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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 ***
+
+Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
+ New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
+ public domain.
+
+
+[Illustration: NANNIE.]
+
+
+
+                         A DAY IN THE COUNTRY
+
+                           AND OTHER STORIES
+
+
+                                 FROM
+
+                             "THE PANSY"
+
+
+                            [Illustration]
+
+
+                                BOSTON
+                        D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY
+                     FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS
+
+
+
+                             Copyright by
+                       D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY
+                                 1885
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+   A DAY IN THE COUNTRY.
+
+   WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND.
+
+   NANNIE'S LESSON.
+
+   FOOLISH CHILDREN.
+
+   SOME CURIOUS FISHES.
+
+   TIME ENOUGH.
+
+   A CUP OF COLD WATER.
+
+   ON NANTUCKET WHARF.
+
+   LILY DAY.
+
+   THE GREENLANDER.
+
+   SOME YOUNG HEROES.
+
+   THE SECRET OF IT.
+
+   THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.
+
+   THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.
+
+
+
+                        _A DAY IN THE COUNTRY_
+
+                          _AND OTHER STORIES_
+
+
+
+                         A DAY IN THE COUNTRY.
+
+THEY were on their way to Sabbath-school that pleasant September
+morning. Maggie and Lottie Barnes, Delia and Sallie Shaw. They lived in
+the city of Boston.
+
+Because they lived in a large city, do not go and make a picture in
+your mind of four little ladies with new fall suits of silk or velvet,
+or soft cashmere, and new hats with nodding plumes or flying ribbons,
+and trim boots, very high, and trim gloves very long, and many buttons
+everywhere, because that will not be at all a true picture.
+
+Their dresses were all faded and worn. Maggie wore an old black shawl
+of her mother's, that trailed a little on the ground. Delia considered
+herself royally arrayed in a rusty old black velvet sack much too large
+for her, while Lottie had no protection front the cool autumn air but a
+soiled and faded blue silk handkerchief spread over her shoulders, her
+hat, in spite of being loaded down with purple ribbon and red roses,
+went sailing off her head with every gust of wind that came along,
+because it had no rubber on it. Then poor Sallie had on low shoes much
+too large for her. They would keep getting down at the heel and coming
+off as she clattered along, and she had often to stoop over and adjust
+them. With these hindrances of hat and shoes of course they could not,
+you see, go on in a very orderly manner.
+
+They were discussing something in very loud tones. Nobody had ever told
+them it was rude to talk loud in the streets.
+
+They were bemoaning the fact that all the girls they knew except
+themselves, had been to the country to spend a few days.
+
+"I wanted to go so much," little Sallie said, tugging at her shoe as
+she spoke; "I wanted to see some flowers growing. I should think we
+might have gone as well as the rest," said Delia. "I think it's mean to
+skip us."
+
+"The money give out," said Lottie, clutching at her hat to prevent its
+escape.
+
+"Money is the matter with most everything," Maggie said, drawing her
+shawl closer about her with a grown-up air, and a grown-up sigh.
+
+The money of which the children talked was "The Fresh Air Fund," a sum
+of money that good men and women raised to give poor children who live
+in the great city a chance to go into the country for a few days, and
+breathe the sweet air, run on the grass, pick flowers, and drink fresh
+milk, all about which they knew nothing. This Mission School was very
+large, but nearly all had been to the country; some for two whole weeks.
+
+By some means these little girls had been overlooked.
+
+Mrs. Eastman, their teacher, had been absent from her class for six
+weeks, and all were glad to see her pleasant face in the teacher's
+chair this morning.
+
+"Now I suppose you must first tell me what a fine time you had in the
+country," she said "but as our class is so large, we shall not be able
+to hear a story from each one. Let all who had a good time in the
+country raise their hands."
+
+The hands went up instantly—all except four.
+
+They sat together, so Mrs. Eastman had no trouble in seeing their hands
+were not raised, and that they did not wear the bright look of the
+other children.
+
+"What is the matter here?" she asked kindly. "No hands up this end of
+the class? Maggie, Lottie, how is it? Did you not like the country?"
+
+"We never went to no country," the little girls responded in a chorus.
+
+After Mrs. Eastman had inquired all about it, and heard how much they
+wished to go, and said how sorry she was that it had happened so, she
+wrote down very carefully their names, and just where they lived.
+
+Then she asked them if they had ever told Jesus about it.
+
+"No, we never did," they said.
+
+"Well, my dear little girls," she said, "don't you know when you have
+trouble, there is where you must take it? You must tell Jesus to-night
+how much you want to go to the country, and ask him to send you. You
+know it would not be a good thing for you to go for a long visit, now
+that your schools have opened, but if you could go for one day, would
+you not like it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" they all answered again.
+
+"Well you ask him, and then wait and see what he will do."
+
+It was almost as good as going to the country to have such loving eyes
+look into theirs, and say, "My dear little girls!" They all promised to
+do as she wished them to.
+
+"I don't see how it'll be done," Maggie said, on the way home, "when
+the money is all gone; but teacher said Jesus could do hard things."
+
+
+Monday was a long day, because these little girls were expecting
+something to happen. For had not teacher said, "Ask Jesus, and see what
+he will do for you?"
+
+Sun enough, great news was waiting them when they got home. Maggie and
+Lottie came running over to Mrs. Shaw's all out of breath.
+
+"Look at that!" said Maggie, holding out a note written on rose tinted
+paper, in letters almost as plain as print.
+
+"Look at that!" said Sallie, holding up the mate to it.
+
+"Teacher's been to our house," said Maggie.
+
+"And teacher's been to our house!" Sallie responded triumphantly.
+
+These notes from "Teacher" were invitations for the little girls to
+spend the day with her at her country home on Saturday. They were
+to take the seven o'clock train at the Old Colony station, and ride
+about fifteen miles, and there Mrs. Eastman would be waiting with her
+carriage.
+
+Think of that! A carriage waiting for them!
+
+
+The day came at last. Great had been the preparations all the week;
+each Sunday dress had been made as nice as washing, ironing and mending
+could make it. And they were all at the-depot by half-past six, in a
+high state of excitement.
+
+The day was perfect. They enjoyed every minute of the ride in the cars.
+The conductor had orders to leave them at a certain station. No sooner
+had they stepped from the cars, than they saw the smiling face of their
+teacher. They were soon seated in a handsome carriage and rolling
+over a smooth road. The air was sweet and pure, the birds sang, the
+squirrels skipped about in the trees, and the golden October sunshine
+made the world beautiful that morning.
+
+"So you told Jesus about it, did you?" Mrs. Eastman asked.
+
+"Yes'm, we did," said little Sallie. "We told him Sunday night, and he
+'tended to it the first thing Monday morning."
+
+[Illustration: MAKING WREATHS FOR THEIR HATS.]
+
+
+
+                      WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND.
+
+GRANDMA'S room was the very handsomest one in the house. Madge and
+Nellie thought it was the pleasantest at least.
+
+A bay window overlooked the street, where busy people came and went;
+two other large windows, that were doors as well, opened on to a
+piazza, and that piazza was a delightfully cool place to sit, on warm
+days.
+
+Grandma's large chair was out there most of the time in summer. Then
+she had to take but a few steps and she was in the flower garden. In
+winter the plants were in the conservatory, of course, and a glass door
+from grandma's room opened into that too.
+
+Between her pretty bedroom and the large room were folding doors. There
+were soft carpets and lace curtains, pictures, great easy-chairs, and
+everything for use and comfort and prettiness that could be thought of,
+for everybody in the house thought nothing was too fine and nice for
+grandma, and that was just as it should be.
+
+It was a bright September morning, but cool enough for grandma to have
+a fire snapping on her brass andirons in the fireplace.
+
+Some people dread to grow old, because they are so foolish as to think
+that young folks have all the good looks; but that is a great mistake.
+Grandma made just as pretty a picture in her black dress, white cap,
+and soft mull handkerchief folded about her neck, with her red knitting
+work in her lap, and the fire shining on her silver hair, as Madge and
+Nellie did over in the window in blue dresses, though their heads were
+brown and curly, and their cheeks round, and smooth, and rosy.
+
+They were busy with pencil and paper, making out a list of little girls
+who were to be invited to their birthday party.
+
+It happened that both birthdays came in September, and so they could be
+celebrated together.
+
+"Shall we invite Minnie Dale?" asked Nellie.
+
+"No; of course not," Madge answered with a curl of her pretty lip.
+
+"Why not?" said Nellie. "She's the best girl in school, and she's
+pretty too."
+
+"Well, it won't do," Madge declared, with the air and tone of a much
+older young lady than ten. "She doesn't belong."
+
+"Belong to what? She belongs to our day-school and our Sunday-school."
+
+"Oh, what a little stupid you are," laughed Madge. "She doesn't belong
+to our set, of course. Do you know where she lives? She lives in that
+little bit of a brown house way down on Cedar street, just about as big
+as our smoke house."
+
+"Does she?" said her sister. "Why, I thought she was as good as any
+of us. She always wears pretty dresses, and she acts—well, sort o'
+stylish."
+
+"You mustn't say sort o'," said Madge. "You mean she has pretty
+manners; that's what they call it. Oh, yes; she's nice enough, but what
+do you suppose Elsie Melbourne, and Clara Haines, and Lina Vedder would
+say to meeting a girl here who lives in such a hut as that, no matter
+how she looks and acts?"
+
+"Sure enough!" Nellie answered. "It would not do, would it?"
+
+Grandma arose just then and went to the bureau. She brought out a small
+rosewood box, and sitting down again by the fire, unlocked it. This
+drew the children's attention. They always liked to get a peep into
+grandma's treasures. She had so many curious and pretty things, and
+told such nice stories about them. So they came over to her, and this
+was just what she wished them to do.
