinking I'd like to give her one of mine." + +"Do you think you could part with any of yours?" + +"I love them all dearly, but I think I _could_ do it to make Jennie +happy. I know she'd like to have a doll, and it would be a long time +before I could save money enough to buy her one." + +"Well," said Mrs. Ashford, "I'm sure she would be very happy with one of +yours, but you had better take time to think it over well, and not do +anything you would afterward regret." + +Marty thought it over until the next evening, and then said she still +wished to give Jennie the doll. + +"Very well, then," said her mother, "I am willing you should do it. +Which doll do you think of giving her?" + +"Laura Amelia." + +"Why, she is your third largest and one of your prettiest! Why do you +choose her?" + +"Because Jennie would like a fair doll, and she's the only fair one I +have except the one Grandma Brewster gave me, and I shouldn't like to +give that away." And then she repeated what Jennie had said about the +next-door girl's doll. + +So it was settled that Laura Amelia was to leave home the next Saturday. +Her clothes were put in good order, and Mrs. Ashford made her a +travelling dress. + +On Friday night when Marty, in her little wrapper and worsted slippers, +made her appearance at the sitting-room door to say "Good-night," she +had Laura Amelia clasped in her arms. + +"Halloa! Miss Moppet," said her papa. "Are you off? What's the matter +with that dolly? Do you have to walk her to sleep?" + +"Oh, no. She's very good, but she's going to sleep with me, because it's +the last night she'll be here." + +Marty tried to reply steadily, but her voice trembled. + +"Ah!" said her papa sympathizingly. "Where is she going?" + +"I'm going to give her to Jennie." + +Of course Mr. Ashford had heard all about Jennie. He approved of her +being helped, but did not like to see Marty in distress, and he noticed +her eyes were full of tears. + +"It is a shame for the child to give away playthings she is fond of," he +said to his wife. + +"I didn't tell her to give it," replied Mrs. Ashford. "It was her own +notion." + +"Here, Marty," said her father, putting his hand in his pocket, "you +keep that doll yourself and I'll give you some money to get Jennie +another one." + +"Oh! no, papa," said Marty earnestly. "Thank you ever so much, but I +want to give Jennie a doll all myself, and I've quite made up my mind to +give her this one. I thought it over a whole day--didn't I, mamma? You +mustn't s'pose I don't _want_ to give Laura Amelia to Jennie, because I +do, but you know such things make one feel a little sad for a while." + +"I presume they do," said Mr. Ashford, smiling as he lifted both Marty +and the doll to his knee. "How many dolls have you?" + +"Seven, counting the two little china ones." + +"Well, that's a pretty numerous family for one small girl to care for. I +guess you can spare Lucy Aurelia." + +"Lucy Aurelia!" Marty laughed heartily. "O papa, what is the reason you +never can remember my dolls' names?" + +"I don't see how you can remember them yourself." Then as he kissed her +goodnight he said, + +"I am glad my little girl is learning to be kind to the poor and +friendless." + +The next day there was some prospect that Marty would not get to +Jennie's after all, as Mrs. Ashford could not very well go with her and +would not let her go alone. Marty was preparing to be dreadfully +disappointed, but her mother said, "Wait until after lunch and we will +see what can be done." + +Just then there was a tap at the door, and a tall, dark-eyed, smiling +young lady entered. + +"Why, here's Cousin Alice!" exclaimed Marty, and the warm welcome the +visitor received from them all showed what a favorite she was. + +"I've come to stay to lunch if you will have me," she announced, +throwing her wrap and gloves on the couch. Marty immediately invited her +to stay for ever, and Freddie began building a wall with his blocks all +around her chair so that she could not possibly get away. + +"Alice," said Mrs. Ashford, after there had been a good deal of talk and +play, "I am going to ask you to do something for me." + +"I shall be only too happy to do it, Cousin Helen," said Miss Alice in +her bright way. "You have only to speak." + +"Marty wants to do an errand down near the old postoffice this +afternoon. I don't like to have her go into that part of the town by +herself, and I can't go with her. Would you be willing to go with her?" + +"Most certainly," was the cordial reply. + +"Oh! that will be splendid," cried Marty. + +Then both she and her mother proceeded to tell their cousin all about +Jennie, after which Marty dressed the doll and packed its clothes in a +box. + +"What a good idea it is of Marty's to give that doll and all its +belongings to Jennie!" said Miss Alice. "It will be such amusement and +occupation for her when she is alone so much. It must be perfectly +dreadful to lie there all day, and day after day, with nothing to do and +nothing to interest her. I suppose she cannot read." + +"Not very well, I fancy, for her mother said they had moved about so +much before she was hurt that she had very little chance to go to +school. I suppose there is really not much of anything she could do now, +as she is so weak and miserable, but it has just occurred to me that if +she gets stronger under Dr. Fisher's treatment, you might help her to a +light, pleasant occupation which would enliven her dull life." + +"I? How? I'm sure I should be very glad to do anything possible for the +poor girl." + +"You might teach her to crochet or knit. You do such work to perfection +and know so much about it. I know you have plenty of odds and ends of +worsted and other materials, and I can furnish you with a good deal +more. If she is able to learn, I think it would be a charming work for +her, and might be very useful in coming years." + +"That is an excellent suggestion. I shall be very glad to teach her, or +at least try to teach her, for I don't know how I should succeed in the +attempt." + +"Oh! you would succeed beautifully, and it need not take up much of your +time, as Landis Court is nearer you than it is to us, and you could run +over for a little while any time. But you can see when you go whether it +is worth while to speak of the matter." + +"It would be just lovely!" was Marty's opinion. + +"Now, Marty," cautioned her mother, "don't you say anything about it to +Jennie. Just let Cousin Alice do it in her own nice way." + +"A thousand thanks," said Cousin Alice with her gay laugh. "I'll be sure +to do my prettiest after that." + +When they made the visit, however, it was found useless to mention +crocheting or any other subject to Jennie. Her attention was altogether +absorbed by the doll. Mrs. Scott happened to be at home, and while she +was bustling around getting chairs for her visitors and Marty was +introducing her cousin, Jennie never took her eyes from Laura Amelia. +Presently she said in a trembling voice, + +"May I hold your doll a minute?" + +"I brought her for you," said Marty, handing the doll. + +"For me to hold a minute?" + +"No; to keep. She's your dolly now." + +Jennie looked perfectly bewildered at first, and then when she began to +understand the matter she clasped the doll in her arms and burst into +tears. + +Marty was very much frightened. "Oh! don't let her cry," she said to +Mrs. Scott. "It will make her sick." + +"Never mind, missy; she'll soon be all right. Come now Jennie, don't +cry. Sit up and thank the little lady for the beautiful present. But +it's too much to give her. Who'd ha' thought of you bringing such a +handsome doll! And just what she's always wanted but never looked to +having. I'm sure I don't know how to thank you," and the poor woman +threatened to follow Jennie's example, and cry over their good fortune. + +Then Cousin Alice came to the rescue by suggesting that Marty should +tell Jennie the doll's name and show her wardrobe. The little girls were +soon chattering over the contents of the box, and Miss Alice learned +from Mrs. Scott that the doctor had been to see Jennie. He said he saw +no reason why with proper treatment she should not become well again, +though it was likely she would always be somewhat lame and perhaps never +very strong. He had sent her strengthening medicine and said she must +drink milk every day. + +Then began better times for Jennie than she had ever had in her life +before. First, as she would have said herself, there was the doll to +love and cherish, to dress and undress, to talk to and to put to sleep. +Then there were the books and pictures, for between Marty and Edith, who +also came, her stock of them increased rapidly. Then there was the +decrease of pain and the increase of strength, for what with the +bathings and rubbings that the doctor ordered, and the nourishing food +that Mrs. Ashford and Miss Alice sent, she began to get greatly better. + +When she arrived at the point of sitting propped up in bed for several +hours at a time, Miss Alice spoke of the crocheting and found her +exceedingly willing to learn. She took it up quite rapidly too, and very +much enjoyed working with the bright worsteds. + +Miss Alice was greatly interested in her pupil and sometimes made quite +long visits, teaching her or reading to her, and her visits made the +little invalid so happy that she got better all the faster. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE GOOD SHEPHERD. + + +Marty and Edith often accompanied Miss Alice when she visited Jennie. +Sometimes they each took a doll to visit Laura Amelia, also carrying +some of their dishes and having a dolls' tea-party. This always pleased +Jennie very much, though at first she scarcely knew how to play in this +quiet, lady-like fashion, as she had only been accustomed to playing in +the street with rough children before she was hurt. Of course she had +had no chance at all to play during the last year. + +Sometimes the girls read little stories to her. This she viewed as a +surprising accomplishment, as she could only spell her way along, not +being able to read well enough to enjoy it. So in one way or another +they entertained her, making her forget her weakness. + +Sometimes they talked about other things, telling her of the +mission-band, though, as it was something so outside of her experience, +she could, with all their explanation, hardly form any idea of it. She +took more interest in descriptions of the country, the green fields, +shady woods, and pretty gardens. She was very fond of flowers, and +during the early summer her friends kept the poor room quite bright with +them. An old lady living near Mrs. Ashford, and having an unusually +large yard for the city, had a great many flowers, and hearing of +Marty's sick friend in Landis Court, told her whenever she was going +over there to come and get some flowers for Jennie. This delighted both +little girls extremely. + +One day when they were all with Jennie, she picked up one of her cards +that had on it a picture of a shepherd leading his flock and carrying a +lamb in his arms. She wanted to know what it meant, and what a shepherd +was, and what sheep were. After it had been explained, she said, + +"'Shepherd' makes me think of a hymn they used to sing in the +Sunday-school down in the Harbor." + +"Did you ever go to Sunday-school?" asked Marty. + +"I went a little while when we lived down in the Harbor. My teacher had +a lovely velvet cloak trimmed with fur." + +"Didn't she tell you about the Good Shepherd?" Edith inquired. + +"No. She didn't seem to know about any kind of shepherd. Leastways she +never let on that she did. But they used to sing beautiful hymns, and +one was about a shepherd." + +"Was it 'Saviour, like a shepherd lead us'?" asked Marty. + +"That was the very one!" exclaimed Jennie in delight. "How did you know +that was it?" + +"I thought it might be." + +"Would you like to have us sing it now?" Miss Alice inquired. + +"Oh, yes, indeed!" + +So they sang it, Jennie joining in whenever they came to the words, +"Blessed Jesus," which, besides the first line, was all she knew. + +"Is blessed Jesus a shepherd?" she asked. + +"He is the Good Shepherd," replied Edith. + +"Where's his sheep?" + +"All who believe on Him are his sheep, for the Bible says, 'My sheep +hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.'" + +Miss Alice saw that Jennie did not altogether understand Edith, so in a +few simple words she explained that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, speaks +of himself as the Good Shepherd, and calls us to follow him. Then taking +up the picture again she repeated what she had said about shepherds and +their flocks, and also went over some of the hymn they had been singing, +until Jennie began to get into her little muddled brain quite a clear +idea of Jesus, our Shepherd. + +"Where is your Bible? I will show you the chapter about the Good +Shepherd." + +"I ha'n't got one. Mother has one, but I guess it's locked up in that +little black trunk. It's a purple one with clasps that somebody gave her +long ago, and she always had to keep it hid for fear papa'd sell it for +whiskey." + +Jennie said all this very coolly, she was so much accustomed to the kind +of life in which there was more whiskey than Bible; but Edith and Marty +looked much shocked. + +"Never mind," said Miss Alice, "I will bring my Bible the next time I +come and read the chapter to you." + +Just then a beautiful plan flashed into Marty's head, and as Edith was +included in it, she could not resist reaching over and giving her arm a +tiny squeeze. Edith must have partly understood, for she answered with a +smile. + +In the meantime Miss Alice was saying to Jennie, + +"Did you ever hear the Psalm beginning, 'The Lord is my Shepherd'?" + +"I don't b'lieve I ever did," said Jennie. + +"Marty, can't you and Edith repeat it for her?" + +Marty was not sure she remembered it all, but Edith knew it, and the +beautiful Psalm was reverently recited. + +That evening as Mrs. Scott, wearied with the labors of the day, was +seated in one of the stiff, hard chairs doing some mending by the +uncertain light of a smoky lamp, Jennie told her all that had been said +and done in the afternoon, and then asked, + +"Mother, can't you find that about the shepherd in your purple Bible and +read it over to me?" + +"I'll try, but I'm a poor reader, Jennie, and anyways I don't know as I +can find the place you want." + +She unlocked the trunk and bringing forth, wrapped in soft paper, an +old-fashioned, small-print Bible that had once been handsome, but was +now sadly tarnished, she screwed up the smoky lamp and began to turn the +leaves. + +"I don't know where the place is, child. I'm none so handy with books, +and there's a great many different chapters here." + +"It was about green pastures and quiet waters. Miss Alice said a pasture +is a field, and it minded me of that grassy field where Tim took me the +summer before he died. You know there was a pond in it, and we paddled +along the edge. It was the prettiest place I ever saw, and on awful hot +days I wish I was there again. I think it must be just such a place the +Bible shepherd takes his folks to." + +Mrs. Scott turned the leaves back and forth, anxious to please Jennie, +but unable to find what she wished. + +"Now I mind," exclaimed Jennie presently: "Miss Alice didn't call the +green pasture piece a chapter; she called it a Psalm." + +"Oh! now I'll find it," said her mother. "I know about Psalms, for my +good old grandfather used to be always reading them, and I used to think +it was queer the way they was spelt--with a 'p' at the beginning. I saw +them over here a minute ago." + +Then after a little more searching she inquired, + +"Is this it? 