+
+"Do you want to see my old home?" Grandma said as she brought out a
+drawing and handed it to them.
+
+"Why, grandma, what do you mean?" they both said at once.
+
+"Why, this is a log house!" Madge said.
+
+"And it's such a little bit of a house!" said Nellie.
+
+"Now, grandma, you truly didn't ever live there?"
+
+"I truly did!" grandma answered. "And a prettier home, or a happier one
+you never saw.
+
+"When I was married, I went with your grandfather to live in this
+little house. It stood among the trees, and there was a brook not far
+away that went racketing over the stones. We used to take long walks in
+summer, after tea; in summer evenings following up that little brook.
+Sometimes it ran through green meadows, and then it wound and twisted
+itself around the hills and on into the dark, cool woods. There were
+moss-covered stones in it, and ferns and violets grew on its banks:
+such a pretty place as you never saw, my dears!"
+
+"But how could you live in such a very little house?"
+
+"Oh! Plenty of room," said grandma. "You wouldn't believe it to look
+at it, but in that house we had a parlor, bedroom, dining-room and
+kitchen. When we bought it, it had but one large room with a shed at
+the back. So we set to work to make a nice place of it.
+
+"First of all your grandfather made the old shed into the neatest
+little kitchen with a corner cupboard. He whitewashed it and set up our
+stove, and I put our new dishes in the cupboard, and it was as pretty
+as a little girl's playhouse. The large room was a bare rough place,
+but we made it white and pure with lime, and I made a curtain out of
+some pretty chintz calico, and pat it across one side of the room, and
+that was my bedroom; you see your grandma invented curtains between
+rooms, which are now so fashionable, long ago. Well, when we had our
+carpet down, and our pictures up, our books on the shelf, and our round
+table with a sage-green cloth over it, a bright fire snapping in the
+great old fireplace, an old armchair one side of the fire and my sewing
+rocker on the other, I say, there was no neater, prettier place in the
+whole world."
+
+"But grandma, where were your parlor and dining-room?"
+
+"My child, the parlor and dining-room were all in one. The end of the
+room next the kitchen was the dining-room: when meal time came it was
+a dining-room, and when meals were over we just cleared off the table,
+turned down the leaves, set it back against the wall and put a spread
+on it, and the room was a parlor again; don't you see?"
+
+"Were you just as happy as you are in this handsome house?" asked
+Madge, casting her eyes over the beautiful room.
+
+"Some of the happiest years of my life were spent in this dear humble
+home," grandma said as she replaced the picture in the box with a last
+loving look at it.
+
+"Just think," said wise Nellie, looking thoughtfully into the fire, "if
+grandma was a little girl now she couldn't come to our party because
+she lived in a log house."
+
+"There is somebody greater than grandma you would shut out if He were
+here," grandma said; "the Lord Jesus himself had no fine house. He said
+the foxes and the birds had houses, but he had none."
+
+They went back to their work of making out a list.
+
+"Madge," Nellie said pretty soon, "I guess Jesus won't be pleased
+with such a party as we are getting up. If you don't care, I mean to
+ask mamma to let me have my party by myself some day, and I'll invite
+Minnie Dale and that lame girl, and that Jessie Moore in our class that
+wears calico dresses."
+
+"Nellie Bryant," said Madge, "don't you suppose I want to please Jesus
+too, instead of Elsie Melbourne, or Clara Vedder, or any of them? I
+never thought how it would seem to him; we'll ask Minnie Dale and
+everybody else mamma thinks best. If grandma lived in a poor little
+house once, who knows but Minnie Dale will live in a grander house than
+any of us some day?"
+
+"Yes; and just think," Nellie answered, "if papa should lose his money
+like Mr. Strong, and we have to go into a little bit of a house,
+wouldn't it seem dreadful to have the girls leave us out when they made
+parties, and we would be the very same girls we always were, too?"
+
+
+
+                           NANNIE'S LESSON.
+
+LITTLE Nannie Greyson was sitting on her front piazza one bright June
+morning, when everything around was fresh and bright, but Nannie
+herself was blind to all this beauty by which she was surrounded, for
+she had just received a new book, and was already deep in its pages.
+
+Nannie was a very pretty little girl about nine years old. She had
+a fair skin, large blue eyes and golden hair, not long, but falling
+to her neck in short, pretty curls. Any one looking at her that June
+morning would immediately pronounce her very nice and lovable indeed.
+
+The front door behind her is standing open, and presently a lady comes
+through the wide hall, and stands behind the little girl. She looks
+down at her without speaking, and the little girl finally becoming
+aware of her presence looks up into her face with a smile which makes
+her if anything, more sweet and lovable.
+
+"O! Mamma," she exclaims, "my book is so nice."
+
+And drawing a deep sigh of satisfaction she prepares to return to it.
+But her mamma is speaking, and she stops to listen, although very
+reluctantly, I am sorry to say.
+
+"Nannie," her mamma says, "I want you to come and amuse Herbie while I
+am busy in the kitchen."
+
+Herbie was Nannie's two-year-old brother, and a lively little fellow to
+take care of.
+
+Minnie threw down her book, and when she looked up, you would scarcely
+have recognized her as the same sweet little girl who looked so happy a
+few moments before. An angry frown had settled on the smooth forehead
+over the blue eyes; there was a fretful expression on her lips, and
+she was entirely transformed from the bright, pretty little girl whose
+mouth had been all smiles, to a peevish child with a pout on her lips
+which was not at all becoming.
+
+"O, mamma, must I leave my book to take care of that tiresome baby? It
+seems to me I never sit down to read but you want me to do something
+for you."
+
+She knew she must go, though, and she got up slowly, going through the
+hall, up the staircase, and into the nursery at the head of the stairs,
+pouting and cross. She knew that her mamma was deeply grieved, and she
+knew also that she never would have called her from her book had it not
+been necessary.
+
+[Illustration: HERBIE.]
+
+But still she pouted, while Herbie tried in his baby fashion to comfort
+her, for he saw something was wrong. She could not resist his baby
+coaxing very long, and her ill-humor soon vanished, and they had a
+merry game of romps.
+
+Two or three hours afterward while playing with a little friend on
+the back piazza, she tore a bad hole in her dress. Running up-stairs
+to find mamma, she found her after a little search in the nursery
+seated by the window, in her rocking-chair with a book in her hand, a
+very unusual thing for Nannie's mamma, and Herbie at her feet, busily
+engaged with his toys. Nannie hastened up to her, saying:
+
+"O, mamma, just see what I have done; won't you please mend it 'quick.'"
+
+Her mamma, instead of looking up with her bright smile and ready
+consent, threw down her book impatiently, exclaiming, as she did so:
+
+"Oh dear, Nannie, must I leave my nice book just to mend that tear? It
+seems to me I never sit down to read, but you want me to do something
+for you."
+
+Nannie's eyes filled with tears, for she recognized her own words, and
+knew that mamma meant to rebuke her in this way. She raised her eyes to
+her mamma's face, as if asking for pardon, and as her mamma stretched
+out her arms, she sprang into them, sobbing her confession there.
+
+Nannie had learned a lesson, and one that she never forgot.
+
+
+
+                          FOOLISH CHILDREN.
+
+MRS. TOPKNOT is having trouble in her family to-night. Two weeks ago
+she was very happy when twelve soft, downy darlings gathered under her
+wings.
+
+She is not so happy now, because some of them have been naughty.
+
+It was just after dinner, when mamma Topknot was taking a nap, that
+they took it into their heads.
+
+Whitey began it. She was a proud little thing, all white, with not a
+black feather about her. She thought she was the prettiest and smartest
+of the whole brood.
+
+"Our feathers are all out now," Whitey said. "We're growing up. Let's
+take a little walk by ourselves."
+
+"That's so," said Blackey, "we'll do just that thing. Come on, right
+off, while mother's asleep; we'll get back before ever she wakes."
+
+"Won't it be fun?" whispered Speckle. "Come on, all of you, and don't
+make a bit of noise."
+
+"I'm not going to stir a single step," little Dove declared. "I'm going
+to stay close by my mother."
+
+Then every little chick looked up in astonishment, to think that gentle
+little Dovie would dare to speak her mind so plainly.
+
+"She's afraid!" said Spot. "She's afraid a big grasshopper will carry
+her off."
+
+"I am afraid to disobey my mother," Dovie chirped out sweetly. "She
+said we were never to go anywhere without her till she gave us leave."
+
+"Come on, right off, everybody who wants to go," said Blackey, marching
+off, calling out as he looked behind him:
+
+"I know where there are some big strawberries!"
+
+"I know where there's a great black dog," piped little Gray. "I'm not
+going."
+
+"Nor I," said Brownie.
+
+So away went the naughty nine chickens, and the three little good ones
+stayed at home.
+
+They had a splendid time, for Bobby brought his apron full of chickweed
+and threw it on the barn floor. They could get little bits of it, even
+with their small bills.
+
+[Illustration: MAMMA TOPKNOT AND HER FAMILY.]
+
+When mamma Topknot awoke, she looked about for her children.
+
+Only three to be found! Where could the others be? She looked all about
+and called, but they did not come. Supper time came, and still they had
+not arrived.
+
+"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!" went mother Topknot about the barnyard, as if
+she would go wild.
+
+Where could they be? If she could only squeeze herself through the hole
+under the fence by which they got out, she would go in search of them.
+
+The supper was nearly all eaten up by the other old hens before she
+knew what they were about. She managed to save only enough for the
+three little chicks who had stayed at home.
+
+Just as it began to grow dark, when their mother had given them up, and
+had settled down with a sad heart to take care of what children she had
+left, they came.
+
+They hopped through the fence one after another, till they all stood
+before her, a guilty little huddle.
+
+Just a minute before, mamma Topknot had thought she would give all her
+feathers if she could only see them alive once more, and now just as
+soon as she had them, she fell to scolding them.
+
+Oh, how she scolded! And such a hubbub as there was. Speckle stood off
+by herself and actually talked back. Two or three of the others tried
+to tell how it wasn't their fault, they never would have thought of
+such a thing. Then they all talked at once and told how hungry they
+were and said they never would run away again.
+
+Gray and Brownie stuck their heads from under their mother's feathers
+to see how things were going, while little Dove got up on her mother's
+back and tried to help scold.
+
+Blackey scud around behind his mother as soon as he came in and poked
+his head up under her wing as if he thought he could make her believe
+he never had been away.
+
+After they had all cried and said they were sorry, mother Topknot began
+to pity them, they looked so cold and tired, and so she forgave them
+and cuddled them all under her wings once more.
+
+Of course they had to go to bed without any supper, but that taught
+them a good lesson. They never did run away again.
+
+That was not the only reason, though—the going without their supper.
+They had a fearful time. They told about it next day.
+
+The great black dog chased them, a cat almost got one of them, and a
+boy threw stones at them.
+
+
+
+                        SOME CURIOUS FISHES.
+
+I DON'T suppose you think there are any fishes that can either walk or
+live any time out of water. Yet there are.
+
+The gurnard is one of the most important of the walking fish. M.
+Deslongchamp had an artificial fish-pond on the shores of Normandy, in
+which several of these creatures were. When he waded in the pond, he
+could easily see all their movements.
+
+On one occasion, when he was watching them in this way, he saw them
+close their fins against their sides, and walk along the ground by
+means of six slender legs, three on each pectoral fin. By these they
+can walk very fast.
+
+The square-browed malthe can also walk, and can live out of water.
+Sometimes it spends two or three days creeping over the land. The
+reason that all fishes cannot stay out of water is because they are so
+made that they have to breathe air through water. All fishes are this
+way, but some can carry water in their gills both for breathing and
+drinking purposes for several days.
+
+The grouper fish is very queer in that it will swallow such curious
+things, which you would not think it could possibly digest. One was
+caught on the coast of Queensland which, when opened, was found to have
+in its stomach two broken bottles, a quart pot, a preserved milk-tin,
+seven crabs, a piece of earthenware encrusted with oyster shells, a
+sheep's head, some mutton and beef bones, and some oyster shells.
+
+There is a crab in the Keeling Islands, that lives on the land all day,
+returning to the water only at night to moisten its gills. It also eats
+cocoanuts, opening the shell with its huge claws, and the natives of
+the islands say that it climbs the trees to get them. This, however, is
+not known.
+
+Thus we see that there are some very curious fishes; yet none of them
+have mind, and are not to be compared with man. Let us be thankful,
+then, that God made us human beings, and not fishes.
+
+
+
+                            TIME ENOUGH.
+
+ELMER'S new suit had just come home.
+
+It was brown, with dashes of green in it. It fitted him exactly, and
+everybody knows it makes one feel good-natured when his new clothes fit
+well. When he tried them on, nobody jerked his pantaloons down, said
+they were too short, nor twitched his jacket up and said it was too low
+in the neck.
+
+He laid them carefully over the back of a chair that night before he
+went to bed, then got out a clean collar and a green necktie, tucked a
+handkerchief into the side pocket of the jacket, and surveyed them all
+with a satisfied look.
+
+Morning came, bright and splendid as anybody could wish. The steamboat
+with flying flags stood at the wharf, and a happy company of boys and
+girls, dressed in white and pink and red and blue, marched through the
+streets to the sound of music.
+
+The procession passed through the great gates and were all comfortably
+settled on the boat fifteen minutes before it was time to start.
+
+Elmer's home was a long walk from the church where the other scholars
+met, so he went directly to the steamboat landing.
+
+He had just bought a new set of marbles. They were beauties, and when
+he met Will Porter, he could not resist the temptation to try his
+new marbles on the broad, smooth paving-stones just above the gates
+where no people were passing at this early hour. The game became so
+fascinating, that the boys played on, even after the procession had
+gone on board.
+
+"Come on," Will said; "we'll be late."
+
+"Oh, no! We won't be late. The boat will not start this quarter of an
+hour," Elmer answered, aiming a great blue marble at a red one.
+
+Now the superintendent and the teachers had warned the school many
+times, "The gates will be closed at seven o'clock. If you are not on
+the other side of them by that time, you cannot go."
+
+"Be prompt, boys and girls," Mr. Willard had said as he dismissed
+the Sabbath-school. "Do not come hurrying along at the last minute.
+Our trip next Wednesday is one of our lessons, and it will teach
+punctuality in rather a severe manner if one of you stands sorrowfully
+peeping through that big gate at us, while we glide off down the river.
+It will certainly spoil your pleasure and ours too if you are too late."
+
+Not a boy who heard him thought that talk was meant for him. "'I' shall
+be in time," they told themselves; "of course I shall."
+
+Elmer and Will had each a great fault. Elmer's was procrastination. He
+was always saying, "Wait a minute," "There's plenty of time," or "I'll
+do it by and by." Because of this habit, he was never known to be in
+time anywhere. His father had given him a watch at Christmas to see if
+that would not help him to improve, but it did not; he went on saying,
+"Time enough." Everybody had to wait for him.
+
+When the rest of the family were ready for church, he would rush
+through the house like a hurricane, pulling and panting, up-stairs and
+down, calling out:
+
+"Oh, dear! Can't somebody help me? Won't Mary black my boots? Do come
+and fix on my collar! Has anybody seen my lesson paper?"
+
+And so the whole house would run here and there, waiting upon one who
+had dawdled away the whole morning.
+
+[Illustration: THE BOAT STEAMED DOWN THE RIVER.]
+
+Will's fault was different. He had no mind of his own. He was always
+ruled by the person he happened to be with, and never could say "No" to
+anybody, no matter what his judgment or his conscience told him.
+
+He was uneasy now, and thought they ought to go that minute, but he
+played on, though he did say: "It's time to go, I know it is; the gates
+will be shut."
+
+"No, they won't be shut either," Elmer said, drawing out his watch;
+"it's exactly ten minutes before they close. We can finish this game in
+five, and have plenty of time."
+
+Watches do not always do their duty, any more than boys. Elmer's was
+five minutes slow—it must have caught the disease from him. The game
+went on. Will was going to win, he thought, and both boys grew excited
+over it; finally they fell into a slight dispute.
+
+And—what was that? The steamboat bell! Clang! Ding, dong! Both boys
+scrambled up their marbles and rushed to the gate. It was shut! They
+shouted for the gate-keeper; he was nowhere in sight.
+
+They cried to the captain, "Wait! Wait!"
+
+But the clanging of the bell was their only answer.
+
+Then the call "All aboard!"
+
+The plank was drawn in, and the boat steamed down the river, the song
+of the children floating back on the breeze.
+
+Sure enough! There they were, looking sorrowfully through the gate,
+just as Mr. Willard had said.
+
+"It was all your fault," Will said.
+
+Then he turned and ran away as fast as he could lest Elmer should see
+him crying.
+
+Elmer looked about, astonished to find himself alone and really left
+behind. He could not believe it possible that the boat would not turn
+about and take him. Everybody had always waited for him before. But
+there they were, speeding on their way. It was too much!
+
+He was angry, and "so" disappointed. Left behind! And all for those
+miserable mean marbles! He took them from his pocket and threw them as
+far as he could. He would have scolded, but there was nobody there to
+hear. He would have cried, but he thought he was too big. Oh, what a
+fool he had been! Was there ever such a fool before?
+
+He did not want to go home; he did not want to go anywhere or do
+anything. He sat down on a box and kicked his heels against it. What a
+mean old world it was!
+
+Perhaps his good angel leaned over him just then, for his thoughts took
+a sudden turn:
+
+"It was my fault," he said to himself. "I'm always too late, and
+everybody's poking at me about it. Why can't I turn about and be like
+other folks! I declare I 'will!' I'll begin this very day."
+
+He got down from his box at once and started towards home. In a little
+old-fashioned house which he passed lived auntie Simons, an old lady
+who was auntie to the whole town. She was out brushing off her front
+steps.
+
+The old lady stopped, and leaning on her broom, looked over her
+spectacles a minute to make sure that it was really Elmer.
+
+"Why, my child!" she said, as he came nearer. "What does all this mean?
+I thought you had gone to a picnic."
+
+"I got left," Elmer said, his eyes fastened on the tree trunk near him.
+
+"Now you don't say! Too bad! Well, don't look so downhearted. Come in
+and see me a spell. Come! I'm going to have flapjacks and maple syrup
+for breakfast, and I know you are half-starved by this time; didn't
+have time to snatch only a bite, now did you?"
+
+What boy could withstand the attractions of flapjacks and maple syrup?
+Besides, he really was hungry. Excitement had prevented his eating much
+breakfast, so in he went.
+
+While auntie Simons helped him bountifully to smoking hot cakes and
+golden syrup, he told her all about it—how he came to be left, and how
+he had resolved to turn over a new leaf.
+
+"Yes, it does seem foolish," the old lady said when they sat on the
+porch after breakfast, "for you to lose a whole day's pleasure just by
+waiting a little bit too long, when you might have gone as well as not;
+but what shall we say of one who puts off coming to Christ until it is
+too late? Don't you, dear boy, say 'Time enough' to that. You can't
+tell how little time there may be left. You know when the gate down by
+the wharf was shut on you, you had a chance to sit down and think it
+all over, and make up your mind that you would be all right the next
+time, anyhow; but you see when the door is shut at the last—in death—it
+is shut 'forever.' It is open now. Jesus says, 'Come.' Do not put it
+off, Elmer dear."
+
+
+
+                         A CUP OF COLD WATER.
+
+"PLEASE to get my china cup for me, Ann," Daisy said, coming in from
+the "sweet out-doors," as she called it, where she had been trying to
+read her new picture-book.