'The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want.'" + +"The very thing!" Jennie exclaimed joyfully. + +Mrs. Scott, though with some difficulty, managed to read it, while +Jennie listened with closed eyes and clasped hands, thinking of the +delightful places into which the Shepherd leads his flock. + +"They're sweet verses," said Mrs. Scott, as she closed the book, after +laying a piece of yarn in to mark the place, "and it rests a body to +read them. I call to mind now that many's the time I've heard my +granddad read 'em. And I've heard 'em in church, too, when I used to +go." + +"Why don't you go to church sometimes now, mother?" Jennie asked. +"There's nobody to rail at you for going. You might borrow Mrs. +O'Brien's bonnet after she's been to mass, and go round to the church on +the front street, where we hear the singing from every Sunday." + +Mrs. Scott began to think she should like to go. She cleaned off her old +black alpaca as well as possible, and the next Sunday, borrowing her +kindly Catholic neighbor's bonnet, she went to church for the first time +in many years. + +She came home delighted, and had much to tell Jennie about the pleasant +gentleman who gave her a seat and invited her to come again, about the +good sermon that she could understand every bit of, and the rousing +hymns, which indeed Jennie could hear with the window open. + +Not long after this, one of the ladies Mrs. Scott worked for gave her a +partly-worn sateen dress and a black straw bonnet, so that she was +fitted out to go to church all summer; and go she did with great +enjoyment. It was a pleasure to Jennie also, for with listening to the +singing as she lay in bed, and hearing about all that was said and done +from her mother, she almost felt as though she had been at church +herself. + +The purple Bible was not locked up any more, but kept handy for Miss +Alice to read, and to mark passages for Mrs. Scott to read in the +evening, for Jennie liked to hear the same things over and over. + +The plan that popped into Marty's head that day she told to Edith on the +way home, after they had left Cousin Alice. + +"O Edie!" she said, "wouldn't it be nice to give Jennie a Bible for her +very own?" + +"You mean for you and me together to give it?" said Edith. + +"Yes. You know my birthday comes in August and yours in September, and +we always get some money--" + +"And we could each give half, and get Jennie a Bible," broke in Edith. + +"Yes; or if we _couldn't_ do it then, we might have enough by +Christmas." + +"And it would be a _beautiful_ Christmas gift!" + +"Oh! do let us do it," said Marty, seizing Edith and whirling her around +and around. + +"Yes, do," said Edith, panting for breath. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +"NOW DON'T FORGET!" + + +It was well on in June, and Mrs. Ashford was very busy making +preparations to go to the country with the children. + +Two successive summers they had spent at a very pleasant mountain +farmhouse, but the last year they had gone to the seashore. This summer +Mrs. Ashford decided for the farmhouse again, to Marty's great delight, +for it was a perfect paradise to her. + +She herself had many preparations to make--deciding which dolls to take +and which to leave at home, and getting them all ready for whatever was +to be their fate. It also took a good deal of time to choose from her +little library the few books her mamma allowed her to take for rainy +days. It was a weighty matter, too, to select a suitable present for +Evaline, the little girl at the farmhouse, as her father suggested she +should do, and gave her money to buy it. + +Then Jennie was very much on her mind. + +"What will she do for soup and jelly and things when we are away, +mamma?" she asked anxiously. + +"I shall tell Katie to carry her something now and then," Mrs. Ashford +replied. "Besides, Cousin Alice will be in town until August, and she +will look out for Jennie. Then Mrs. Scott told me the other day that she +had got all her back rent paid up now, and she expects to have three +days' work every week all summer; so they will get on very well." + +Another day Marty came home from Jennie's in distress. + +"Mamma," she said, "the doctor says Jennie may soon begin to sit up in +an easy-chair; and they haven't got any. Their two chairs are the most +_uneasy_ things I ever saw in my life. Now, how is she going to sit up?" + +Mrs. Ashford laughed as she said, "Well, I was going to give you a +surprise, but I may as well tell you now that I have sent that old +rocking-chair that was up in the storeroom to be mended, and am going to +give it to Mrs. Scott." + +Marty was overjoyed to hear this. + +"And, oh! mamma, wont you give them the small table that stands in the +third-story hall? You always say it is only in the way there, and it +would be so nice beside Jennie's bed to put her things on, instead of a +chair." + +"Yes, I suppose they might as well have it." + +"And the red cover that belongs to it, mamma?" + +"O Marty, Marty!" exclaimed her mother, laughing. "How many more things +will you want for Jennie? But the red cover may go too." + +These things were sent, together with some of Marty's underclothing, a +pair of half-worn slippers, and a couple of Mrs. Ashford's cast-off +gingham dresses, to be made into wrappers for Jennie. Edith and Cousin +Alice also brought some articles for Jennie's comfort. + +"She will need a footstool with that chair," said Cousin Alice. "I have +an extra hassock in my room; I'll bring that." + +Mrs. Howell sent an old but soft and pretty comfort to spread over the +chair, and which would also be handy for an additional covering in case +of a cold night. + +"A curtain on the window would soften the light on hot afternoons," Miss +Alice thought. So she made one of some white barred muslin she had and +put it up. She also thought that as Jennie still had not much appetite, +some prettier dishes than those Mrs. Scott had--they were very few, and +very coarse and battered--might make the food taste better. + +"I know, when I am ill," she said to Mrs. Ashford, "the way my food is +served makes a great difference." + +So she brought a cheap but pretty plate, cup, and saucer, with which +Jennie was extremely delighted. + +"After we all go away there wont be anybody to take flowers to Jennie," +said Edith, "and I'm afraid she'll miss them. She does enjoy them so +much. I've a great mind to buy her a geranium. May I, mamma? They're +only ten cents." + +"Of course you may. I think it would be very nice for Jennie and her +mother to have something of the kind growing in their room," said Mrs. +Howell. + +She went with Edith to the florist's, and after helping her to select a +scarlet geranium, she bought a pot of mignonette and another of sweet +alyssum for Edith to give to Jennie. + +Marty helped Edith to carry their plants to their destination, and what +rejoicing there was over that window-garden! + +"It's too much! too much!" exclaimed Mrs. Scott, wiping her eyes as she +looked around the now really comfortable room. + +Then when Miss Alice came in, as she did presently, with four +bright-colored Japanese fans which she proceeded to fasten on the bare +walls, that seemed to cap the climax. + +"There never were kinder ladies--never!" exclaimed Mrs. Scott, while +Jennie was too much overcome to say anything. + +"It wont be so hard for Jennie to be shut up here, and she wont miss +Marty and Edith so much, if she has these little bits of bright things +to look at," said Miss Alice. + +Marty took the greatest interest in helping to arrange all these things +for Jennie's comfort and happiness, and in thinking, too, how much +pleasure they would bring into poor Mrs. Scott's hard-working life. When +she went home after her final visit to Landis Court, she said with a +sigh of relief, + +"Now they're fixed comfor'ble, and we can go as soon as we like." + +All this time that she had been so engaged with Jennie she had not +neglected the mission band, but attended the meetings regularly and +became more and more interested in what she heard there. + +She still pursued the plan of giving to missions at least a tenth of all +the money she got. During the spring and early summer she had had two or +three "windfalls"--one or two small presents of money, and once her +father had given her a quarter for hunting out from an enormous pile +certain numbers of a magazine he wished to consult. Besides she had made +a little money solely for the missionary-box by hemming dusters for her +mother. + +The meeting on the third Saturday in June was very important, as it was +the last regular meeting that would be held until September, and there +were many arrangements to be made. + +Most of the girls and Miss Walsh herself expected to be away two months, +but several members were to be at home all summer and a few were only +going away for a short time. Miss Walsh said she did not think it fair +that those remaining in town should be deprived of their missionary +meetings. It had therefore been decided that the meetings should be +continued, though not just in the same way as during the rest of the +year. No business was to be transacted and the girls were not to sew +unless they wished. + +At this "good-by" meeting, as they called it, Miss Walsh had a few words +to say both to the stay-at-homes and to those who were going away. To +the first she said, + +"Dear girls, we leave the band in your hands knowing you will do all you +can for its best interests. Mrs. Cresswell has kindly invited you to +hold your meetings at her house. I have appointed four of the older +girls to lead these meetings--Mary Cresswell and Hannah Morton in July, +Ella Thomas and Mamie Dascomb in August. I have given each of these +leaders some missionary reading in case you run short, but I dare say +you will find plenty of things yourselves. I also intend to write you a +little letter for each meeting, and should be glad to have any or all of +you write to me." + +To the others she said, + +"Now when you are away having a good time, don't forget missions. Keep +up your interest and come home ready to work more earnestly and +faithfully than ever. There are many ways of keeping the subject fresh +in your minds and of helping along with the work even in vacation times. +But you know this as well as I do, and I should like the suggestions as +to how to do it to come from you." + +After a pause Edith said, "We all know the subjects for the next four +meetings, and we might study and read just as we should do at home." + +"That is a good suggestion," said Miss Walsh, "and one I hope you will +all adopt; for if you don't, I'm afraid the go-aways will be far behind +the stay-at-homes." + +"We might remember what we hear about missions and tell it when we come +back," said one of the others. + +"That would be very instructive and pleasant," said their leader; "and +you may have plenty of opportunity to hear, as in these days very +interesting missionary meetings are often held at summer resorts. +Besides you may meet individuals who can give you much information." + +"We might do as you are going to do and write letters to the band at +home," said another. + +"I know the band at home would like that very much, but you must +remember that they must be letters suited to a missionary meeting." + +"We might join with others in holding meetings," suggested Rosa +Stevenson. "In the cottage where I was last summer there were four other +girls and two boys who belonged to mission-bands, and we had a meeting +every Sunday." + +"Good!" cried Miss Walsh. + +"If we meet any children who don't know about missions, we might tell +them about our band and what we do," said Daisy Roberts timidly. + +"The very thing, Daisy!" exclaimed Miss Walsh, patting the tiny girl on +the shoulder. "And you think that might start them up to become mission +workers, do you?" + +"Yes, ma'am," replied Daisy. + +"I think," said Marty, after various other suggestions had been made, +and she wondered that no one had thought of this, "I think we all should +take our missionary boxes and banks and barrels and jugs along with us, +and put money in regularly as we do at home." + +"That is _very_ important," said Miss Walsh, "because if we neglect to +lay by our contributions at the right time, trusting to make up the +amount when we return home, we may find ourselves in a tight place and +our treasury will suffer. And now, dear missionary workers, wherever you +may be, at home or abroad, don't forget to pray every day for the +success of this work. Remember what we are working for is the +advancement of the kingdom of our blessed Lord and Saviour." + +And then before the closing prayer they all stood up and sang, + + "The whole wide world for Jesus." + +This meeting filled Marty with the greatest enthusiasm and she felt as +though she could do anything for missions. _She_ would not forget the +subject for a single day, she was sure. + +"Oh Miss Agnes," she said, "I sha'n't forget missions. I'll study the +subjects every week and learn lots of missionary verses. I'll save all +the money I can; and I'll tell _somebody_, if it's only Evaline, all I +know about missionary work. I'll tell her the first thing when I get +there. To be sure she can't have a band all by herself, but it may do +good somehow." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS. + + +"Here's your train!" said Mr. Ashford, hurrying into the waiting-room +where he had left his wife and children while he purchased their +tickets. "I'll carry Freddie. Come, Marty." + +While they were waiting their turn to pass through the gate Marty and +her mother were jostled by the crowd against two small, ragged, dirty +boys, who had crept by the officers and were looking through the +railings at the arriving and departing trains. + +"Lots of these folks are goin' to the country, where 'ta'n't so hot and +stuffy as 'tis here," said the larger boy. "Was you ever in the country, +Jimmy?" + +"Naw," replied the other, a thin, pale little chap about seven, leaning +wearily against an iron post. "Never seed no country, but I _wants_ to." + +Marty and her mother, who heard what was said and saw the wistful look +on the small boy's face, pressed each other's hands and exchanged a +sorrowful glance. Then they were obliged to move on; but after going +through the gate Marty pulled her hand out of her mother's and, running +back, took a couple of cakes from a paper bag she carried and passed +them through the fence to the boys. How their faces brightened at this +little act of kindness! + +"Marty, Marty!" called her father, who had not seen what she did and was +afraid she would get lost in the crowd, "where are you? Hurry up, +child!" + +Then, when he had made them comfortable in the car and was about bidding +them good-by, he said, + +"Now, Marty, when you change cars stick closely to your mother and don't +be running after strangers, as you did a moment ago." + +"Why, papa," Marty protested earnestly, "they weren't strangers; at +least I know that littlest boy with the awfully torn hat. He is Jimmy--" + +"Well, well, I can't stop now to hear who he is, but I didn't know he +was an acquaintance of yours. However, don't run after anybody, or you +will get lost some of these days. Good-by, good-by. Be good children, +both of you." + +"Who was that boy, Marty?" asked Mrs. Ashford presently. + +"He's Jimmy Torrence, and he lives in Jennie's house. Don't you remember +I told you that one day, when we were all in Mrs. Scott's room singing +to Jennie, a little boy came and leaned against the door-post and +listened? Mrs. Scott told him to come in and took him on her lap. She +gave him a cup of milk, and after he went away she said he had been sick +with a fever and his folks were very poor. There's a good many of them, +and they live in the third-story back-room." + +"Oh, yes, I remember. So that is the boy. Poor little fellow! He looks +as if he needed some country air." + +"_Doesn't_ he!" said Marty. "O mamma, don't you think that society Mrs. +Watson belongs to would send him to the country for a week? That would +be better than nothing." + +"I fear they cannot, for Mrs. Watson told me the other day that there +are a great many more children who ought to be sent than they have money +to pay for." + +"I _wish_ he could go," said Marty. + +The boy's pale, wistful face haunted her for a while, but in the +excitement of the journey it faded from her mind. + +After the rush and roar of the train how perfectly still it seemed in +the green valley where stood Trout Run Station! How peaceful the +mountains! how pure and sweet the air! + +"Mamma," said Marty almost in a whisper, "everything is exactly the same +as ever." + +"Mountains don't change much," replied Mrs. Ashford as she seated +herself on one of the trunks and took Freddie on her lap. + +"But I mean this funny little station and the tiny river and the old red +tannery over there, and the quietness and everything! And oh, there's +Hiram! He looks just as he did summer before last, and I believe he's +got on the very same straw hat!" + +Hiram, Farmer Stokes' hired man, who had come to meet the travellers, +now appeared from the rear of the station, where he had been obliged to +stay by his horses until the train had vanished in the distance. His +sunburnt face wore a broad smile, and though he did not say much, Mrs. +Ashford and Marty knew that in his slow, quiet way he was very glad to +see them. He seemed to be particularly struck by the fact that the +children had grown so much, and when Freddie got off his mother's lap +and ran across the platform, Hiram gazed at him in admiration, also +seeming highly amused. + +"I can't believe this tall girl's Marty, and as for the little boy--why, +he was carried in arms the last time _I_ saw him!" + +"Two years makes a great difference in children," said Mrs. Ashford. + +"That's so," Hiram assented. "Well, I reckon we'd better be moving." + +"How I dread the steep hills," said Mrs. Ashford as they were being +helped into the wagon after the baggage had been stowed away. "I do hope +your