+
+Ann was shelling peas for dinner, and did not wish to be disturbed.
+
+"What do you want of your cup?" she asked crossly.
+
+"I want to get a drink for an old man."
+
+"Well, take the dipper."
+
+"No, the dipper won't do; I must have my cup, and I'm in a great hurry,
+a 'fearful' hurry," Daisy said, imitating her brother Tom.
+
+"I can't be bothered with your notions," Ann said, making her fingers
+fly very fast. "I'm in a hurry too; it's high time these peas were
+cooking; besides, what old man is it? I don't believe your mother would
+let you give a drink of water out of your cup to every old fellow that
+came along if she was at home; like enough he's a tramp."
+
+"No, he isn't a tramp; he's a 'siple. He told me so."
+
+"A 'siple!" Ann said, bursting into a laugh. "What's that?"
+
+"Why, papa read about them in the Bible. They are Jesus' servants, and
+he wants folks to give 'em a good drink of cold water when they are
+firsty."
+
+[Illustration: DAISY.]
+
+"Well, I can't help it," said Ann, laughing again. "I can't be jumping
+up from my work all the time to wait on everybody. Take a dipper, if
+you must give him a drink."
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Daisy. "I told you the dipper wouldn't do. It said a
+cup; and I want my very bufulest one—that one with little birds on it.
+Come! Do get it for me."
+
+"Can't do it," Ann said, shelling peas with all her might.
+
+Poor Daisy was hot and tired. She rested her elbows on the doorsill,
+and her chin on her hands, and looked very despairing. Two great tears
+came into her eyes, and at last she buried her face in her white apron
+and began to sob just as grandpa came along from the garden.
+
+"Tut! Tut!" said grandpa. "What's the matter with my pet?"
+
+He sat down on the step, drew Daisy to him, and wiped her warm,
+tear-stained face with his clean linen handkerchief. It took but a few
+seconds to make grandpa understand what the trouble was; then he got up
+and said:
+
+"Come and show me where it is."
+
+The sun came out again on Daisy's face, and with her hand tightly
+clasped in grandpa's, she pattered along to the dining-room closet—not
+tired a bit now.
+
+Grandpa reached down the beautiful cup, then he got a pitcher and
+filled it with good cold water, and they two went down the front walk
+as fast as they could go.
+
+When old Mr. Burton started out that morning to walk to the next town,
+he did not know what a very long, hot walk he had undertaken. He was a
+stranger, and was on his way to his son's house. When he left the cars,
+the stage had gone. He was too poor to hire a carriage to take him
+over, so he had to walk five miles in a burning sun.
+
+As he jogged along, he grew very thirsty. He wished there was a spring
+by the roadside, but there was none. He came in sight of a large white
+house on the hill, and said to himself:
+
+"I have a great notion to go in there and get a drink of water; but
+then, they are rich folks. They would take me for a tramp, and maybe
+set the dog on me."
+
+As he came slowly along, looking up at the broad lawn with cool shadows
+of the great trees over it, he spied at the front gate a little girl.
+Her rosy face was hidden away in a white sunbonnet, but her blue eyes
+looked up smilingly.
+
+"Be you a 'siple?" she asked shyly.
+
+[Illustration: GRANDPA.]
+
+"A what?" the old man said, looking down.
+
+"A 'siple. Do you love Jesus?"
+
+"Oh, you mean a disciple! Yes, little one, I belong to the Lord Jesus,"
+Mr. Burton said.
+
+"Do you want a drink of water?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, my dear."
+
+"Then I'll bring you one."
+
+And Daisy's white dress vanished among the bushes while, the tired old
+man sat on the green grass at the edge of the walk and waited.
+
+He was beginning to think he should see no more of her, when she
+appeared with a pretty china cup full of cold water; then grandpa came
+with the pitcher full, and the thirsty traveller had all the water he
+needed.
+
+Grandpa invited him into the house to get a lunch before he went.
+Then Prince was harnessed and brought round, and grandpa said he had
+promised Daisy that he would take her to ride, and they might as well
+drive toward Woodbury as anywhere. So they all got into the carriage,
+and old Prince trotted off. The road was so smooth, the air so sweet,
+and the talk so pleasant, that before they knew it, they were at
+Woodbury; and there they left Mr. Burton.
+
+He said he never should forget the little girl who brought him the cup
+of cold water, but that every day of his life he would ask God to bless
+her.
+
+The verse that Daisy meant can be found in Matthew x:42.
+
+
+
+                          ON NANTUCKET WHARF.
+
+ALL was bustle and confusion in Mrs. Maynard's house in Boston, for she
+and her daughter Mattie were going to Nantucket Beach to stay a night,
+then to the Island Home to spend a week. It was the first time Mattie
+had been on the cars, for she was only six years old, and she had been
+but very few times on the steamboat.
+
+At last they started. They were to go to New Bedford by the cars, and
+there to take a steamboat for Nantucket.
+
+They had a very pleasant time at Nantucket, and Mattie arose bright and
+early on the morning in which she was to take her ride to Island Home.
+The boat was to start at ten o'clock. There was a great crowd on the
+wharf and Mattie held tight her mother's hand for fear she might get
+lost.
+
+"Why, there is Mr. Ridgeway!" Mrs. Maynard said. "He is an old friend
+of mine and I must speak to him."
+
+And she dropped Mattie's hand, and pushed through the crowd.
+
+Mattie did not like her mother to leave her, but she stood still where
+she left her, so that she might be sure and find her when she came back.
+
+She waited there a long time, but no Mrs. Maynard was to be seen.
+Mattie was very much frightened, and tried to get back to the place
+where her mother left her, but the crowd was so great that she could
+hardly move at all, for a little girl was not noticed at all in it.
+
+After wandering about for awhile, a gruff voice called:
+
+"Passengers for the Island Home all aboard! Boat goes in ten minutes!
+All aboard! All aboard!"
+
+Everybody began to push forward, and soon the wharf was nearly empty.
+
+Mattie knew her mother had not bought her ticket, and she went up
+to the ticket-office and asked the man if a "pretty lady in a linen
+duster, with a red feather in her hat, bought a ticket for the Island
+Home?"
+
+"Do you think I keep account in a note-book of the color of all the
+folks' dresses and what kind of feathers they have on their hats?" he
+asked gruffly.
+
+Mettle did not know what to say to this, so she said nothing, but
+wandered off to the farther part of the wharf and climbed up on some
+bags that lay behind a pile of boxes there. On these she knelt down and
+said:
+
+"Dear Jesus, let mamma find me soon, and keep me safely till she comes.
+For Jesus' sake. Amen."
+
+She repeated this simple prayer many times, and then went out from
+behind the pile of boxes again. She was very thirsty, and was very glad
+when she saw a faucet and a tin cup at the side of the ticket-office.
+She took a drink and was much refreshed, but was very tired, and she
+thought she would go and rest on the bags behind the boxes. She sat
+down on these, and was soon fast asleep. She awoke about four o'clock
+in the afternoon, and as she was rubbing her eyes and wondering where
+she was, she was startled by a voice exclaiming:
+
+"And what's the loikes of this, shure?"
+
+She looked up, and saw a gruff, but kindly-seeming man looking down at
+her. He was evidently a working-man, for he had his dinner-pail in his
+hand, and was leaning on a pick-axe and shovel.
+
+Said Mattie:
+
+"I'm Mattie Maynard, and I'm lost. That is, mamma left me on the wharf
+in the crowd, and didn't come back, and I'm awful hungry."
+
+"And shure and me name is not Patrick O' Flannigan if I don't give ye
+something to eat. Poor gir-r-l!"
+
+Whereupon he opened his pail and offered her a generous ham sandwich.
+
+"Oh, thank you ever so much!" cried Mattie, as she took a large bite.
+
+True, the bread was sour and the butter was strong, but Mattie was so
+hungry that she did not notice the defects in the food. Patrick sat
+down on the bags and watched her eat with great interest.
+
+"An' ye can eat now, can't ye? Poor little gir-r-l! But I must be
+a-goin', shure!"
+
+And he got up and went off the wharf.
+
+There were many steamboats coming and going at Nantucket wharf, and
+Mattie climbed up on the boxes and watched the crowds as they passed by.
+
+But at last night came on, and Mattie did not know what to do. She
+crept in among the bags, and covered herself up, but they smelled bad,
+and she knew she could not sleep on them all night. She thought once
+she would ask the ticket agent to let her stay in the ticket-office,
+but he had spoken so crossly to her that morning that she did not like
+to. She was not very sleepy, because of the long nap she had taken in
+the daytime, and wandered about on the wharf till about eleven o'clock,
+and then she went and sat down on the bags and fell asleep.
+
+[Illustration: THE ISLAND HOME LEAVES THE WHARF.]
+
+When she woke up, the morning sun was streaming into her eyes, and from
+the hurrying to and fro of many feet, she knew that the morning steamer
+had come in from the Island Home. She got up and watched the crowd, for
+she thought maybe her mother might have gone to the Island Home, after
+all, and had come back.
+
+Sure enough! Just as the crowd had passed, she saw the "red feather" on
+her mother's hat and gave a little scream of delight as she saw her go
+over and speak to the ticket agent. She ran eagerly over to her, pulled
+her dress and called:
+
+"Mamma! Mamma! Here I am!"
+
+Her mother turned suddenly and caught her in her arms and cried:
+
+"My darling child!"
+
+Then the whole story came out. Mrs. Maynard had been detained about
+half an hour in getting through the crowd, and when she finally came
+to where she had left Mattie, and she was not there, she was very much
+frightened, and found Mr. Ridgeway again, and told him about it.
+
+They followed the crowd into town, and, following them everywhere,
+ascertained that she was not among them. They anxiously turned back to
+the wharf just, as the steamer pulled up, and the crowd began to rush
+on board. They hoped that Mattie might also have gone on the steamer,
+and went through it hunting for her. But while they were hunting, the
+boat started, and Mrs. Maynard was obliged to stay at the Island Home
+all night, and was just coming off the steamer when she was discovered
+by Mattie. They took the ten o'clock boat for the Island Home, and
+spent a very happy week there. But as Mattie was going to bed that
+night, she said:
+
+"Mamma, I want to tell you something."
+
+"Well, darling?"
+
+"I asked God to have you find me, and to keep me safe till you did, and
+I think that is the reason you did."
+
+"Yes, darling, I think so too; and I thank him very much for sparing my
+Mattie to me. Let us kneel down and tell him so now."
+
+
+
+                               LILY DAY.
+
+IT was surprising, how many people were of the same mind that week.
+The cause of it was lilies. It seemed as if there must have been a
+convention of lilies held in Fairview at that time, for they were out
+in full glory.
+
+The tall tiger lilies blazed and glowed in the sunshine; the day lilies
+opened their white bells, the yellow lilies gleamed like gold, and away
+down on Silver Lake, lovely pond lilies, cool, and pure, and white,
+with golden hearts, lay amid broad green leaves.
+
+The people who first got the idea in their heads that it would be nice
+to put some lilies in the church that week, were very young people. In
+fact, it came into one little head first—Kitty Grey's.
+
+And how could she help thinking up all manner of splendid plans, when
+she lived so near to the beautiful lake that from her window up-stairs
+she could look across to the other shore and see here and there white
+blossoms on the water. She clapped her hands with joy when she first
+discovered them, and ran down-stairs crying:
+
+"They're out! They're out! Mamma, can't Ray and I go in the boat and
+get some pond lilies right away now?"
+
+Silver Lake was a shallow little thing—a saucerful of water, papa
+said—and Ray, though a little fellow, could manage a boat nicely. Mamma
+readily gave consent, and it was but a few minutes before Kitty sat in
+the stern of the boat, drawing her hand through the water, her very
+dearest friend Mabel in the bow, and Ray rowing with all his might to
+the spot where those wonderful lilies floated white and fair.
+
+"I know what we'll do," Kitty said, as they filled the large basket
+they had brought with them as full as it could hold. "We'll trim the
+church for to-morrow."
+
+"So we will," said Mabel.
+
+And Ray said:
+
+"All right; that will be splendid. I'll get a lot of ferns to put with
+these."
+
+About that time, old Mrs. Parks was walking her garden, trimming off
+dead leaves and cutting flowers. She came along to a large bunch of red
+lilies, and clipped them off.
+
+"We haven't had any flowers in church this long time," she said to
+herself. "I'll just send these over. They are such handsome things,
+it's a pity everybody shouldn't enjoy them."
+
+So she brought them into the house, got down from the top shelf of the
+pantry an old blue pitcher, and putting her flowers in it, filled it
+with water, promising herself to take them to the parsonage between
+daylight and dark.
+
+"Cinthy's tasty, and she can fix them up in shape for the church," she
+said.
+
+Cynthia Morrow was the minister's daughter. She herself had a plan for
+making the little church beautiful—to smile a welcome to the Sabbath
+morning.
+
+Down at the end of the garden was a plot of day lilies. They belonged
+to her. She had put them out herself, and watched and watered them,
+and waited for them, and now this week they blossomed out in queenly
+beauty. She intended to surprise her father next morning. How pleased
+he would be to find his favorite flower on the pulpit desk, its pure
+whiteness and its rare sweetness sending up incense with the songs of
+praise.
+
+The next one who gathered lilies was Miss Alice Lynde. She was a young
+lady from New York, spending the summer with her uncle in Fairview.
+
+Miss Alice took long walks every day over the fields and hills, and so
+her cheeks, which were pale when she came from the city, were getting
+to be the color of wild roses.
+
+This morning her walk happened to be longer than usual. She went
+farther out into the country than she had ever been before, lured on by
+a glimpse of bright yellow flowers she could see in the distance. They
+turned out to be lilies. Miss Alice was delighted. She filled her arms
+with them at once, thinking while she chose the finest blossoms what a
+lovely bouquet she would make for the church.
+
+It would seem as if all the people who had been gathering lilies that
+day had made an appointment to meet at the church after tea that
+evening, but they never had, though they all met.
+
+Nobody felt quite at liberty to carry their flowers to the church. It
+might look as if they had set up to interfere with somebody's else
+arrangements. So all made their way to the parsonage at that pleasant
+time between the day and night when country people run in to see each
+other.
+
+Each one found that Cynthia was already at the church; gone to carry
+over some flowers, her mother said.
+
+What was Cynthia's surprise, as she stood on the platform arranging her
+vases, to see Kitty and Ray come in tugging a large basket full of pond
+lilies and ferns.
+
+"Oh, what beauties! I am so glad you brought them," Cynthia was saying
+when Mrs. Parks put her head in at the door.
+
+"I s'pose you've got flowers enough without these," she said, holding
+out a great bunch of red lilies.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed!" Cynthia said. "How pretty they will be with the white
+ones! I wish we had somebody to help us arrange them."
+
+While they were all bending over the flowers admiring them, a little
+rustle was heard, and when they looked up, there was Miss Alice gliding
+softly down the aisle with a great sheaf of yellow lilies in her arms.
+She made a pretty picture to the children's eyes, her white dress and
+white hat, her smiling face, and the lovely flowers.
+
+Their admiring "O—h—" was not meant for the flowers alone.
+
+"I should say that all the lilies in the country have agreed to come
+here and hold a meeting," said Mrs. Parks.
+
+Miss Alice pulled off her gloves and went to work. She knew just how
+to arrange flowers. Mrs. Parks went home for some pans, Ray went for
+water, and Kitty hunted up some vases, while Cynthia sorted the flowers.
+
+How lovely it was when all was done! There was a bank of pond lilies
+and ferns just under the pulpit. There was a mound of red and white
+lilies on the table, and vases on the desk of pure white and green
+only. Cynthia said that must be so. And then there was a masterpiece
+of beauty, made by Miss Alice's skilful fingers—a sort of pyramid of
+flowers, all colors mingled, with feathery ferns drooping about the
+whole.
+
+
+Next morning at church everybody was surprised, because, as a rule,
+they did not have flowers in church at Fairview, beyond a simple
+handful in a vase. Nobody, though, was more surprised than the
+self-appointed flower committee themselves were when the minister's
+text was announced. They could not resist smiling at each other.
+
+You see Mr. Morrow had been noticing the flowers rather more than usual
+that week. Even while he was considering what his text should be, his
+eye fell on a cluster of tall white lilies. He found himself studying
+their graceful shapes, their whiteness and fragrance, and then began
+to wonder at the thought that the same great God who made the worlds,
+made the tiny flowers, and that he took so much pains, making so many
+different shapes and colors, each with its own rare fragrance, to
+please us because he loves us.
+
+It was not strange, then, that Mr. Morrow's text should be, "Consider
+the lilies."
+
+
+
+                           THE GREENLANDER.
+
+GREENLAND is a very cold country, much colder than it is here. For
+three months in the year the sun is never seen; and for nearly nine
+months the land is covered all over with snow. We have plenty of nice
+fruit in summer, and many good things all the year round; but the poor
+Greenlanders live mostly on seal's flesh, blubber, and oil.
+
+Poor, poor Greenlanders, they live so miserably; and, what is much
+worse, many of them know nothing whatever of Jesus and his love! But
+God loves them; for He loved the world, and gave "his only begotten
+Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
+everlasting life," so that, if a Greenlander hears of Jesus, he too may
+be saved.
+
+Now, some good men pitied the poor heathen in Greenland, and thought
+they would like to go and tell them of Jesus, how he was born in
+Bethlehem, how good and kind He was to every one, how He gave sight to
+the blind, healed the sick, raised the dead, how He died on the Cross
+for sinners, how He went to the grave and then to Heaven, how He will
+come again.
+
+Well, they went to Greenland and labored there for eight long, weary
+years. At last they got tired laboring so long without any apparent
+success, and thought upon returning to their homes. They had suffered a
+great deal from cold and hunger, and the people only laughed at them,
+and mocked them. But these dear missionaries had made a great mistake,
+for instead of telling the people as they meant to do of Jesus and his
+great love in dying and rising again from the dead, telling the sweet,
+sweet story of the Cross, they found them so very ignorant that the
+missionaries thought to begin with proving that God lives, and that He
+made all things. Now, this was a great mistake, for we are sinners, and
+we need to know—not that God is the Creator, but that "God is love,"
+and that Jesus died.
+
+One day a party of heathen Greenlanders came to the missionary village.
+They were led by a cruel and wicked Greenlander named Kajarnak, and
+entered the hut where the missionary was writing. He was finishing his
+final correction of the Four Gospels, and was at the moment engaged
+on that part of John's Gospel relating to the sufferings and death of
+Christ. Kajarnak was surprised at seeing the missionary writing, and at
+once asked him what he was doing.
+
+"Writing."
+
+"Writing!" said Kajarnak. "What is writing?"
+
+The missionary tried to explain it to him, and then said, "I will read
+you what I have been writing."
+
+He read the account of Christ's agony in the garden, and then upon the
+Cross, with the story of his being crowned, scourged, and spit upon. As
+he read, Kajarnak became interested.
+
+"And why," he asked, "did they treat the man so? What had he done?"
+
+"Oh!" said the missionary. "This man did nothing amiss, but Kajarnak
+did. Kajarnak filled the land with wickedness; and Kajarnak deserved to
+go to hell for it. But this man suffered all this to bear Kajarnak's
+punishment, that Kajarnak might not go to hell."
+
+And then the missionary went on to tell about God's love, man's sin,
+and Christ's work for sinners, till the big tears were seen to roll
+down the poor heathen's cheeks, and unable any longer to restrain his
+feelings, he cried—
+
+"Oh! Tell it all over again, for I, too, would like to be saved."