horses are safe, Hiram. Now, Marty, be sure to hold on with both +hands when we come to the worst places." + +"Don't you be 'fraid, Mrs. Ashford; there isn't a mite of danger," said +Hiram, gathering up the reins. "Get up!" + +"Get up!" cried Freddie, who had watched the process of getting started +with the greatest interest, and who was now holding a pair of imaginary +reins in one tiny fist and flourishing an imaginary whip with the other. + +Hiram laughed aloud. That Freddie could walk was funny enough, but that +he could talk and make believe drive was too much for Hiram. It was some +time before he got over it. + +"How's Evaline?" asked Marty. "Why didn't she come to meet us?" + +"She's spry. She wanted to come along down, but her ma was afraid +'twould crowd you." + +[Illustration: They approached an open, level place from which there was +a magnificent view. Page 113] + +After a drive of about three miles among the mountains, the winding road +gradually ascending, with here and there a somewhat steep incline, they +approached an open, level place from which there was a magnificent view +of what Marty called the "real mountains." For these wooded or +cultivated hills they were driving among were only the beginnings of the +range. Here was a cluster of houses and a white frame "hotel" with green +blinds. + +"They've been doing right smart of building in Riseborough since you +were up," said Hiram to Mrs. Ashford. "You see the hotel's done, and +Sims has built him a new store, and Mrs. Clarkson's been building on to +her cottage." + +"Is the hotel a success?" asked Mrs. Ashford. + +"First-rate. Full all last summer, and Dutton expects a lot of folks +this season. A big party came up t'other day." + +They had a chance to see the guests at the hotel, ladies on the piazzas +and children playing in the green yard, while Hiram stopped to do an +errand at the store, which was also the postoffice. + +Nearly another mile of up-hill brought them to their destination--a +brown farmhouse with its red barns and granaries standing in the midst +of smiling fields and patches of cool, dark woods, while in the distance +rose grand, solemn mountains. + +There was Evaline, seated on the low gatepost, and Mrs. Stokes and her +grownup daughter, Almira, in the doorway, all on the lookout and ready +to wave their handkerchiefs the moment the wagon appeared. + +"It's more like going to see some cousins or something than being +summer-boarders, isn't it, mamma?" said Marty. + +"Here we all are, Mrs. Stokes!" cried Mrs. Ashford from the wagon. +"Quite an addition to your family." + +"The more the merrier! I'm right down glad to see you," said +good-natured Mrs. Stokes, coming to lift the children down and kissing +them heartily. + +The travellers were very tired after their long day's journey. Mrs. +Ashford and Marty were ready to do justice to the good supper provided, +but Freddie was only able to keep his eyes open long enough to eat a +little bread and milk. The next morning, however, he was as bright as a +button, and took to country life so naturally that he was out in the +yard feeding the chickens before his mother knew what he was about. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +A PLAN AND A TALK. + + +Marty so enjoyed being back at the farm, and there was so much to see +and to do, that for four or five days she could think of nothing else. +She and Evaline raced all over the place, climbing trees and fences, +playing in the barn or down in the wood, paddling in the little brook, +riding on the hay-wagon, and going with the boy to bring home the cows. + +In short, the delights of farm life for the time being drove everything +else out of Marty's head, and it was not until Sunday morning that she +gave a thought to missions. Perhaps she would not have remembered even +then had not her mother said, + +"Marty, here are your ten pennies. I forgot to give them to you +yesterday." + +"There!" thought Marty. "In spite of what Miss Agnes said the very last +thing, I've forgotten all about missions. I've never told Evaline a +breath about them, and I haven't prayed or done anything." + +She got out her box and put in it her tenth, and four pennies for a +thank-offering for the happy time she had been having. She also got the +list of subjects Miss Walsh had furnished her with, and some of her +books; but there was no time to read then, for her mother had said she +might go to church with Mr. and Mrs. Stokes, and she must get ready. +Evaline was not at home, her uncle having called the previous evening +and taken her to spend a couple of days at his house. + +There was preaching that Sunday in the schoolhouse at Black's Mills, a +village between four and five miles distant in the opposite direction +from Riseborough. It was quite a novelty to Marty to go so far to +church, but it was a lovely drive and she enjoyed it extremely. It +certainly seemed strange to attend service in the battered little frame +schoolhouse, without any organ or choir, and to eat crackers and cheese +in the wagon on the way home, as Mrs Stokes was afraid she would be +hungry before their unusually late dinner. But Marty was so charmed with +country life and all belonging to it that she considered the whole thing +an improvement upon city churchgoing. + +In the afternoon she took her Bible and some missionary leaflets, and +going into a retired place in the garden read and studied for more than +an hour. The missionary spirit within her was fully awake that day. She +longed to talk with Evaline and could hardly wait until it was time for +her to come home. But by Tuesday, when she did come, Marty's head was +full of other matters, such as a discovery she had made in the wood of a +hollow in an old tree which would be a lovely playhouse, and an +expedition to Sunset Hill that was being talked of. So in one way or +another nearly two weeks of vacation had passed before this Missionary +Twig, who had been so ardent to begin with, had redeemed her promise of +trying to interest somebody in the work. + +But in the meantime she had thought of Jimmy Torrence. The way he was +brought to her mind was this. She was with her mother on the side porch, +Monday morning, when Mrs. Stokes, coming out of the kitchen with floury +hands, inquired, + +"Mrs. Ashford, did you see the little boy in the carriage that just +passed 'long?" + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Ashford. + +"Well, you just ought to have seen him when they brought him up here +three weeks ago--his folks are boarding over at Capt. Smith's; such a +pale, peaked child _I_ never saw! Had been awful sick, they said, and +now you see he looks right down well." + +"Why, yes, he does," said Mrs. Ashford. "I should never imagine he had +been ill very recently. The country has certainly done him good." + +"That's just it!" said Mrs. Stokes. "There's nothing like taking +children to the country a spell after they've been sick. Makes 'em fat +and rosy in less than no time." + +"Oh! mamma," exclaimed Marty. "That makes me think of poor little Jimmy. +I wish we could do something to get him sent to the country." + +"I wish we could, but I don't see any way to do it. I have given all I +can afford this summer to the different Fresh-Air Funds." + +"Can't you think of anything, clothes or such things, that you were +going to get me, and that I _could_ do without, and send the money to +Mrs. Watson?" pleaded Marty. + +"I can't think of anything just this minute," answered her mother with a +gentle smile, "but if you will bring Freddie in out of the hot sun, and +get something to amuse him near here, I'll try to think." + +"Oh! do, please. And mind, mamma, it must be something for me to do +without--not you." + +Marty ran down the yard to where Freddie, with red face and without his +hat, was rushing up and down playing he was a "little engine." + +"Freddie," she called, "don't you want to come and make mud pies?" + +This was a favorite amusement of the small boy, and instantly the little +engine subsided into a baker. Marty led him up near the porch, where +there was a nice bed of mould--"clean dirt," Mrs. Stokes called it--and +they were soon hard at work on the pies. + +Marty enjoyed this play as much as Freddie, and it was some time before +she thought of asking, + +"Mamma, have you thought of anything yet?" + +Mrs. Ashford smiled and nodded. + +"What is it?" exclaimed Marty, bounding up on the porch. + +"I don't know whether you will like the plan or not, but it is the only +thing that occurs to me. Your school coat will be too short for you next +winter, and I was going to get you a new one. But the old one could be +altered so that you might wear it. I have some of the material, and +could piece the skirt and sleeves and trim it with braid. As it always +was a little too large for you about the shoulders, it would fit next +winter well enough that way. Doing that would save about five dollars as +near as I can calculate." + +"Then we should have five dollars for Jimmy?" + +"Yes." + +"But would it be much trouble to you to alter the coat?" + +"It would be some trouble, but I am willing to take that for my share." + +"Oh! then let's do it," cried Marty. + +"Wait, wait," said her mother. "You must think it over first. You know +when you do things in a hurry, sometimes you regret them afterwards." + +"I know I sha'n't regret this," Marty protested; "but I'll go and think +a while." + +She went and sat down on her last batch of pies, resting her head on her +knees, with her eyes shut. In a very short space of time she was back at +her mother's side. + +"Oh! you have not thought long enough," said Mrs. Ashford. "I meant for +a day or two." + +"There's no use thinking any longer, for I know I'll think just the +same. I've thought all about how the coat will look when it's pieced, +and how all the girls will know it's pieced, and how I'd a great deal +rather have one that isn't pieced. Then I thought how pale and sick +Jimmy looks, and how much he wants to go to the country, and how much +good it would do him to go, and how he has no nice times as I have, and, +I declare, I'd rather wear pieced coats all the rest of my life than not +have him go." She winked her eyes very hard to keep back the tears. + +"Very well," said Mrs. Ashford, stroking the little girl's flushed +cheek, "we will consider it settled. I will write to Mrs. Watson this +afternoon, inclosing the money, and telling her about Jimmy." + +By Saturday a reply came from Mrs. Watson saying that arrangements had +been made to send Jimmy to a kind woman in the country, who would take +good care of him, and it was probable the money Marty had sent would pay +his board there for nearly three weeks. She also said that Jimmy had +been very poorly again. Dr. Fisher, finding him in Mrs. Scott's room one +day when he called, had seen how miserable the boy was, and had given +him medicine, and had said, when he heard he was going to be sent to the +country, that it would be just the thing, better than any amount of +medicine. The letter also stated that Mrs. Fisher had fitted Jimmy out +in some of her little boy's clothes. So he would be very comfortable. + +"Could anything be nicer!" exclaimed Marty. "I'm so glad of it all!" + +The same mail that brought Mrs. Watson's letter brought Marty's little +missionary magazine, which she always wanted to sit right down and +read. + +"Now," said her mother, after they had got through talking over the +letter, "I wish you would mind Freddie while I write some letters." + +Marty took her magazine into the back yard where Freddie was playing +with his wheelbarrow under the lilac-bushes. She sat down by the big +pear-tree to read, though not forgetting to keep an eye on her little +brother's proceedings. Missions seemed as interesting as ever as she +read. Presently she saw Evaline coming out of the kitchen with a pail of +water and brush to scrub the back steps. + +"Evaline," she called, "when you get through your work come down here +where I'm minding Freddie, wont you? I want to tell you something." + +"Yes," replied Evaline, "I'll come pretty soon. This is the last thing +I've got to do." + +She soon came and threw herself on the grass beside Marty, who forthwith +began showing her the magazine and telling her in a rather incoherent +way about mission work in general and their band in particular. She told +how many belonged to the band, what they did at the meetings, how much +money they had, and what they were going to do with it; how this band +was only one of hundreds of bands that were all connected with a big +society; and how the object of the whole thing was to teach the heathen +in foreign lands about God and try to make Christians of them. + +"That must be the same thing that Ruth Campbell was talking so much +about a while ago," said Evaline when Marty stopped, more to take breath +than because she had nothing further to say. + +"Who's Ruth Campbell? and what was she saying?" + +"Why, the Campbells live in that house that you can just see the top of +from our barn. Ruth's as old as our Almiry, but she knows a heap more, +for she went to school in Johnsburgh. She taught our school last winter, +and is going to again next. She told us about something they have in +Johnsburgh, and it sounds very much like yours, so it must be a +mission-band. She said she wished we could have one here, but none of us +paid much attention to it." + +"Oh, I think you would like it ever so much," said Marty; "only maybe +there wouldn't be enough children round here to make a band," she added +doubtfully. + +"How many does it take?" asked Evaline. + +"Oh, bands are of different sizes. I s'pose you _could_ make one of four +or five." + +"There's a sight more children than that on the mountain," said Evaline +with some contempt. "But then some of 'em mightn't want to send their +money away to the heathen; and anyhow, I don't know where they'd get any +money to send. Folks up here, 'specially children, don't have much." + +"Why, I thought the country was just the place to make money for +missions," cried Marty. "There's 'first-fruits' and such things that are +a great deal easier got at in the country than in town. And I have heard +of children raising missionary corn and potatoes, and having missionary +hens that laid the very best kind of eggs regularly every day, that +brought a high price." + +"Yes, but who's going to buy the things up here? Folks all have their +own corn and potatoes and hens. And how'd we children get a few little +things miles and miles to market?" + +Marty was rather taken aback by this view of the subject. "The children +I read about got _somebody_ to buy their things," she said. + +She was rather discouraged because Evaline was not more enthusiastic +about missions, and thought there was no use trying to further the cause +in this region; but fortunately she happened to tell Almira what they +had been talking of, and she took up the subject as warmly as Marty +could wish, saying she thought it would be very nice to have a +missionary circle of some sort. + +"Ruth has talked to me about it," she said, "and I promised to help, +but we can't seem to get the children interested." + +"Aren't there _any_ interested, not even enough to begin with?" inquired +Marty. + +"Well, there are Ruth's two brothers and sister, and I think Joe and +Maria Pratt, who live just beyond Campbell's, might be talked into it. +Then there's Eva, but she doesn't seem to care much about it." + +"I care a great deal more since I heard Marty tell about her band," +Evaline declared, "and I wouldn't mind belonging to something of the +kind, only I don't see where I'd get any money to give." + +"We'd try to manage that," said Almira. + +After that for a few days there was a good deal of talk among them all +on the subject, and some reading aloud afternoons from Marty's +missionary books. Finally Mrs. Stokes said she thought it would be a +very good thing for the young people in the neighborhood to have a +society, and proposed that Almira and the little girls should go over +and spend the next afternoon with Ruth, when they could talk the matter +over. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE MOUNTAIN MISSION-BAND. + + +"I am very glad Marty came up here this summer, for I do believe, with +her to help us, we shall get the mission-band started at last," said +pretty, blue-eyed Ruth Campbell, after they had all been talking for an +hour or so as hard as their tongues could go. + +When she had learned what her visitors' errand was, she had called her +sister and brothers and had sent Hugh over for Maria and Joe Pratt. Then +they had quite a conference on the shady porch, Ruth sewing busily all +the while. + +"I'm afraid I can't help much," said Marty. + +"Why, you have helped and are helping ever so much. You've got Evaline +all worked up, and Maria too, and by telling us what you do in your band +you have given us many hints for ours." + +"Now, Ruth," said Evaline, "let's begin the band right away, so that we +can have some meetings while Marty's here. You must be president, of +course." + +"Evaline has it all settled," said Ruth, laughing. Then turning to +Almira she asked, "Which do you think would be best--just start a kind +of temporary band and wait until school opens to organize, or organize +now, trusting to persuade others to join?" + +"I think it would be best to organize now. It will be easier to get them +to join a band already started than it will be to get them stirred up to +begin," was Almira's opinion. + +Then she wished to know what they would do about her. She wanted to +belong, but then she was not a child. + +"Do you know of any band, Marty, that has both children and young +ladies?" she asked. + +"No," replied Marty. "In our church the young ladies have a band +themselves." + +"But this isn't a church band; it's a neighborhood band," Ruth +interposed; "and as we haven't many folks up here, I think it will be +well not to divide our forces, but to include all in one organization. +Of course Almira must belong. I think, though, before organizing we had +better see and invite some of the other neighbors. Effie, couldn't you +and Maria go over to McKay's and see what they think of it?" + +Effie, a gentle girl of thirteen, just as pretty and blue-eyed as her +sister, thought she could. + +Joe Pratt said he knew a boy he thought might come. + +"How about the Smiths, Evaline? Do you think any of them would be +interested?" Ruth inquired. + +"Sophy might," Evaline replied rather doubtfully. + +"Well, you see her, wont you? They are not far from you." + +It was finally resolved that as everybody was so busy through the week +during this harvesting season, a meeting should be held the next Sunday +afternoon. The place chosen was a grove which was just half way between +Mr. Stokes' and Mr. Campbell's. If, however, the day was not suitable +for an out-door meeting, they were to assemble in Mr. Stokes' barn, a +fine, new affair, much handsomer than his house, and occupying a +commanding situation from which there was a beautiful view. + +When everything was settled the children ran off to play, and Almira +helped Ruth and her mother to get supper. + +The next Sunday was a lovely day, not too warm, and the meeting in the +grove was a decided success. Altogether there were fourteen present, +though two were visitors, Marty and one of Capt. Smith's summer +boarders, who came with Sophy. Ruth had a nice little programme made +out, and after the exercises they organized. Ruth was elected president, +Almira, for the present, secretary, and Hugh Campbell, treasurer. They +decided as long as the weather remained pleasant to meet every Sunday +afternoon. In winter, of course, they could not get together so +frequently. + +They had already had, and continued to have, many discussions about ways +of earning their missionary money. One thing the boys thought of was to +gather berries and sell them to the people in the valleys, mountain +blackberries being esteemed very delicious. There would be plenty of +work about that--first climbing the heights and then carrying their +burdens for miles. + +Ruth was so much taken with Marty's plan of making tenths the basis of +what she gave to missions that she concluded to adopt the same plan. + +"That's easy enough for you," said Almira. "You have your salary and +half the butter-money, but I have no income. You know we don't sell much +butter. I'll have to think of some other way to earn a little money." + +"Well, do hurry and think what we can do, Almira," said Evaline +fretfully. She depended on her sister always to do the thinking. "I'm +afraid we wont have anything to give." + +"I am thinking," said Almira. + +The result was she asked her father if he would let her and Evaline have +a strip of the field adjoining the garden next summer, where they might +raise vegetables. When he consented she asked Mrs. Dutton at the hotel +if she would buy these vegetables. To this Mrs. Dutton, who knew the +good quality of everything from the Stokes farm, and what a "capable" +girl Almira was, readily agreed. + +"There now, Eva," said Almira, "by weeding and gathering vegetables you +can earn your missionary money." + +"But, Almira," said Marty, "how will you ever get the things down to the +hotel?" + +"Well, the evenings Hiram has to go to Trout Run to meet the market +train, he can take my baskets for the next day along. Other days, if I +can't do any better, I can harness Nelly and take them down in the +morning myself before she is needed in the fields." + +"You'd have to get up awfully early." + +"Oh, yes!" said Almira, laughing. "I'll have to get up about three +o'clock, I suppose, to have the things ready in time." + +"Three o'clock!" exclaimed Marty in dismay. + +"There's going to be plenty of hard work about your missionary money, +Almira," said Mrs. Ashford. + +"Oh, I'm willing to do the work," replied Almira. "From all Ruth says, +it is a cause worth working for." + +"Yes; but all that wont be till next summer--a year off," objected +Evaline. "How are we going to get any money sooner?" + +But Almira had another plan. + +"Father," she said, one evening, "instead of hiring an extra hand this +fall to sort and barrel apples, wont you let Evaline and me do it, and +pay us the wages?" + +"Do you think you could do as much work as a man?" inquired the farmer +good-humoredly. + +"I'll back Almiry for fast and good work against any man _I_ ever saw," +said Hiram emphatically. + +Mr. Stokes laughed quietly. "Well," he said, "'t will be hard work, with +all else you have to do, but I'm willing you should try." + +"I can do it," Almira answered determinedly. + +After another spell of thinking she said to Evaline, "We might raise +some turkeys next summer. They bring a good price." + +"Oh, turkeys are such a bother!" cried Evaline. "They take so much +running after--always going where they might get hurt." + +She had had some experience in minding young turkeys. + +"But just think of the money we'd have," Almira reminded her. "And you +know we'll have to work for our missionary money somehow." + +"That's so," said Evaline, who was not fond of work. "It might as well +be turkeys as anything else." + +"Mamma," said Marty one morning, "Hiram says he'd like to join the band. +But a great big man can't belong to a mission-band, can he?" + +"He might be an honorary member," suggested Mrs. Ashford. + +"What sort of a member is that?" + +"He could attend the meetings, take part in the exercises, and +contribute money, but he could not vote." + +"Well, maybe Hiram would like to join that way. S'pose we ask him;" and +off she and Evaline flew in search of Hiram. + +They found him up by the barn. + +"O Hiram!" said Marty. "I just now told mamma about your wanting to join +the mission-band, and she says you might join as an _honorary_ member." + +Hiram stuck his pitchfork in the ground, rested his hands on the top of +it, and his chin on his hands. + +"What's that kind of a member got to do?" he asked slowly. + +"You may give money, but you can't vote," Marty instructed him. + +Hiram thought over it a good while, and then said very gravely, though +his eyes twinkled, "Well, I guess giving money's the main thing after +all, isn't it? I reckon I'll join if you'll let me." + +"We'll be ever so glad to have you," said Marty warmly. She felt as if +it was partly her band, and was interested in seeing it growing and +flourishing. + +They were nearly back to the house when Evaline suddenly stopped, +exclaiming, + +"You never told him he might come to the meetings!" + +"Neither I did! How came I to forget that! We must go right back and +tell him." + +When they reached the barn again, they saw Hiram at the foot of the +hill, just entering the next field; but hearing the girls shouting, +"Hiram! Hiram!" and seeing them running to overtake him, he strode back +across the fence, and seated himself on the top rail to wait for them. + +"I forgot a most important thing," said Marty, panting for breath. +"Mamma says honorary members may attend the meetings." + +"Maybe I hadn't better attend them," said Hiram with a quizzical look. +"I might want to vote." + +"Oh, do you think you should?" asked Marty anxiously. + +Hiram bit off a piece of straw and chewed it, slowly moving his head +from side to side, appearing to meditate profoundly, while the little +girls waited in suspense. + +"Well," he said, after he had apparently thought the matter over, "I +suppose I can hold up from voting; and I reckon you can count on me to +come." + +And come he did, the very next Sunday, appearing to take great interest +in the proceedings. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A FLOWER SALE. + + +"Oh, look! Look over there!" exclaimed Marty. "What are those lovely +white flowers?" + +"Wild clematis," replied Evaline. + +"O Hiram, wont you please stop and let us get some?" pleaded Marty. "I'd +like so much to take some to mamma." + +Hiram was obliged to go to Black's Mills on an errand that morning, and +Marty and Evaline had been allowed to go with him for the ride. +Returning he had driven around by another road, as he said one of the +horses had lost a shoe, and this road, though longer, was less stony, +and therefore easier for the horse than the other. Besides it would take +them by McKay's blacksmith-shop, where he could get the horse shod. + +It was when going through a valley, which the country folks called "the +bottom," that they saw the clematis. It was growing in the greatest +profusion in the meadows and the woods on both sides of the road, +rambling over bushes, rocks, fences, everything, with its great starry +clusters of white blossoms. + +"I don't think you had better go after any," said Hiram in reply to +Marty's request. "Them low places are muddy after the rain yesterday, +and your ma might be angry if you was to go home with your shoes all +muddied. Besides, there _may_ be snakes under them bushes." + +"Snakes! Oh, dear!" said Marty with a shudder. "But I should like some +of those flowers for mamma." + +"Well," said Hiram, reining in the horses, "if you promise to sit still +in the wagon and not be up to any of your tricks of climbing in and out, +I'll get you some." + +"Oh, thank you ever so much! I'll sit as still as a mouse. But then I +shouldn't like the snakes to bite you." + +"I reckon they wont bite me," said Hiram, as he leaped over the fence, +and taking out his knife proceeded to cut great clusters of flowers. + +"Oh, just see the loads he is getting!" cried Marty. + +Then as Hiram returned with a huge armful which he carefully laid in the +back of the wagon, she said, "Thank you many times, Hiram. You are very +kind. How pleased mamma will be! But half these are yours, Evaline." + +After this they had what was to Marty the pleasure of fording a small +stream, where the horses were allowed to stop and drink. Presently they +had a distant view of a cascade, called Buttermilk Falls. As the road +did not approach very near, only a glimpse could be caught of the creamy +foam; but Hiram said that some day, if Mr. Stokes could spare him, he +would drive them all down to that point, and they could walk from there +to the falls. + +"I reckon Mrs. Ashford would like to see 'em," he said. + +"Indeed she would," said Marty. + +Altogether the drive was what Marty considered "just perfectly lovely." +And she was delighted also to be able to go home with such quantities of +pretty flowers. She was already planning with Evaline what vases and +pitchers they should put them in. "How surprised the folks will be when +they see us coming in with our arms full!" she said. + +When they reached a little wood back of Mr. Stokes' barn, Hiram stopped +the horses, saying, + +"Now, I've got to go 'round to McKay's, and may have to wait there a +considerable spell, so you'd better just hop out here and go home +through the woods." + +He helped them out, gave them the flowers, and drove on. The girls sat +down under a tree and divided the spoils. Marty contrived to make a +basket of her broad-brimmed brown straw hat, in which she carefully +placed her flowers. Evaline's basket was her gingham apron held up by +the corners. + +When they came within sight of the grove where their missionary meetings +had been held, Evaline whispered, + +"Look, Marty! there are some ladies sitting on our log." + +Sure enough, there were three young ladies, evidently resting after a +mountain climb, for their alpenstocks were lying beside them, and one, a +bright, black-eyed girl wearing a stylish red jacket, was fanning +herself with her broad hat. As Marty and Evaline drew near this young +lady called out gaily, + +"Well, little flower girls, where did you come from?" + +"We've been to Black's Mills in the wagon with Hiram, and when we were +coming through the bottom he got this clematis for us," explained Marty, +who always had to be spokesman. + +"And it is beautiful!" exclaimed the young lady. "What wouldn't I give +for some like it! Did Hiram leave any or did he gather all for you?" + +"Oh, there's plenty left!" + +"Then I must have some," said the young lady, jumping up. "Come, girls, +follow your leader to this bottom, wherever it is, and let us gather +clematis while we may." + +"Fanny, Fanny, you crazy thing! Sit down and behave yourself," cried one +of her friends, laughing. "You have no idea where the place is, and we +have been walking for three or four hours already." + +"Oh, you can't go," said Marty earnestly to Miss Fanny. "It's miles and +miles away; down steep hills and across the ford. Besides, Hiram says +there may be snakes among the bushes." + +"Well, that settles it," said Miss Fanny, reseating herself on the log, +while the others laughed heartily. + +Then Marty said with pretty hesitation, "Wont you have some of my +flowers? I'd like to give you some." + +"Some of mine, too," said Evaline, her generosity overcoming her +shyness. + +"Oh, no, indeed!" protested Miss Fanny. "Thank you very much, but I +would not for the world deprive you of them. Very likely you have got it +all arranged exactly how you are going to dispose of them at home." + +So they had, but neither of them was a bit selfish. Marty had already +placed her hat on the end of the log and was busily engaged in +separating a large bunch of flowers from the rest, and Evaline, +approaching the young ladies, held out her apronful towards them. + +"Perhaps," suggested the tall, fair girl, whom her companions called +"Dora," "perhaps you would be willing to play you are real flower girls +and would sell us some." + +"Yes, yes," exclaimed Miss Fanny, "let us make a play of it. Little +girls, how much are your flowers?" and she drew forth a long blue purse. + +"'T would be mean to sell what didn't cost us anything, and what we +didn't have to move a finger to get," said Marty. "I'd a great deal +rather you would let me give you as many as you want." + +"No, it would not be mean at all when you are giving up what you have so +much pleasure in. It would only be fair to take something in exchange," +said Miss Fanny. "Just think!" she added persuasively, "isn't there +something you'd each like to have a quarter for?" + +Marty still held out against taking money for the flowers, but all at +once Evaline exclaimed brightly, "Oh, the mission-band!" + +"Mission-band!" cried Miss Fanny. "Familiar sound! Are you mission +girls?" + +"Yes," they said. + +"Why, so are we all. We must shake hands all around." + +They did so, laughing, and feeling like old friends. Then in ten +minutes' chatter the young ladies told what cities they were from and +what bands they belonged to, found out about Marty's home band, and the +newly-formed mountain band she took such an interest in, and which +Evaline persisted in saying Marty started. They were particularly +delighted in hearing about this last; they thought it highly romantic +that the meetings were held in that lovely grove, and were amused by the +idea of meeting in the barn in case of rain, and also of Hiram's +consenting to join as an honorary member. + +"Now," said Miss Fanny, "you will agree to sell some of your flowers, +wont you? See how nicely it all fits in--we want some flowers very much, +and you want some money for your mission work. So it's a fair exchange. +Girls," she said, turning to her friends, "you know this is Mrs. +Thurston's birthday. Wouldn't it be lovely if we could have about half +this clematis to decorate her room with?" + +Marty declared if she was going to give them a quarter apiece, she must +take all, or most of the flowers, instead of half. After much talk it +was finally arranged that the little girls were each to keep what Miss +Fanny called "a good double-handful," and the rest was handed over to +the young ladies. + +"This is my first missionary money," said Evaline, caressing her bright +silver quarter in delight. + +Marty, also, appeared very well pleased with the unexpected increase to +her store. + +Before separating Miss Fanny proposed another plan. She had already +stated that she and her friends were staying at the hotel in +Riseborough, and had caused Evaline to point out where she lived. + +"Day after to-morrow," said Miss Fanny, "a party of five or six of us +are going to take a drive to see some falls, and coming back we pass +right by your house. We shall probably be along towards the close of the +afternoon. Now couldn't you be on the lookout for us, and have some more +missionary clematis for sale?" + +"It doesn't grow very near here," said Evaline, "and I don't believe +Hiram would have time to take us to the bottom again after any. He's +busy harvesting." + +"Of course I don't wish you to go to so much trouble about it; but +cannot you get us flowers of some kind near here--in some of these +woods?" + +Evaline, who was anxious for more missionary money, said she thought +there were still some cardinal flowers down in the glen, and Miss Fanny +said they would be the very thing. + +"And then it would be more like earning the missionary money if we had +to work ourselves to get the flowers," said Marty. + +"You have been brought up in the orthodox school, I see," said Miss +Fanny, and all the young ladies laughed. + +After many last words and kindly adieus, they parted, and the children +ran home to relate their adventures. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WEEDING. + + +When the plan for Thursday was announced, both Mrs. Ashford and Mrs. +Stokes objected to the little girls going so far into the woods by +themselves; and nobody could go with them. + +"Then we'll have no flowers for the ladies," sighed Marty. + +"And no more missionary money," added Evaline. + +"Why not give them flowers out of the garden?" said Mrs. Stokes. "Sakes +alive! there's plenty there. And they're just the kind I've seen city +folks going crazy over. Some of the hotel folks were up here last +summer, and deary me! but they did make a to-do over my larkspur, +sweet-william, china pinks, candytuft, cockscomb, and such. You just +give the ladies some of 'em, and they'll be pleased enough; for there's +hardly any flowers in Riseborough--too shady, I guess." + +"That's all well enough for Evaline," said Mrs. Ashford, "but Marty has +no right to sell your flowers." + +"She has if I give 'em to her, hasn't she? I'm sure she's welcome to +every bloom in the garden to do what she pleases with. Not that I want +my flowers sold; I'd rather give 'em to the ladies, but as long as it is +for mission work--" and the good woman finished with a little nod. + +But Mrs. Ashford still objected to Marty's taking the flowers, and +Evaline would not have anything to do with the scheme unless Marty could +"go halves." + +"Dear Mrs. Stokes," said Marty, "can't you think of some way I could +work for the flowers, and then mamma wouldn't object to my taking them?" + +"Well, I'll tell you. The gravel walk 'round the centre bed is pretty +tolerable weedy, and if you and Evaline'll weed it out nice and clean, +you may have all the flowers you want all summer." + +That satisfied all parties, and the weeding began that afternoon. When +Marty was going to do anything she always wanted to get at it right +away. Besides Almira advised them to do some that afternoon. + +"Then maybe you can finish it up to-morrow morning before the sun gets +'round there," she said. "This is a very good time to do it too--just +after the rain." + +The girls were armed with old knives--not very sharp ones--to dig out +the weeds with, if they would not come with pulling. + +"You must be sure to get them up by the roots," said Almira, "or they'll +grow again before you know where you are." + +"Oh, we are going to do it _good_," Marty declared. + +They divided the walk into sections, and set to work vigorously. In a +few moments Marty remarked complacently, + +"The bottom of my basket is quite covered with weeds. But then," she +added in a different tone, "I don't see where they came from. I hardly +miss them out of the walk." + +A few moments more of quiet work, and she called out, + +"Evaline, are many of your weeds in _tight_?" + +"Awful tight," answered Evaline disconsolately. "They've got the longest +roots of any weeds _I_ ever saw. 'T would take a week of rain to make +this walk fit to weed." + +"Well," said Marty, "of course it isn't just as easy as taking a quarter +for some clematis that was given to us in the first place, but as it is +for missions I think we ought to be willing to do it, even if it is a +little hard." + +"That's so," Evaline replied, brightening up. + +"And I'm very glad your mother thought of this," Marty went on, "for it +would be dreadful disappointing not to have any flowers for the ladies +when they come, and not to get any more missionary money." + +Again Evaline agreed with her, and the work went on. + +In about half an hour there was quite a large clean patch, and much +encouraged by seeing the progress they were making, they worked more +diligently than ever. Then Marty had a sentimental idea that it might +help them along to sing a missionary hymn, but found upon trial that it +was more of a hindrance than a help. + +"I can't sing when I'm all doubled up this way," she said, "and anyway +when I find a very tough weed I have to stop singing and pull. Then I +forget what comes next." + +"I guess it's better to work while you work and sing afterward," was +Evaline's opinion. + +Here they heard somebody laughing, and looking up saw Mrs. Ashford, who +had come out to see how they were getting on. + +"I think Evaline is about right," she said; "singing and weeding don't +go together very well. But how nicely you have been doing! Why, you are +nearly half through!" + +"Yes, ma'am," said Evaline, "and the other side of the circle a'n't half +so bad as this was. We'll easy get it done to-morrow morning." + +"Yes; and, mamma," cried Marty, "we've got them out good. I don't +believe there'll ever be another weed here!" + +"They'll be as bad as ever after a while," said Evaline, who knew them +of old. + +Marty was pretty tired that evening and did not feel like running about +as much as usual. + +"There now!" exclaimed Mrs. Stokes, looking at Marty as she sat on the +porch steps after supper leaning back against her mother, "there now! +you're all beat out. 'T was too hard work for you. I oughtn't to have +let you do it." + +"Oh! indeed, Mrs. Stokes, I'm not so very tired," cried Marty, "and I +was glad to do it." + +Another hour's work the next morning finished the weeding, and the girls +reflected with satisfaction that they had earned their flowers. Mrs. +Stokes said the work was done "beautiful," and Hiram, who was brought to +inspect it, said they had done so well that he had a great mind to have +them come down to the field and hoe corn. + +Thursday morning early they gathered and put in water enough flowers for +seven fair-sized bouquets, thinking they had better have one more than +Miss Fanny mentioned in case an extra lady came. By four o'clock these +flowers--and how lovely and fragrant they were!--with Mrs. Ashford's +valuable assistance were made into tasteful bouquets, placed on an old +tray with their stems lightly covered with wet moss, and set in the +coolest corner of the porch. The children, including Freddie, all nicely +dressed, took up position on the steps, partly to keep guard over the +flowers and prevent Ponto from lying down on them, and partly to watch +for their callers. + +Marty's bright eyes were the first to see the carriages. + +"There they come around the bend!" she exclaimed, and shortly a carryall +driven by Jim Dutton, and containing three ladies and two children, +followed by a buck-board wherein sat Miss Fanny and Miss Dora, drew up +at the gate. + +Evaline's shyness came on in full force and she hung back, but Marty, +with Freddie holding her hand, proceeded down the walk. They were met by +Miss Fanny, who had thrown the reins to her friend and jumped out the +moment the horse stopped. She kissed Marty, snatched up Freddie, +exclaiming, "What a darling little boy!" and called out, "Come down +here, Evaline! I want to see you." + +Mrs. Stokes, who was too hospitable to see people so near her house +without inviting them in, now came forward to give the invitation, and +as they were obliged to decline on the score of lateness, she called +Almira to bring some cool spring water for them. Seeing Freddie +approaching dangerously near one of the horses, Marty cried, "Freddie, +Freddie, come away from the horse!" and he gravely inquired, "What's the +matter with the poor old horse?" + +This made every one laugh and brought Mrs. Ashford from the porch to +take his hand and keep him out of danger. So they were all assembled at +the roadside, and quite a pleasant, lively time they had. + +The flowers were asked for and Evaline brought them, while Marty +explained why they were garden instead of wild flowers, and Mrs. Stokes +told how the girls earned them. The bouquets were extremely admired. +When proposing the plan in the woods, Miss Fanny had suggested +"ten-cent" bouquets, but everybody said ten cents was entirely too cheap +for such large, beautifully arranged ones, that fifteen cents was little +enough. There was one composed entirely of sweet peas, as Mrs. Ashford +said those delicate flowers looked prettier by themselves. This Miss +Fanny seized upon, insisted on paying twenty cents for, and presented to +a pale, sweet-faced lady in mourning. + +She drew Marty to the side of the carriage where this lady was, and said +in a low voice, + +"Mrs. Thurston, this is the little girl I told you of--the Missionary +Twig who doesn't leave her missionary zeal at home when she goes away +in vacation." + +The lady smiled affectionately as she pressed Marty's hand, and said, + +"I am glad to meet such an earnest little comrade." + +"Oh! but you don't know," protested Marty. "I came very near forgetting +the whole thing. Indeed, it went out of my head altogether from Tuesday +till Sunday." + +The ladies laughed, and Miss Fanny said, + +"Mrs. Thurston was a missionary in India for many years, Marty, and +would be there yet if she was able." + +"India!" exclaimed Marty, with wide-open eyes. "In Lahore!" + +She had heard more about Lahore than any other place, and to her it +seemed like the principal city in India. + +"Oh, no!" replied Mrs. Thurston. "Far from there, hundreds of miles. +Lahore, you know, is in Northern India, in the part known as the Punjab, +while my home was in the extreme south near a city called Madura. Are +you especially interested in Lahore?" + +"Yes, ma'am. It's where our band sends its money. We have a school +there. That is, we pay the teacher. It is one of those little schools in +a room rented from a poor woman, who does her work in one corner while +the school is going on, and the teacher is a native." + +"Ah, yes; I understand." + +"Mrs. C---- is the missionary who superintends it, along with a lot of +other schools. Do you know her?" + +"No, but I have seen her name in the missionary papers." + +"Did you have some of those little schools when you were a missionary, +Mrs. Thurston?" Marty inquired. + +"Yes, I did some school work, but more zenana work." + +"What is zenana work?" + +Just then Mrs. Thurston noticed that preparations were being made to +drive on, so she merely replied, + +"Come down to the village and see me, and we will have a good missionary +talk." + +"Thank you ever so much," said Marty. "I do hope mamma will let me go." + +Evaline was quite overcome when she learned that Mrs. Thurston was a +"real live missionary," and said, + +"She's the first one I ever saw. I wonder if they're all as nice as +that." + +After consultation with her mother, Marty decided to give half her +"flower money"--which altogether amounted to eighty cents--to the +mountain band, and keep the other half for the home band. "Because, you +see, this is all out-and-out missionary money; there's no tithing to be +done," she said. + +Evaline never felt so large in her life as she did when going to the +band meeting the next Sunday, with her eighty cents ready to hand to +Hugh Campbell. + +The Saturday following that memorable Thursday, Miss Fanny and Miss Mary +again presented themselves at the farmhouse, where they were welcomed +like old friends. After some pleasant chat, and a lunch of gingerbread +and fresh buttermilk, Miss Fanny said, + +"We came this morning chiefly to bring you an invitation from Mrs. +Thurston. She wants you all, or as many as possible, to come to an +all-day missionary meeting at the hotel next Tuesday." + +"All day!" exclaimed Almira. + +"Yes. That sounds formidable, doesn't it?" laughed Miss Fanny. "But I'll +tell you about it. We are going to sew for a home missionary family. You +must know that Mrs. Thurston, after spending the best part of her life +and the greater part of her strength in the foreign field, still does +all, in fact, more than her poor health will allow her to do for +missions both at home and abroad. She heard the other day that a +missionary family, acquaintances of hers, in Nebraska, had been burnt +out, and lost everything but the clothes they had on. She told us about +them with tears in her eyes, and some of us discovered she was laying +aside some of her own clothes for the missionary's wife and planning how +she could squeeze out a little money--for she is not rich by any +means--to buy some clothes for the children. Well, the result was we +took up a collection of clothes and money at the hotel, and Mrs. +Thurston got Mr. Dutton to go to Trout Run and telegraph to the Mission +Board that this missionary is connected with that we would send a box of +things in a few days that will keep the family going until some church +can send them a good large box." + +"But how will you know what kind of garments to send?" asked Mrs. +Ashford. "I mean, what sizes?" + +"Mrs. Thurston knows all about how many children there are, and their +ages, so we can guess at their sizes." + +Mrs. Ashford, discovering there was a little girl near Freddie's age, +and as he was, of course, yet in "girl's clothes," said she could spare +a couple of his suits, having brought an ample supply. Some of Marty's +clothes also were found available. + +"We have had some things given us for the lady," said Miss Fanny, "a +wrapper, a jersey, a cashmere skirt, a shawl; also two or three +children's dresses. We have bought nearly all the muslin in Mr. Sims' +store, with some flannel and calico. He is going to Johnsburgh Monday, +and will get us shirts for the missionary, stockings, and such things. +Monday is to be a grand cutting-out day. Tuesday we are to have three +sewing-machines. Several of the village ladies are coming to help, and +we shall be very glad if some of you will come. Mrs. Thurston +particularly desires that the little girls shall come." + +"Oh, do let us go," Marty said, while Evaline looked it. + +Mrs. Ashford could not leave Freddie, and it was not possible for both +Mrs. Stokes and Almira to go, so it was settled that the latter, the +little girls, and Ruth Campbell, whom Miss Fanny wished Almira to +invite, should walk down pretty early in the morning, and Hiram should +bring the light wagon for them in the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE HOTEL MISSIONARY MEETING. + + +"It was an elegant sewing-meeting," Marty confided to her mother when +she got home Tuesday evening, "and it wasn't a bit like that one Aunt +Henrietta had the last time we were in Rochester. I liked this one best. +There, you know, the ladies came all dressed up, carrying little velvet +or satin work-bags, and we just had thin bread and butter and such +things for tea--nothing very good. Here some of the ladies--of course I +mean the ones from the village--came in calico dresses and sun-bonnets. +And they were so free and easy--sewed fast and talked fast while they +were there; and then if they had to go home a little bit, they'd just +pop on their bonnets and off they'd go. Mrs. Clarkson thought it was +going to rain, and she ran home to take in her wash, and another lady +went home two or three times to see how her dinner was getting on. + +"Some of them stayed at the hotel to dinner, and all that did stay +brought something with them, pies mostly, though some brought pickles, +preserves, and frosted cake. And every time Mrs. Dutton saw something +being smuggled through the hall she'd call out, + +"'Now I told you not to bring anything. The dinner is _my_ part of this +missionary meeting.' + +"Then they'd all laugh. They were all real kind and pleasant. And such a +dinner! I do believe we had some of _everything_. And supper was just +the same way." + +The hotel, though the boast of the surrounding country, was a very plain +establishment, being nothing