+
+He was told it all over again—it was such a sweet story. Kajarnak
+believed the good news. His heart was drawn to Christ. He loved him.
+Kajarnak was saved.
+
+Are you saved, dear young reader? You have often heard and often read
+of Jesus and of his sufferings. Perhaps, too, you have often wept as
+you thought of the cruel men scourging Jesus and spitting on his face.
+But though you cry very much, it won't save you. The blood of Jesus
+puts sin away, and nothing else will do it.
+
+Will you now love Jesus? Poor Kajarnak, from "Greenland's icy
+mountains," with a heart colder than the ice, and darker than the
+darkest night, yet came to Jesus, believed in God's love, and was saved.
+
+How I long that all my dear young readers too would seek the same
+Saviour, and love the Jesus that loved Kajarnak, the Greenlander.
+
+
+
+                          SOME YOUNG HEROES.
+
+IN a certain school, a knot of boys had their heads together disputing
+about something. You could never guess what it was if you tried. It
+would all have seemed strange to you: the schoolroom, the teacher, and
+the scholars—their odd dress and odder speech. It was in far-off Asia,
+and the scholars were not orderly as ours. The boys talked when they
+pleased, and made so much din that one could scarcely hear themselves
+think.
+
+Missionaries had come to this city and opened schools and churches to
+teach the people that they must worship God alone, and that Jesus died
+to save them.
+
+When the natives found that their boys were beginning to stray into
+Protestant schools, they said, "We must start schools of our own," and
+so they started one. But it was too late; some of the boys had already
+learned to love Jesus, sing sweet hymns, and read the Bible.
+
+The teacher in this school was a very bitter enemy of the new religion,
+so he listened sharply that day when he heard a discussion going on
+among the boys. It was not in our language, but it was something like
+this.
+
+One boy said it was not right to worship pictures of saints, nor to
+kiss them, and burn candles before them.
+
+Another one said: "It 'is' right; it's the only true religion."
+
+Others joined in with the first boy, and said it was wrong, and that we
+must worship none but God.
+
+Then the dispute grew warmer, and there were cries of "Heretic!
+Heretic! Mean old heretic! Mean old Protestant!" and so on.
+
+The teacher had made up his mind that this thing must be stopped; that
+the boys must not go any more where they would hear such bad doctrine,
+so he said in a loud, strong voice:
+
+"Boys, stand up!"
+
+They all stood up.
+
+"Now let all the Protestants step out."
+
+He did not suppose that any one would dare to confess to him that he
+was a Protestant, but those little Christians must have remembered the
+solemn words of the Saviour, how he said:
+
+   "If any men will confess me on the earth I also will confess him before
+my father which is in heaven."
+
+There was a moment's pause, then seven little fellows stepped out. The
+teacher was amazed.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE SCHOLARS.]
+
+"What!" he said. "Don't you believe in worshiping the pictures of
+saints?"
+
+"No, sir, we don't; mad please, sir," said the bravest of them all, "if
+Jesus wanted us to worship pictures of the saints, wouldn't he have
+left us his own picture to worship?"
+
+This was an unanswerable argument, but the tyrant teacher did not let
+them know how they had cornered him.
+
+He said, "Boys, how shall these heretics be punished?"
+
+And the boys decided they must be "spit upon."
+
+So the whole school formed a procession and marched around those seven,
+spitting upon them as they went.
+
+"Now sing!" the teacher said, and all the school except the seven
+struck up one of their patriotic songs.
+
+"Sing, I tell you!" he said to the seven.
+
+"We will, if you will sing the songs of Jesus," was the grand answer of
+the martyrs.
+
+"Sing it yourselves!" said the teacher.
+
+And, wonderful to tell, this sweet song came to the ears of the
+astonished teacher:
+
+   "Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
+    And all the world go free?
+    No, there's a cross for every one,
+    And there's a cross for me."
+
+
+
+                          THE SECRET OF IT.
+
+ONE October afternoon Frank Stevens was gathering apples in his
+father's orchard. Great piles of golden pippins and rosy Baldwins lay
+under the trees, waiting to be sorted and packed in the barrels that
+were standing near. His brother Kent, many years older than himself,
+was helping. It so happened that their work lay for a time near the
+main road where people came and went. Leaning against the fence was Mr.
+Marvin, who had stopped for a little neighborly chat.
+
+Down the hill, trotting leisurely along, came a black pony. On his back
+was Harry Porter, one of Frank's schoolmates. He, too, drew up by the
+fence, and as he called, "Halloo, Frank!" cast a longing eye at the red
+apples.
+
+After chatting a few minutes, he trotted off again, an apple in his
+hand, and two in each pocket.
+
+"That's a splendid boy!" said Mr. Kent Stevens.
+
+"Yes; there's the making of a fine man in him," answered Mr. Marvin;
+"he's uncommonly bright, I noticed him at the examination last spring;
+clear as a bell he was, working hard examples and talking off the
+explanation as glibly as the professor himself. I reckon it would have
+puzzled some of us committee to have done it."
+
+Frank listened in silence as the talk went on while he sorted the fair
+apples from the knurly. He had a gloomy, cross look on his face, as
+though his thoughts were not pleasant ones, and he did not work in his
+usual brisk way.
+
+When Mr. Marvin went away, his thoughts came out.
+
+"No wonder," he said, "that Harry Porter is always praised up so. He
+has some chance in the world. His father is rich; he has a new book
+every time he turns around; his father never goes away but he brings
+him one; then he goes travelling. He has been out West and been to
+Boston and New York. He has been on the top of Pike's Peak, and he has
+seen Bunker Hill monument and the obelisk. Why shouldn't he know more
+than any of the rest of us? He has lots of time besides, to study, and
+have fun, too. Out of school he needn't do anything but trot about on
+that pony. What's the use of a fellow like me trying to make anything
+of himself?"
+
+It was not such a very long time ago that Kent Stevens had been a boy
+himself, even if he was now a young lawyer in the city. He came every
+summer to the old home for a play spell, he called it, and then he
+proved that he had not forgotten how to rake hay and pick apples. He
+had not forgotten, either, how a boy feels, so he was excellent company
+for Frank. He placed the last apple in a closely packed barrel, then he
+turned and looked curiously at his brother.
+
+"Why, Frank! What has got into you to-day?" he said. "You don't seem
+one bit like our bright cheery boy. Do you think you are one of the
+fellows who has no chance? Let us sit down in this sunny spot and rest
+ourselves, and count up some of your chances.—A good home, a splendid
+father and mother—to say nothing of a very wise brother—a few good
+books, a weekly newspaper, a church and Sabbath-school, an excellent,
+day-school, good eyes and ears and stomach, a pair of legs that can run
+like a squirrel, two strong arms, and a very good mind, and here you
+talk of not having 'chances!'
+
+"How do yours look when you cast your eye at little Tim Morey with a
+drunken father and a shanty for a home, or at Johnny Wilson, who is
+almost blind, or poor Will Smith who must go for the rest of his life
+on crutches and suffer much pain? Or compare your lot with the boys who
+work in the factory, who must go to their work at seven in the morning
+and stay until seven in the evening, day after day, year after year.
+What about their chances? Don't you know, dear boy, that as a rule, it
+is not boys with rich fathers who turn out to be the greatest men?
+
+"Look at me," he said, straightening himself up and marching about with
+mock pompousness. "Haven't I put the sweat of my brow and my muscle
+into this old farm? Didn't I get out of my bed at cock-crowing and go
+after the cows in wet grass up to my knees?
+
+"Haven't I milked and ploughed and planted corn and hoed it and husked
+it? And yet, I got through and had no more hard work than was good for
+me, I believe now, though I used to grumble sometimes just as you are
+doing now.
+
+"I tell you, my boy, it is not in having this or that, or going here
+and there, that makes a success, but it is improving, to the very
+utmost, the advantages one has, though they be not the best.
+
+"There is another secret too. One must be in dead earnest; must have an
+aim and stick to it in spite of anything, and the greatest secret of
+all is, that aim must not be alone to be a rich man or a learned man,
+but it must be this—'to make the very most of one's self for Christ's
+sake.' And you can't begin too young; the younger the better.
+
+"I heard something about two men the other day, that is just in point
+here—but perhaps you are tired of my preaching and want to go in."
+
+"Oh no, tell it," said Frank. "You know I would rather have you preach
+to me than anybody else."
+
+"Well, a good many years ago two boys lived in the same town and went
+to the same school. They both had pretty good advantages and were
+naturally bright and clear-headed. All the difference between them
+was, that from the time they were very little fellows, John was always
+laying plans to have a 'good time.'
+
+"Will loved fun as well as he did, but in both fun and work, his chief
+aim was to be right and true.
+
+"As they grew up to be young men, Will held fast to the choice he had
+made when a little boy.
+
+"The Lord Jesus Christ was his master.
+
+"John had an entirely different master; he shirked his lessons, and
+wasted his time and money in what he called 'fun.'
+
+"When school days were over, one of them had a fine start in his
+education, but poor John was almost a dunce, it was surprising how
+little he knew thoroughly.
+
+"When Will went into business, he made a resolution in the very
+beginning to give a certain part of his money to the Lord's work,
+whether he made much or little. He was prospered, and he grew to be
+a rich, strong man, foremost in every good work; everybody loved and
+honored him. He was a grand temperance worker, and he gave great sums
+to the poor and helped educate many young men for the ministry. The
+more he gave away the richer he grew, but he kept giving, and for some
+time before his death it is said that he gave away a thousand dollars a
+day!
+
+"Will was William E. Dodge who died a few weeks ago in the city. You
+remember the papers were filled with accounts of him. Nobody could say
+a word against him, and the whole city was in mourning.