more than a tolerably large, simply +furnished frame house accommodating about forty persons. But it was +bright and home-like and beautifully situated. + +"Mrs. Thurston's meeting," as they called it, was held in the large, +uncarpeted dining-room, and the dinner tables were set in the shady back +yard. + +The sewing-room was a busy scene, with Miss Dora and two other ladies +making the machines whir and groups of workers getting material ready +for the machines or "finishing off." Mrs. Thurston, appealed to from all +sides, quietly directed the work,--while Miss Fanny was here, there, and +everywhere, helping everybody. Almira heard, in the course of the day, +that Miss Fanny was quite wealthy, that she had contributed a great deal +towards getting up the box, and was going to pay the freight. + +There were several children besides Marty and Evaline. They were +employed to run errands, pass articles from one person to another, and +fold the smaller pieces of clothing as they were completed. As the day +wore on and the novelty of the thing wore off, most of the children got +tired and went out to play; but Marty, though she ran out a few minutes +occasionally, spent most of the time in the work-room, keeping as close +as possible to Mrs. Thurston, to whom she had taken a great fancy. + +Soon after dinner Miss Fanny came to Mrs. Thurston and said, + +"Now, Mrs. Thurston, if you don't get out of this commotion a while you +will have one of your bad headaches. Do go out in the air. We can get on +without you for an hour." + +So Mrs. Thurston took Marty and went into the grove back of the house, +and it was while sitting there on a rustic seat, with the magnificent +view spread out before them, that they had their missionary talk. + +[Illustration: While sitting there on a rustic seat ... they had their +missionary talk. Page 158.] + +Mrs. Thurston described her home in Southern India, and spoke of the +kind of work she and her husband did there--how he preached and taught +in the city and surrounding villages; how she instructed children in the +schools, and visited the ignorant women, both rich and poor, in their +homes. Often, when not able to leave home on account of her children, +she had classes of poor women in her _compound_, as the yards around the +houses in India are called. She also spent a good deal of time giving +her servants religious instruction. + +"You know," she said, "it is very, very hot there, and we Americans can +only endure the heat by being very careful. At best we sometimes get +sick, and we must do all we can to save ourselves up to teach and +preach. That's what we go there for. If we should cook or do any work of +that kind, we should die; so we employ the natives, who are accustomed +to the heat, to do these things for us. Then, these servants will each +do only one kind of work. That is, the sweeper wont do any cooking or +washing; the man who buys the food and waits on the table wont do +anything else." + +"That's very queer," said Marty. + +"Yes, but it is their way. So we are obliged to have several servants. +But then the wages are very low. Altogether it does not cost any more, +perhaps not as much, as one good girl would in this country. They are a +great deal of trouble, too. They are not, as a rule, very honest or +faithful, and they have, of course, all the heathen vices, and sometimes +we have much worry with them. But what I was going to say is, that we do +our best to teach these servants about God. We used to have them come +in to prayers every day, and on Sunday I would collect them on the +veranda and try to teach them verses of Scripture, which I would explain +over and over again. On these occasions a good many poor, lame, blind +people from the neighborhood would also come. These people were so +densely ignorant that it was hard to make them understand anything, but +in some cases I think the light did get into their minds." + +Then Mrs. Thurston told of the death of her three dear little children, +and Marty felt very, very sorry for her when she spoke of the three +little graves in that distant land. + +"Haven't you any living children?" she asked. + +"Yes, two. One of my sons is a missionary in Ceylon, and the other, with +whom I live, is a minister in New York State." + +Then, it appeared, after many years of labor in that hot climate, the +health of both Mr. and Mrs. Thurston broke down, and they were obliged +to leave the work they loved and come back to America. In a short time +Mr. Thurston died. + +Marty found out, somewhat to her surprise, that the "big society" her +band was connected with was not the only one. Mrs. Thurston belonged to +an entirely different one, and the young ladies, Fanny, Dora, and Mary, +to still another. + +"You see we belong to different religious denominations," said Mrs. +Thurston, "and each denomination has its own Society or Board." + +"This Nebraska missionary, now," suggested Marty, "I suppose he belongs +to your de--whatever it is." + +"Denomination," said Mrs. Thurston, smiling. "No, he belongs to yours." + +"Yet you are all working for him!" exclaimed Marty. + +"Of course. It would not do for these different families of Christians +to keep in their own little pens all the time and never help each other. +But as yet it has been found best for each denomination to have its own +missionary society, though there are some Union Societies, and perhaps +in coming years it may be all union." + +"Now there's this mountain band," said Marty reflectively. "The people +in it are not all the same kind. I mean some are Methodists, and some +are Presbyterians, and the Smiths are Baptists. I heard Ruth say she +didn't know what would be best to do with their money." + +She afterwards heard Ruth consulting Mrs. Thurston about the matter, and +the latter spoke of one of these union societies. Ruth said she would +speak to the others and see if they would wish to send their funds +there. + +By half-past four a great deal of work had been done, and the new +garments were piled up on a table in the corner of the room. Though +needles were still flying, taking last stitches, the hard-driven +machines were silent, having run out of work, as Miss Fanny said. In the +comparative quiet Ruth was heard singing softly over her work. + +"Sing louder, Ruth," said Almira, and Ruth more audibly, but still +softly, sang, + + "From Greenland's icy mountains." + +One voice after another took up the refrain, and by the time the second +line was reached the old hymn was sent forth on the air as a grand +chorus. The children came up on the porch, the girls came out of the +kitchen to listen. The customers in Sims' store and the loungers around +the blacksmith's shop stopped talking as the sound reached them. + +When the last strains died away, and before talking could be resumed, +Ruth said, + +"Marty, wont you say those verses you said at our last band meeting?" + +"I'll say them if the ladies would like to hear them," said Marty, who +was not at all timid, and knew the verses very thoroughly, having +recited them at the anniversary of her own band. + +The ladies desired very much to hear them, and, taking her stand at one +end of the room, she repeated very nicely those well-known lines +beginning, + + "An aged woman, poor and weak, + She heard the mission teacher speak; + The slowly-rolling tears came down + Upon her withered features brown: + 'What blessed news from yon far shore! + Would I had heard it long before!'" + +"How touching that is!" said one of the hotel ladies, and Mrs. Sims was +seen to wipe her eyes with the pillow-slip she was seaming. + +"Mrs. Thurston," said Miss Fanny, who saw that a good start on a foreign +missionary meeting had been made, and was not willing to let the +opportunity be lost, "when you were in India did you meet many persons +who were anxious to hear the gospel, or were they mainly indifferent?" + +In replying to this question Mrs. Thurston told many interesting things +that had come under her observation, and this led to further questions +from others, so they had quite a long talk on missionary work both in +India and other countries. Finally one of the boarders asked, + +"Well, do you think the world ever will be converted to Christianity?" + +"I know it will," replied Mrs. Thurston; and she quoted, "All the ends +of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all kindreds of +the nations shall worship before thee." + +FANNY. "For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall +bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." + +DORA. "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the +waters cover the sea." + +RUTH. "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river +unto the ends of the earth." + +"Dora, Dora," said Miss Fanny, with an imperative little gesture, +"'Jesus shall reign'"-- + +Miss Dora obediently began to sing, + + "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun + Does his successive journeys run," + +and was at once joined by the others. + +"Now, dear friends," said Mrs. Thurston, when the hymn was finished, +"upon this, the only occasion we are all likely to be together, shall we +not unite in asking God to hasten the coming of this glorious time, and +ask for his blessing on our humble attempts to work in this cause?" + +Work was dropped and every head bowed, as Mrs. Thurston uttered fervent +words of prayer that the Lord would fill all their hearts with love for +missions, and that he would permit them to do something towards helping +in the work. She prayed especially for the children who were engaged in +missionary work, and asked that they might have grace given them to +devote their whole lives to the service of God. + +"Well," said Mrs. Clarkson, as she was leaving, "this has been a right +down pleasant meeting, and I think the last part was just about the +best." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +THE GARDEN MISSIONARY MEETING. + + +Two or three days afterwards Miss Fanny, with one of her young friends, +came up to tell the farmhouse people that the box had gone. She said +that Mr. Sims had given them a box, and had also kindly attended to +sending it off. + +The day after the meeting, when Hiram went down to the postoffice, Marty +and Evaline had each sent by him a book for the missionary children, and +Miss Fanny said that this prompted some of the children at the hotel to +send books. + +During the remainder of the summer there was frequent intercourse +between the hotel and the farmhouse, and the "mission workers," +particularly, learned to love each other very much. Marty felt very +proud to be numbered among these workers, though she was only a "twig." +She said, + +"I'll have a great deal to tell Miss Agnes and the girls when I go +home--sha'n't I, mamma?" + +Some new members joined the mountain band, and by the last of August it +numbered twenty-one. Ruth said she wished very much that before Mrs. +Thurston left they might have her meet with the band. She thought they +would all take greater interest in mission work if they could hear +something of it from one who had spent so many years in the midst of it. +Mrs. Thurston said she would be very happy to attend a meeting and talk +with the members. So arrangements were made to have her do so. + +It would be impossible for her to reach the grove, as she could not walk +so far, and the drive from the hotel to Mr. Campbell's was very rough +and quite long. + +"Mother," said Almira, when they were trying to settle the matter, +"couldn't we have a meeting here? It would be easier for Mrs. Thurston +to get here, and convenient enough for everybody else." + +"Why, of course they may meet here," her mother replied. "Our parlor's a +plenty big enough to hold 'em." + +"Oh! dear Mrs. Stokes," protested Marty, "don't let us meet in the house +when there's so much lovely out-of-doors. That grassy place in the +garden near the currant-bushes would be just an elegant place for a +meeting." + +"I vote with Marty for out-of-doors," said Ruth. "We'll have enough +times for in-door meetings after a while." + +"Suit yourselves," said kind Mrs. Stokes. "You're welcome to any place +I've anything to do with." + +"And may some of the rest of us from the hotel come?" asked Miss Fanny, +who happened to be present when this talk was going on. + +"Yes, indeed. The more the--." Mrs. Stokes was just going to say, as she +so often did, "the more the merrier," when she recollected that it +would be Sunday and the meeting a religious one. But she let them all +know she would like them to come. Mrs. Ashford and Ruth had great +difficulty in persuading her not to bake a quantity of cake on Saturday +and serve refreshments to the band. + +"You must remember, dear Mrs. Stokes," said Ruth, "it isn't a party, and +nobody will expect anything to eat. Now you must not think of going to +any trouble." + +"The idee of having a lot of people come to your house and not give 'em +a bite of anything!" exclaimed Mrs. Stokes. + +Sunday afternoon chairs were carried out to the grassy spot Marty had +selected, among them a comfortable arm-chair for Mrs. Thurston. Marty +insisted on farmer Stokes' special arm-chair being carried out for him, +and with the help of Wattie Campbell contrived to get it there. Hiram, +before he drove down to the hotel for the ladies, made a couple of +benches of boards placed on kegs. These were for the girls. The boys, +he said, could sit on the ground, and that is where he sat himself. + +Mrs. Thurston brought with her a cloth map of India which the young +ladies fastened to two trees. She also had some photographs of people +and places in India which were passed around among the company. Mr. +Stokes was particularly struck with the beautiful scenery these pictures +showed. + +"Well," he said, "I never knew much about India, but I had no idea it +was such a handsome place." + +"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Thurston, "the scenery in some parts of these +tropical countries is very fine, the foliage is so luxuriant, the +flowers so gorgeous, the skies so brilliant. Indeed, a photograph only +gives the merest hint of the beauties." + +She described certain mountain and forest views, also some parks and +gardens she had visited. + +"Don't you remember those lines in the missionary hymn, Mr. Stokes," +Miss Dora asked, + + "'Where every prospect pleases, + And only man is vile'?" + +Mrs. Thurston told them that the people in India do not live on farms as +many do in this country, but crowd together in towns and villages, +going out from there to work in the fields. She briefly described the +large city of Madras, with its mingled riches and poverty, its streets +crowded with all sorts of people, some of them with hardly any clothing +on, its temples and bazaars, or shops. Then she spoke of Madura, where +her home had been so long. + +It was hard to get her listeners, as they sat in this cool, shady +garden, fanned by mountain breezes, to understand how hot it is in +India, especially Southern India. They thought the _punkahs_, or huge +fans, that are in all the churches and larger houses, and which a man +works constantly to cool the air, must be very queer contrivances. The +idea of having to stay indoors during the middle of the day, keeping +very still, lying down, perhaps, did not strike Mrs. Stokes very +favorably. + +"That wouldn't suit me," she said--"to lie down in the daytime and be +fanned. I'd want to be up and doing." + +"I fear even your energy would flag in that climate," replied Mrs. +Thurston, laughing. "Foreigners are obliged to be very careful or they +could not live there at all. Of course we missionaries were not idle at +the time I speak of. We were studying, writing, or making arrangements +about our work." + +She then told a good deal about the way the missionaries work among the +people, taking her hearers with her in imagination to some of the +mission-schools, and to the Sunday services in the little church where +her husband had preached. In doing this she repeated a passage of +Scripture and sang a hymn in the Tamil language--the language used in +that part of India. + +"Now I will tell you something of zenana visiting," she said. + +"Mrs. Thurston," said Ruth, "wont you please first tell us exactly what +a zenana is?" Ruth knew herself, but she was afraid some of the others +did not. + +"The word zenana," replied Mrs. Thurston, "strictly means women's +apartment, but as it is generally used by us it means the houses of the +high caste gentlemen, where their wives live in great seclusion. These +high caste women very seldom go out, except occasionally to worship at +some temple. They live, as we would say, at the back of the house, their +windows never facing the street. Sometimes they have beautiful gardens +and pleasant rooms, but often it is just the other way. They have few +visitors and no male visitors at all, never seeing even their