+
+"It is strange that as the boys came into the world about the same
+time, they left it within a few days of each other. But oh! so
+differently. There were no weeping friends at John's funeral. Nobody
+said over his coffin, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' Not
+one cried, 'How shall his place be filled.'
+
+"John had become a miserable sot. Nearly all his old friends had
+lost sight of him. He lived without God, and so he died without
+him, miserable and alone, and he was carried to his grave from the
+almshouse—just a rough pine box in a cart—and that was the last of
+John, for this life.
+
+"Don't you see, Frank, that under God's blessing, every boy has it in
+his own power to choose whether his life shall be lived and ended like
+John's or like William E. Dodge's?"
+
+"It was a good sermon, Kent," Frank said soberly, as they walked up to
+the house. "It helps me; I'll not forget."
+
+
+
+                       THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.
+
+HOW often Grace and Nellie had heard these words.
+
+"I'm sick to death of them," said Nellie. "I am going to try to have
+the most fun I can to-morrow, and I'll risk but what I'll be happy
+enough."
+
+"And I am going to try grandma's way of having fun to-morrow. Just for
+a change, I am going to do everything 'exactly right.' She seems so
+sure that that way is the best. Do you suppose there are any good plays
+or jolly times for little girls who always do every thing 'perfectly
+right?'"
+
+"Why, no, Gracie! You know that if you are going to be very good
+to-morrow, you ought to sew on papa's handkerchief, so as to finish it
+for his birthday present. I can't finish mine, for I've planned to go
+sailing on Tom's raft on the duck pond. I shall take all my dolls, land
+on the little island, and pull of my shoes and stockings, and play I
+am Robinson Crusoe, and the ducks will be the savages, and when they
+come swimming towards me, I shall hide in the bushes, or else jump on
+the raft and push out to sea. You had better come too, and be my man
+Friday."
+
+"But, Nellie, you know mamma said for us not to play on the duck pond,
+for we always wet our feet."
+
+"Yes; but I shall wear rubbers this time, and it was last week she said
+that; she did not say we should not play there to-morrow."
+
+"Well! You must play there alone, for I am going to try grandma's way
+of being happy for one whole day, and if I don't like it, next day I
+will play on the duck pond."
+
+These two little girls were twin sisters, eight years old. They were
+pretty, bright, and full of fun, and now they were going to have a
+week's vacation; a whole week without study, and they had planned plays
+enough to last most little girls three weeks.
+
+But last night grandma had told them a long and interesting story about
+a boy who always did just as he pleased in every thing. He was selfish
+and disobedient, but he was never happy. At last he was so unhappy and
+miserable, that he made up his mind to give up his naughty ways and to
+be a good boy, and behold, everything was changed.
+
+"So you see, my dears, as I have often told you, in order to be happy,
+you must be good."
+
+[Illustration: NELLIE LEFT AT HOME.]
+
+"I am sick of that sort of stories," said Nellie.
+
+"I am going to try for one day to see if I can be happy by being good,"
+said Gracie thoughtfully.
+
+
+The next morning dawned bright and warm.
+
+"Such a lovely day for my play," said Nellie, as she tucked a big piece
+of cake in her pocket, and with her arms full of dollies, went dancing
+off across the fields to the pond.
+
+"That child can't be going to the pond, after all I said the other
+day," said mamma, glancing anxiously after Nellie.
+
+"Oh no!" said grandma. "She is probably going to play in the grove by
+the side of it."
+
+"And so my little Grace is going to finish her present for papa's
+birthday," said mamma with a pleased look at the little girl, who was
+stitching away in the window.
+
+"I feel a little bit happy now," thought Gracie, as she saw her
+mother's smiling face. But it was a long hour, and the little fingers
+felt very lame before the handkerchief was done, but at last the last
+stitch was taken, and it was carefully folded and a card marked, "Papa
+from Gracie," pinned on it, all ready to put by his plate to-morrow
+morning at breakfast.
+
+"Children, do you want to go with me to spend the day at aunt Mary's?"
+calls papa, from the doorway. "Just put on your hats; the horse is
+harnessed, and I am waiting. Where is Nellie?"
+
+At that moment Nellie came in at the door, wet and dirty, with the
+blood dropping from a cut on her forehead, and crying bitterly.
+
+"Oh, my poor little girl, where have you been?" said mamma, as she
+wiped the blood from her face.
+
+"I was Robinson Crusoe," sobbed Nellie, "and the cake was my
+provisions, and when the savages saw my cake they came swimming and
+flying all on to my raft; then I tried to push them off, and I tumbled
+right into the water and mud, and they got my cake; and my dollies are
+drowned."
+
+"So you went to the duck pond to play; you knew better than that," said
+mamma sternly.
+
+"If she has disobeyed you, she must stay at home," said papa. "Come,
+Gracie!"
+
+In a moment they were driving along the beautiful shady road that led
+to aunt Mary's. At first, Gracie felt too sorry for Nellie to be very
+happy. But her father, noticing her sad face, told her that if Nellie
+was a good girl, he would take her next week, and then he told so many
+funny stories about himself when he was a little boy, that it was not
+long before she was laughing merrily.
+
+What a welcome they had at aunt Mary's.
+
+"We knew you were coming to-day," said Katie, who was Gracie's cousin,
+"and we are freezing ice-cream down cellar."
+
+Then they took their dolls and played happily together all day long.
+When Gracie was riding home she told her father that she had never had
+such a happy day before in her life.
+
+"Oh, such a lovely time as I have had!" she exclaimed, as she bounded
+into the house.
+
+Grandma was rocking Nellie in her arms, and was just finishing her
+evening story.
+
+"And so you see, my dear, that just as soon as Jacob made up his mind
+to be a good boy, all his troubles ended. Everybody loved him, and he
+was very happy and good."
+
+"I like your kind of stories to-night, grandma," said Nellie softly, in
+the old lady's ear, "and I am going to be good to be happy all the rest
+of the week."
+
+"Say all the rest of your life, my dear," whispered back grandma.
+
+
+
+                      THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.
+
+YOU'VE never seen a palace? Why, my dears, you have seen a great many.
+Sit round me here, and I will tell you about one, the ruins of which
+you saw this morning. In some respects it was quite remarkable; not
+much like the one Queen Victoria lives in.
+
+This palace had six walls, and only one room. There were three inner
+walls, and three outer ones, and wherever two inner walls met, an outer
+wall covered the place. The people who dwelt in the palace called the
+walls the "Perianth." Each of the inner walls were called a "petal,"
+and each of the outer ones a "sepal." They were covered outside and
+inside with snowy white silk, filled with the most delicious perfume.
+There were no windows, for each wall tapered to a point at, the upper
+end, and drooped over the outside of the palace, leaving it, open to
+the light and the pure air.
+
+A house of so delicate a fabric could not rest on the ground without
+being soiled by the dust and dirt of the earth, so it was held far
+aloft on a slender, green column. It did not stand upright like Queen
+Victoria's palace, but it leaned over toward the ground, so that when
+the rain came down, none should remain in the palace and drown the
+people. They would have fallen out, too, had they not been made as fast
+to the floor as were the walls of the palace.
+
+That seems dreadful to you little people who take such delight in
+running about on your little feet. But they were very well contented to
+remain where they were and only look out upon the world, for they would
+have died had they left their beautiful home.
+
+The throne covered nearly all the floor of the palace; and the king
+stood on the centre of it. His head reached far above the walls, for he
+was very tall, and very straight and slender. He wore a robe of pale
+green, and on his head was an emerald insignia, more like a helmet than
+a crown. It was divided into three parts. One part drooped over and
+rested against the back of his head, one part against the right side,
+and one against the left.
+
+There stood around the throne six tall men dressed in white, bearing
+salvers of gold-dust on their heads. They called the salvers "anthers,"
+and the gold-dust "pollen," but it was not like the gold-dust you saw
+at the jeweler's.
+
+I want you to notice how the number three figured in nearly everything.
+It was a sacred number with them. There were three inner walls, and
+three outer ones. Six (two threes) tall men, and the king's crown was
+divided into three parts.
+
+A strange thing about the tall men was that one could not be
+distinguished from another, so near alike were they, and they were each
+named "Stamen." Although they were very tall, they were not so tall as
+their king. They were very faithful servants, looking always up to him
+to know his commands.
+
+When the wind blew a little, they bowed down before King Pistil, and
+the salvers swung back and forth, causing tiny clouds of gold-dust to
+rise and fall upon him. Then he was glad, and bowed to them, that they
+might see that he was pleased with them. For he only required them to
+sprinkle a little gold-dust upon him, then he made it into pieces of
+money and packed them away into three large boxes under his throne.
+
+But sometimes this frail palace was at the mercy of the great winds. It
+swayed to and fro before them, tossing the tall men about so they could
+not prevent some of the gold-dust falling on the walls.
+
+Then King Pistil trembled with grief at seeing the gold-dust being
+wasted, and the tall men leaned toward him trying to comfort him.
+
+Then the rain came, and fell into the palace, and washed it clean, and
+bathed the king and his servants; and when the sun shone again, they
+sparkled all over with diamonds.
+
+But some strange people passing by stopped to admire them, and to
+inhale their sweet fragrance; and one of the palaces with all its
+inmates was carried away by them. Then there was mourning, for they
+knew it was certain death to any of them if their palace was taken from
+the column on which it rested.
+
+King Pistil's money increased until the boxes could hold no more; and
+the throne began to creak as though it would fall apart. The walls of
+the palace were falling away too. The tall men looked old and feeble;
+and the king felt himself growing weak and infirm, and he knew that
+he soon must die. So he unlocked his money boxes, that after he was
+gone, they might open, and the money be scattered far and near, and
+other palaces spring up, and other kings live, as he had lived, giving
+pleasure to all who came near.