own +brothers. The low caste women, though they lack many privileges the +others have, yet have more freedom and are not secluded in this way." + +"I'd rather be low caste," said Marty. + +"You wouldn't rather be either if you knew all about it," said Miss +Fanny. + +"In visiting the poorer people," Mrs. Thurston went on to say, "when I +was seen to enter a house the neighbors all around would flock in, so +that I could talk with several families at once. But in visiting a +zenana I only saw the inhabitants of that one house. To be sure there +was generally quite a crowd of them, for the rich gentlemen often have +several wives. Then there would be the daughters-in-law, for the sons +all bring their wives to their father's house. Then all these ladies +have female servants to wait on them and who are constantly present, so +altogether there would be quite a company." + +"I suppose they would be glad to see you," suggested Mrs. Ashford. + +"Oh, yes. They welcome any change, their lives are so dull." + +"What do they do with themselves all day long?" inquired Miss Fanny. "I +suppose they don't work, as they have plenty of servants to do +everything for them. They don't shop or market or visit. They have no +lectures or concerts to attend. They are not educated, at least not +many of them; and even if they could read, they have no books. Oh, what +a life!" + +"What do they do, Mrs. Thurston?" Marty asked. + +"Well, they look over their clothes and jewels, spend a great deal of +time every day in being bathed in their luxurious way, and being +dressed. Then they lounge about, gossip, and quarrel a good deal, I +suspect. They are very fond of hearing what is going on, and the servant +who brings them the most news is the greatest favorite." + +"And that's the way so many women have lived for centuries!" sighed +Ruth. + +"Things are improving somewhat now," said Mrs. Thurston. "Education for +women is very much more thought of than in former years. A great many +girls are now allowed to attend the Government and other schools, and +many men in these days are anxious to have their wives educated. Some +employ teachers to come to their houses and teach the inmates. If only +all these women could receive a Christian education, India would soon be +a delightfully different place." + +"How do the missionaries get into these zenanas?" Ruth inquired. "Do +they go as teachers or visitors or--what?" + +"In some cases missionary ladies have gained admission by going to +teach these shut-in ladies fancy-work or something of the kind. Other +times they contrive to get introduced in some way, going as visitors. +But in every case they aim to make their visit the means of carrying the +gospel to these women." + +"Are they willing to have you talk on religious subjects?" asked Mrs. +Ashford. + +"Some of them are not. You know there is, of course, as much diversity +among them as among any other women. But after they have got used to our +coming, and have examined our clothes and asked us all sorts of +questions, some of them very childish ones, they generally listen to +what we wish to say and become interested in the Bible and the story of +the cross." + +Mrs. Thurston then spoke particularly of some of the houses she used to +visit, told about the pretty little children and their pretty young +mothers, what they all did and said, in a way that interested her +hearers very much. She also told how some of these friends of hers had +received the gospel message and were converted to Christ. "And if you +only understood the position of these people under this dreadful caste +system, you would see what difficulties they have to contend with before +they can come out on the Lord's side," she said. "But it is our duty and +privilege to show them the right way, the way of life, and shall we not +do all in our power to send them the gospel? Those of them who know +about free and happy America are looking to us for help. Did you ever +hear some verses called 'Work in the Zenana'? I can repeat a couple of +them." + + "'Do you see those dusky faces + Gazing dumbly to the West-- + Those dark eyes, so long despairing, + Now aglow with hope's unrest? + + "'They are looking, waiting, longing + For deliverance and light; + Shall we not make haste to help them, + Our poor sisters of the night?'" + +There was a great deal more talk about India, Mrs. Thurston being +besieged with questions, until Ruth feared she would be worn out, and +said the meeting had better close. + +"Oh! I like to talk about my dear India," said Mrs. Thurston with a +tearful smile; "and if it is any help to you all in your work, I am only +too willing to give you the help." + +"You have helped us ever so much," replied Ruth, "and we are very +grateful. I'm sure we shall always feel the greatest interest in that +wonderful old India, with its sore need of the gospel." + +"Yes," said Almira, "I feel now that every cent of money we can scrape +together should be used for India." + +"Unfortunately it is not the only needy place in the world," said Miss +Mary. + +"Well," said Ruth, "we must just work hard and do all we can for heathen +lands." + +Then they sang several hymns, Hiram and Hugh Campbell having carried +Almira's melodeon out to the garden, and closed by repeating the Lord's +prayer in concert. + +During the singing Mrs. Stokes had slipped away, and Mrs. Ashford and +Ruth exchanged smiling glances when they saw her standing by the +garden-gate as the friends passed out, insisting that they should take +some cookies and drop cakes from a basket she held. She would not hear +of the hotel ladies getting into the carriage until they had partaken of +the sliced cake and hot tea she had ready for them on the side porch. + +"Ah, this is the way you get around it, Mrs. Stokes!" said Ruth. + +"Now, Ruth," exclaimed the good woman, "don't you say a word. I a'n't +going to have these folks go back home all fagged out when a cup of tea +will do 'em good." + +"This is another perfectly elegant missionary meeting," said Marty. "I +wonder if Edith and the other girls are having as good a time as I am." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +COUSIN ALICE'S ZENANA WORK. + + +Mr. Ashford came up to the farmhouse about the first of September, and +spent a week before taking his family home. So Marty did not arrive in +time to be present at the first meeting of the band, but on the third +Saturday of the month she was on hand with her budget of news. She had +much to hear as well as to tell, and it would take a long time to relate +all the missionary experiences of those travelled Twigs. Indeed for +several weeks something new was constantly coming up. It would be, "O +Miss Agnes, I forgot to tell about such a thing." Or, "I just now +remember what I heard at such a place. May I tell it?" + +Edith had attended a grand missionary meeting at the seaside, and Rosa +had gone with her mother and elder sister to a missionary convention, +where she saw and heard several missionaries who were at home for rest, +and also several new ones who were going out soon. Others of the girls +had attended band meetings where they were visiting, or had joined with +other young workers in holding meetings in hotels and cottages. But no +one had, like Marty, been present at the forming of a band and helped it +start. Nor had they, like her, become well acquainted with a real +missionary. + +"Oh, I just had the nicest long talks with her!" said Marty, meaning of +course Mrs. Thurston. "I could ask her anything I wanted, you know. I +even sat in her lap sometimes and hugged her real hard; and she would +pat me and smooth my hair with the very same hands that used to do +things for the little girls in India." + +"How elegant it must have been to have a missionary meeting in that +pretty old garden, and such a nice missionary there to tell you things!" +said one of the girls. + +"It _was_," replied Marty briefly but fervently. + +"Oh, I wish I could help start a band as Marty did!" exclaimed Daisy. + +"Perhaps you have helped, though you may not be there to see it start," +said Miss Walsh. "Perhaps what you told those little girls from Georgia +about our band and missions in general will bear good fruit, and there +may be after a while a brand-new band in that far-away Southern town, +that little Daisy helped to start." + +"Oh, I do hope so," said Daisy, smiling and pressing her hands together. + +"I think it would be nice to ask Marty's mountain band to write to our +band and tell us what they're doing, and we'll tell them what we're +doing," suggested Edith. + +"Oh, yes, yes!" cried some of the girls. + +After a little talk the suggestion was adopted. They all wanted Marty to +be the one to write; but she said, though of course she was going to +write to Evaline, she could not write a good enough letter to be read at +the band, and would rather Mary Cresswell wrote. Miss Walsh decided that +would be the better way, as Mary was so much older and more accustomed +to writing. It was too much to expect Marty to do. + +So Mary wrote a very nice letter--the Twigs were very proud of their +bright secretary--inclosing a note of introduction from Marty. In course +of time a reply was received from Almira thanking them all for their +kind interest in the mountain band, and accepting the invitation to +enter into a correspondence. This correspondence proved to be very +pleasant and profitable to both parties. + +What pleased the Twigs particularly was that Almira told them the +mountain band was very much indebted to one of their members, and it was +likely the band would not have been formed that summer if it had not +been for that member's help. Of course she meant Marty. + +It must not be supposed Marty had boasted that she had done much +towards getting the band organized. She only told in her childish way +how it had come about, and the girls could not help seeing she had given +all the aid possible. + +Some of the other girls heard from members of bands they had met during +the summer, and in this way several suggestions of ways of doing things +were gathered up and acted upon. Miss Walsh said the whole summer +experience had been very helpful. + +One of Marty's earliest visits after her return was paid to Jennie in +company with Cousin Alice. They found the invalid sitting up in the +comfortable rocking-chair, looking very much better. She was overjoyed +to see them and had a great deal to say. She was so pleased that she +happened to be up, and insisted on showing how she could take the three +or four steps necessary to get from the bed to the chair. She told them +the doctor said that after a while, if she was very careful, she would +be able to walk. "Not, of course, that skippy way you do," she said to +Marty, "but to kind o' get along." + +She also showed the crocheting she had done, and it was really very well +done. As she seemed so much better, Miss Alice asked the doctor if it +would hurt her to study a little. He said it would not, and Miss Alice +undertook to teach her to read better, so that she could enjoy reading +to herself. Jennie was glad of the chance to learn and made good +progress, so that by Christmas, when Marty and Edith gave her the Bible +they had talked of in the summer, she could read it quite well. + +"I think, after a while, when Jennie gets still stronger," said Miss +Alice one day at Mrs. Ashford's, "I will teach her something of +arithmetic and writing, because she will never be able to go to school, +and some knowledge of the kind will be useful to her. I will teach her +to sew nicely, too, and when she is older she may be able to earn her +living, even if she is lame and delicate." + +"What a good work you will be doing, Alice," cried Mrs. Ashford, "if you +help a poor, sickly, ignorant child to develop into an intelligent, +self-helpful, and I hope Christian woman. Jennie will bless the day she +first saw you." + +"Ah, but she never would have seen me but for you and Marty. In fact I +don't think I should have taken much interest in her if my attention had +not been attracted to her by Marty's self-denying gift of that doll." + +"And I don't believe _I'd_ have taken much interest in her if it hadn't +been for hearing about the poor foreign children at the mission-band," +said Marty. + +"Everything comes around to the mission-band first or last, doesn't it?" +said Cousin Alice, laughing. + +"Pretty near everything," replied Marty seriously. "And then there's +Jimmy Torrence," she added presently. "I don't believe I'd have been +willing to have my ulster pieced for his sake if I hadn't been hearing +about those other forlorn children." + +She was glad to see Jimmy looking so much brighter and better. Though he +did not know he owed his country visit to her, he remembered the cake +she had given him and the kind words she had more than once spoken to +him, so he often lingered on the stairs to see her as she passed in and +out of Mrs. Scott's room, always greeting her with a bright smile. + +One Sunday Mrs. Scott made him and his next older sister as clean and +respectable as possible, and took them to church with her. The result +was, some of the ladies of the church came around to see the Torrences, +fitted the older ones out with decent clothes, and gathered them into +the Sunday-school. + +Soon after this, one afternoon Miss Alice came into Mrs. Ashford's +sitting-room, half laughing, and exclaimed as she sank into a chair, +"Oh, Marty, how you and your mission work are getting me into +business!" + +"Why, how?" demanded Marty. + +"Oh, those Torrences!" said Miss Alice, still laughing. + +"What about them? Do tell us," Marty insisted. + +"Well, one day as I was going to see Jennie, I saw the two little girls +younger than Jimmy on the stairs, and they did look so cold this kind of +weather in their ragged calico frocks, and not much else on. So I just +went home, got my old blue flannel dress, bought a few yards of cotton +flannel, and took them to Mrs. Torrence to make some comfortable clothes +for those poor children. And, Cousin Helen, will you believe it? I found +the woman didn't know the first thing about cutting and making clothes!" + +"That is very strange," said Mrs. Ashford. "How has she been getting +along all this time with such a family?" + +"She depends on people giving her things, and on buying cheap ready-made +clothing." + +"That is very thriftless." + +"Yes. But I've heard it is the way so many poor people do. A great many +of those women work in factories or shops before they are married, and +afterwards, too, sometimes, and they have no time to learn to sew. When +I found out about Mrs. Torrence I thought I would offer to show her how +to cut and make those things. I thought doing that would be far greater +charity than making them for her would be." + +"So it would." + +"To be sure she goes out washing now and then, but she has time enough +to sew other days, as she only has those two little rooms to take care +of, and she hasn't been taking much care of them evidently." + +"I thought they only had one room," said Marty. + +"They have taken another now, as Mr. Torrence has steady work. Father +got him a place in a livery stable, and he's not a drinking man, so they +ought to get along." + +"Well, how did Mrs. Torrence take your offer of help?" asked Mrs. +Ashford. + +"She did not seem to like it at first. I suspect she thought I ought to +make the garments myself. But after a while she came around and--" + +"Your pleasant ways would make anybody come around," exclaimed Marty +warmly. + +"Thanks for the compliment," replied Miss Alice, smiling. "Well, the +amount of it is I have been giving her lessons, and she is really +beginning to do right well. The little tots look a great deal more +comfortable, and now I am going to show her how to alter some of the +clothes the Methodist Sunday-school ladies gave her, so that she will +have something decent to wear herself." + +"I think you are getting into business!" exclaimed Mrs. Ashford. "It is +certainly very good of you to take all that trouble. And I should +imagine it is not the most comfortable place in the world in which to +give sewing or any other kind of lessons. Now Mrs. Scott is different. +Her room is always as neat as a pin." + +"Oh, yes!" cried Miss Alice, "that reminds me there's more to my story. +These sewing lessons are actually making Mrs. Torrence cleaner and more +tidy. The first day I went the table was all cluttered up, and when she +cleaned it off for me to cut out on she looked rather ashamed of its +dinginess, and muttered some excuse as she wiped it over with an old +cloth. The next day that table looked as if she had been scrubbing it +all night--it was so startlingly clean. She had scrubbed a chair, too, +for me to sit on. Then I suppose she thought the clean table and chair +put the rest of the room out of countenance, for on my next visit I +found the floor had been scrubbed and the windows washed. When I told +mother about it she said the woman should be encouraged, and sent her +that striped rug that used to be in our dining-room, you remember. It +was to spread down before the stove. The result of that was the old +stove has been polished up within an inch of its life. Yesterday I took +to the children those gay pictures that came last Christmas with the +Graphic, and tacked them on to the wall. Now the next time I go I expect +to see the walls scoured or whitewashed or something," and Miss Alice +finished with a laugh. + +"If you keep on you will work quite a change in their way of living," +said Mrs. Ashford. + +"There's plenty of room yet for improvement," replied her cousin; "for +although it must be pretty hard for such a large family to live in such +a small space and be cleanly, still they might try to be." + +"I should think the narrow space would be bad enough without the dirt." + +"Well, things have been and are yet pretty forlorn. But I am glad I have +been able to effect a little change for the better." + +"But you said I got you into it," said Marty, "and I don't see what I +have to do with it, nor what mission work has either." + +"I should have told you that one reason I thought of offering this help +to Mrs. Torrence is that it may perhaps give me an opportunity to say +something to her on religious subjects. She takes no interest in such +matters, never goes to church, and only allows her children to go to +Sunday-school for what people give them. The Bible-reader of that +district tells me that Mrs. Torrence wont listen to her, wont let her go +into the room. She is a sullen, ill-natured kind of woman--I mean Mrs. +Torrence--and hard to get at. So I thought I might possibly get at her +in this way, and your account of missionary ladies going to zenanas to +teach fancy-work in order to get a chance to tell the women of God and +the Bible, put it into my head that I might try something of the same +kind." + +"Oh, it is just the same," cried Marty, "except that it's altering and +mending instead of fancy-work. How curious it is that zenana work away +off in India should make you think of helping a poor woman close by in +Landis Court!" + +"Have you got Mrs. Torrence to listen to you yet?" asked Mrs. Ashford. + +"I haven't ventured to say anything directly to her yet, but I have been +talking to the children about the Sunday-school lesson, explaining it to +them and teaching them the Golden Text, and their mother is obliged to +hear, whether she wants to or not." + +"That's just the way Mrs. Thurston says it is in those zenanas," said +Marty. "Many of the women at first don't care to listen to good reading +and teaching, and want to talk about all sorts of other things, so the +missionaries have to work it in the best way they can, and after a +while the women get interested and want to hear. It seems as if they +couldn't get enough Bible-reading and talk. Maybe that'll be the way +with Mrs. Torrence." + +"We will hope so," replied Cousin Alice. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +ROSA STEVENSON'S SISTER. + + +As Christmas drew near Marty found herself very busy, for besides some +little presents she was making for her "own folks," she and her mother +set to work to mend some of her old toys, to dress some new cheap dolls, +and to make a few picture-books of bright pretty cards pasted on silesia +and yellow muslin, for the little Torrences and other poor children they +knew of. + +Edith, also, was engaged in the same way, and the little girls often +worked together. + +Though they had received some money on their birthdays, they concluded +to wait until Christmas to give Jennie her Bible, as everybody appeared +to think it would be a very suitable Christmas gift for her. They got +Mrs. Ashford to go with them to buy it, and with her aid succeeded in +getting a very nice one, good size, clear print, and pretty cover, for +the money they had set aside for the purpose. + +Their mothers gave them permission to run down the afternoon before +Christmas to carry the Bible to Jennie, as there would not possibly be +time to go Christmas day when there was so much going on. They were to +call and ask Cousin Alice to go with them; but when they stopped at her +house they found she had already gone over to Landis Court, but had left +word for them if they came to follow her. + +When they arrived at Mrs. Scott's room they found Miss Alice very busy +indeed, hanging up some wreaths of green and otherwise decorating the +room. She was hurrying to get it all in order before Mrs. Scott returned +from her work, as it was to be a surprise to her. Jennie, sitting in the +rocking-chair with the doll in her arms, was watching the operation with +the greatest interest, every now and then exclaiming, "Oh, that's +splendid! What'll mother say to that!" + +When Marty and Edith appeared something else seemed to occur to her, and +turning from the decorations she cried eagerly to them, "Oh, did you +get--!" and then glancing at Miss Alice, covered her mouth with her +hand, laughed very much, but would not finish what she had begun to say. + +She nearly went wild over the beautiful Bible and could hardly thank the +givers enough. + +"And I can read it my own self too, 'cepting of course the long words," +she said. "How queer it'll be to be sitting up reading a chapter to +mother 'stead of her reading to me!" + +"You might read to her those Christmas verses in Luke to-morrow that I +read to you not long ago," Miss Alice suggested. + +"Oh! I will. Where are they, I wonder?" said Jennie. + +Edith found the place, while Marty snipped off a little bit of her blue +hair-ribbon for a mark. + +Some cakes and fruit Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Ashford sent Jennie were also +highly appreciated. They had also sent some small but useful and pretty +presents for her mother, which Jennie was to have the pleasure of giving +to her. Thus they all tried to bring some Christmas joy into the poor +little girl's life. + +When Marty and Edith went home they each found a small parcel that Jimmy +Torrence had left for them. They contained nicely crocheted +bureau-covers for their dolls' houses, and were marked in Miss Alice's +handwriting, "For Marty, from Jennie," and "For Edith, from Jennie." + +"Ah! this was the secret she had with Cousin Alice," exclaimed Marty. +"Just look mamma! isn't it a pretty cover?" + +Edith was equally pleased with hers, and Jennie seemed much pleased with +their hearty thanks. + +"I really believe she enjoyed making and giving those little things more +than any other part of Christmas," said Miss Alice. "I suppose it made +her feel as if she was in the Christmas times." + +Marty never enjoyed any Christmas season so much as this one, when she +worked so hard to give happiness to the poor. She had her temptations to +overcome, too; for when the stores were filled with beautiful things +that she would like to buy for herself or her friends, it was very hard +to keep from entrenching on the money she had saved up for a special +Christmas missionary offering. But her year's training in missionary +giving had not gone for nothing, and she was able to make a missionary +offering a part of her Christmas celebration. + +The members of the band had not forgotten the talk they had had over +Mrs. C----'s letter, when they resolved to try very hard to double their +usual amount. The most of them were trying, and the sum was "rolling +up," the treasurer said. Whether or not they would succeed in what they +were aiming at, remained to be seen, but Miss Walsh encouraged them by +saying that they would certainly come much nearer success by making +continual efforts than by making no effort at all. + +One morning when the holidays were over, and the little girls were on +their way to school, Edith had a great piece of news to tell. + +"What do you think!" she said. "Rosa Stevenson's grownup sister is +going away next month to be a missionary!" + +"_Is_ she really?" exclaimed Marty. + +"Yes; going to Japan, and Miss Agnes has asked her to come to the +meeting next Saturday and tell us about it." + +The news spread, and the next Saturday every one of the Twigs was there, +gazing with wide-open eyes at the fair young girl who was going so far +from home to carry the gospel to her ignorant sisters. Sitting there +with tearful Rosa's hand clasped in hers, she told the girls that when +she was studying in college, God had put it into her heart to carry the +tidings of his salvation to the people who knew him not. She said that +though it was very hard to leave home and friends, she felt it was her +duty and privilege to go, and she was thankful that the way was open for +her. + +Then she showed them on the map what city she was going to, and told +them something of the school in which she was to teach. She promised to +write to the band some time, and in closing she earnestly appealed to +them to do all they could for missions. + +"Even be ready to go yourself if God calls you," she said. "When I was a +little girl in a mission-band, saving up pennies and learning about +these foreign lands, I never thought that one day I should be going to +teach the girls of one of these countries and try to win them to Christ. +So there may be some among you whom God will call to this work, and I +hope none of you will slight his call, but be ready to do his will in +this matter as in all others." + +Marty was very deeply impressed by what Miss Stevenson said. She thought +it would be a grand thing to go away off as a missionary. She wondered +if God would call her to go. She hoped he would. Only she would not wish +to go to such a civilized country as Japan; the very worst part of +Africa or the wildest part of Asia would be what she would choose. + +Her mind was so full of the subject that she did not want to talk about +anything else, or to talk at all, and was glad that Edith was going to +her aunt Julia's from the meeting, so she could walk home alone. She +concluded that as soon as she reached home, she would go into her room +and pray that she might be a missionary. Then she could not wait until +she got home, and being on a quiet street, she slipped behind a tree-box +and offered this little prayer: "Dear Lord, if missionaries are still +needed by the time I grow up, I pray thee let me be one. For Jesus +Christ's sake. Amen." + +She walked in home very soberly for her, and going directly to her +mother, asked, "Mamma, should you like me to go away over the seas and +be a missionary?" + +"No, indeed!" said her mother emphatically. "I should not like it at +all. You mustn't think of such a thing." + +"But if God calls me to go?" said Marty, with quivering lip. + +It would be hard, after all, to leave this dear home. She scarcely knew +whether she wanted her prayer answered or not. + +"What do you mean?" inquired Mrs. Ashford, drawing her on her lap. + +Then Marty told all about the meeting, and what she had been thinking, +and how she had prayed to be a missionary. + +"I want to be one if God wants me to, but I don't see how I _can_ go +away and leave you all," she said, half crying. + +"Well," said her mother soothingly, seeing she was trembling with +excitement, "we need not talk about it yet. It will be a long time until +you are old enough or know enough to go. You will have to go to school +many years yet, and then, perhaps, to college, for you know the better +missionaries are educated the more good they can do. Then you must learn +to make your own clothes and take care of them, and it is well to know a +good deal about housekeeping also, for missionaries have to know how to +be independent, and be ready for any kind of life. You would hardly be +prepared to go before you are twenty, anyway, and that is ten years +yet." + +"Nine and a half," put in Marty. + +"In the meantime you can be doing as much as possible for missions at +home." + +"Yes," said Marty, wiping her eyes and looking comforted, "that's so. We +needn't think of my going away yet, and I s'pose the right way is to do +as Miss Agnes says. She says the best way in mission work, as in +everything else, is just to do the nearest thing and do it as well as we +possibly can, and then be willing to let God lead us along from one step +to another." + +"She is certainly right," said Mrs. Ashford. + +"I have taken some steps since Edith got me started, haven't I? I've +learned a good deal about missions, and I find it a great deal easier to +give money regularly now than when I began. Don't you remember how at +first I either wanted to give every cent I had or else not to give +anything? But I found out that wasn't the best way to do." + +"And another thing," said Mrs. Ashford, "you have been the means of some +of the rest of us taking steps. Seeing how well your systematic giving +is working, I have started in to do the same way." + +"Oh! _have_ you, mamma?" exclaimed Marty. "Are you going to have a box +for tenths? How delightful!" + +"No, not a box--my square Russia-leather pocketbook. And not tenths +exactly, but what you call the New Testament way." + +"That's just lovely!" said Marty, caressing her. "I'm so glad. So we'll +both be mission workers the rest of our lives, wont we?" + +"With God's help, we will," replied her mother. + +"And p'r'aps dear little Freddie will begin, too, when he gets old +enough. You know there are boy bands. But where is Freddie? He was here +when I came in." + +Just then a high-pitched little voice from the next room called, "Whoop! +Marty!" + +"There he is. I wonder what sort of a funny place he's hiding in this +time," said Marty, laughing and running to see. + +Freddie had taken one of his papa's large handkerchiefs out of the lower +drawer of the bureau, and spreading it out over his head was standing in +the middle of the room, hiding. How he laughed when Marty found him! + +Soon after Mrs. Ashford and Marty began studying the Bible with the help +of the concordance, they agreed that it would be pleasant to read a +chapter together every night before Marty went to bed. Sometimes she was +too sleepy to read more than a few verses, but generally she tried to +get ready in good time so that she would be wide enough awake to read a +whole chapter, unless it was a very long one. + +They were reading in Luke's Gospel now, but the evening of this day +Marty said, + +"Mamma, mayn't we read that chapter that has in it, 'Here am I; send +me'? Miss Stevenson read that verse to us to-day when she was talking +about us going, any of us. Do you know where it is?" + +"I think I can find it pretty easily," Mrs. Ashford replied. "I know it +is in Isaiah. Here it is--the sixth chapter." + +They read it, and the eighth verse coming to Marty, she read slowly and +reverently, + +"Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who +will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me." + +After they had finished reading, she said, + +"I think that is a very hard chapter. The only verses in it that I +understand are this one where it says, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of +hosts,' and the eighth verse about 'Whom shall I send?'" + +"Well," said her mother, "if you understand those two, they will give +you plenty to think of, and when you are older you will be able to +understand more." + +After a moment's silence Marty said, + +"You were saying a while ago that I'd have to go to school and learn a +great deal before I could be a missionary. I s'pose I'll have to study +the Bible a great deal too." + +"Oh, of course. I didn't mention that particularly, because I took it +for granted you would know that any one who undertakes to show others +the way of life must know the way herself, and the Bible is the book +that points out that way. You remember Jesus says, 'Search the +Scriptures; they are they which testify of me.'" + +"But how am I ever to learn? Some people seem to know just where +everything is, all the verses that explain other verses, and so on. They +can so easily find something in the Old Testament that exactly fits into +something in the New Testament. I often wonder how they do it." + +"They love the Word of God, study it, and pray over it." + +"I want to love it too," said Marty, pressing her face against the open +Bible on her mother's knee. "Whether I'm a missionary or not, I want to +be a Christian and do some work for the Lord." + + + + +Devotional Books. + + +DAILY LIGHT ON THE DAILY PATH. 32mo. Size, 4-3/4 by 3-1/4 by 3/4 inches. + +Morning or Evening Hour, each, in cloth, 40 cts.; cloth gilt, 50 cts.; +morocco gilt, $1; kid-lined, $3. + +Morning and Evening Hour, _combined_. 32mo edition. Cloth, 60 cts.; +cloth gilt, 75 cts.; Seal Russia, $1 20; morocco, $1 40; morocco, red +and gold edges, $1 60; seal extra, gold edges, $2; calf, $2; kid-lined, +$4. + +LARGE PRINT EDITION. 16mo. 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