+
+Very soon after, the king and his servants died, the boxes burst open
+showing them well filled with money. Some of it fell on the ground
+under the palace, that another might spring up there in memory of King
+Pistil; and some of it was carried a long distance by the wind before
+it was dropped on the ground.
+
+Now, my dears, let us go into the garden, and look at the white lilies,
+and see if my story of their king and his palace is correct. Tell
+me, if you can, how his money differed from ours. Why it had to be
+scattered on the ground, and what it was called by King Pistil.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 ***
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+      A Day in the Country and Other Stories, by Pansy Alden │ Project Gutenberg
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+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 ***</div>
+
+<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p>
+
+<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
+public domain.</p>
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002">
+</figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>NANNIE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h1>A DAY IN THE COUNTRY</h1>
+
+<p class="t1">
+<br>
+<b>AND OTHER STORIES</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+FROM<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+"THE PANSY"<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image003" style="max-width: 25.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image003.jpg" alt="image003">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+BOSTON<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+FRANKLIN AND HAWLEY STREETS<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+Copyright by<br>
+<br>
+D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY<br>
+<br>
+1885<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+CONTENTS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_1">A DAY IN THE COUNTRY.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_2">WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_3">NANNIE'S LESSON.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_4">FOOLISH CHILDREN.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_5">SOME CURIOUS FISHES.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_6">TIME ENOUGH.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_7">A CUP OF COLD WATER.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_8">ON NANTUCKET WHARF.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_9">LILY DAY.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_10">THE GREENLANDER.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_11">SOME YOUNG HEROES.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_12">THE SECRET OF IT.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_13">THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#St_14">THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.</a></p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t2">
+<b><em>A DAY IN THE COUNTRY</em></b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+<br>
+<b><em>AND OTHER STORIES</em></b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_1">A DAY IN THE COUNTRY.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>THEY were on their way to Sabbath-school that pleasant September
+morning. Maggie and Lottie Barnes, Delia and Sallie Shaw. They lived in
+the city of Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Because they lived in a large city, do not go and make a picture in
+your mind of four little ladies with new fall suits of silk or velvet,
+or soft cashmere, and new hats with nodding plumes or flying ribbons,
+and trim boots, very high, and trim gloves very long, and many buttons
+everywhere, because that will not be at all a true picture.</p>
+
+<p>Their dresses were all faded and worn. Maggie wore an old black shawl
+of her mother's, that trailed a little on the ground. Delia considered
+herself royally arrayed in a rusty old black velvet sack much too large
+for her, while Lottie had no protection front the cool autumn air but a
+soiled and faded blue silk handkerchief spread over her shoulders, her
+hat, in spite of being loaded down with purple ribbon and red roses,
+went sailing off her head with every gust of wind that came along,
+because it had no rubber on it. Then poor Sallie had on low shoes much
+too large for her. They would keep getting down at the heel and coming
+off as she clattered along, and she had often to stoop over and adjust
+them. With these hindrances of hat and shoes of course they could not,
+you see, go on in a very orderly manner.</p>
+
+<p>They were discussing something in very loud tones. Nobody had ever told
+them it was rude to talk loud in the streets.</p>
+
+<p>They were bemoaning the fact that all the girls they knew except
+themselves, had been to the country to spend a few days.</p>
+
+<p>"I wanted to go so much," little Sallie said, tugging at her shoe as
+she spoke; "I wanted to see some flowers growing. I should think we
+might have gone as well as the rest," said Delia. "I think it's mean to
+skip us."</p>
+
+<p>"The money give out," said Lottie, clutching at her hat to prevent its
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>"Money is the matter with most everything," Maggie said, drawing her
+shawl closer about her with a grown-up air, and a grown-up sigh.</p>
+
+<p>The money of which the children talked was "The Fresh Air Fund," a sum
+of money that good men and women raised to give poor children who live
+in the great city a chance to go into the country for a few days, and
+breathe the sweet air, run on the grass, pick flowers, and drink fresh
+milk, all about which they knew nothing. This Mission School was very
+large, but nearly all had been to the country; some for two whole weeks.</p>
+
+<p>By some means these little girls had been overlooked.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Eastman, their teacher, had been absent from her class for six
+weeks, and all were glad to see her pleasant face in the teacher's
+chair this morning.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I suppose you must first tell me what a fine time you had in the
+country," she said "but as our class is so large, we shall not be able
+to hear a story from each one. Let all who had a good time in the
+country raise their hands."</p>
+
+<p>The hands went up instantly—all except four.</p>
+
+<p>They sat together, so Mrs. Eastman had no trouble in seeing their hands
+were not raised, and that they did not wear the bright look of the
+other children.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter here?" she asked kindly. "No hands up this end of
+the class? Maggie, Lottie, how is it? Did you not like the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"We never went to no country," the little girls responded in a chorus.</p>
+
+<p>After Mrs. Eastman had inquired all about it, and heard how much they
+wished to go, and said how sorry she was that it had happened so, she
+wrote down very carefully their names, and just where they lived.</p>
+
+<p>Then she asked them if they had ever told Jesus about it.</p>
+
+<p>"No, we never did," they said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear little girls," she said, "don't you know when you have
+trouble, there is where you must take it? You must tell Jesus to-night
+how much you want to go to the country, and ask him to send you. You
+know it would not be a good thing for you to go for a long visit, now
+that your schools have opened, but if you could go for one day, would
+you not like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, yes!" they all answered again.</p>
+
+<p>"Well you ask him, and then wait and see what he will do."</p>
+
+<p>It was almost as good as going to the country to have such loving eyes
+look into theirs, and say, "My dear little girls!" They all promised to
+do as she wished them to.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how it'll be done," Maggie said, on the way home, "when
+the money is all gone; but teacher said Jesus could do hard things."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Monday was a long day, because these little girls were expecting
+something to happen. For had not teacher said, "Ask Jesus, and see what
+he will do for you?"</p>
+
+<p>Sun enough, great news was waiting them when they got home. Maggie and
+Lottie came running over to Mrs. Shaw's all out of breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that!" said Maggie, holding out a note written on rose tinted
+paper, in letters almost as plain as print.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that!" said Sallie, holding up the mate to it.</p>
+
+<p>"Teacher's been to our house," said Maggie.</p>
+
+<p>"And teacher's been to our house!" Sallie responded triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>These notes from "Teacher" were invitations for the little girls to
+spend the day with her at her country home on Saturday. They were
+to take the seven o'clock train at the Old Colony station, and ride
+about fifteen miles, and there Mrs. Eastman would be waiting with her
+carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Think of that! A carriage waiting for them!</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>The day came at last. Great had been the preparations all the week;
+each Sunday dress had been made as nice as washing, ironing and mending
+could make it. And they were all at the-depot by half-past six, in a
+high state of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>The day was perfect. They enjoyed every minute of the ride in the cars.
+The conductor had orders to leave them at a certain station. No sooner
+had they stepped from the cars, than they saw the smiling face of their
+teacher. They were soon seated in a handsome carriage and rolling
+over a smooth road. The air was sweet and pure, the birds sang, the
+squirrels skipped about in the trees, and the golden October sunshine
+made the world beautiful that morning.</p>
+
+<p>"So you told Jesus about it, did you?" Mrs. Eastman asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm, we did," said little Sallie. "We told him Sunday night, and he
+'tended to it the first thing Monday morning."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image004" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image004.jpg" alt="image004"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>MAKING WREATHS FOR THEIR HATS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_2">WHY MADGE CHANGED HER MIND.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>GRANDMA'S room was the very handsomest one in the house. Madge and
+Nellie thought it was the pleasantest at least.</p>
+
+<p>A bay window overlooked the street, where busy people came and went;
+two other large windows, that were doors as well, opened on to a
+piazza, and that piazza was a delightfully cool place to sit, on warm
+days.</p>
+
+<p>Grandma's large chair was out there most of the time in summer. Then
+she had to take but a few steps and she was in the flower garden. In
+winter the plants were in the conservatory, of course, and a glass door
+from grandma's room opened into that too.</p>
+
+<p>Between her pretty bedroom and the large room were folding doors. There
+were soft carpets and lace curtains, pictures, great easy-chairs, and
+everything for use and comfort and prettiness that could be thought of,
+for everybody in the house thought nothing was too fine and nice for
+grandma, and that was just as it should be.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bright September morning, but cool enough for grandma to have
+a fire snapping on her brass andirons in the fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>Some people dread to grow old, because they are so foolish as to think
+that young folks have all the good looks; but that is a great mistake.
+Grandma made just as pretty a picture in her black dress, white cap,
+and soft mull handkerchief folded about her neck, with her red knitting
+work in her lap, and the fire shining on her silver hair, as Madge and
+Nellie did over in the window in blue dresses, though their heads were
+brown and curly, and their cheeks round, and smooth, and rosy.</p>
+
+<p>They were busy with pencil and paper, making out a list of little girls
+who were to be invited to their birthday party.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that both birthdays came in September, and so they could be
+celebrated together.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we invite Minnie Dale?" asked Nellie.</p>
+
+<p>"No; of course not," Madge answered with a curl of her pretty lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" said Nellie. "She's the best girl in school, and she's
+pretty too."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it won't do," Madge declared, with the air and tone of a much
+older young lady than ten. "She doesn't belong."</p>
+
+<p>"Belong to what? She belongs to our day-school and our Sunday-school."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a little stupid you are," laughed Madge. "She doesn't belong
+to our set, of course. Do you know where she lives? She lives in that
+little bit of a brown house way down on Cedar street, just about as big
+as our smoke house."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she?" said her sister. "Why, I thought she was as good as any
+of us. She always wears pretty dresses, and she acts—well, sort o'
+stylish."</p>
+
+<p>"You mustn't say sort o'," said Madge. "You mean she has pretty
+manners; that's what they call it. Oh, yes; she's nice enough, but what
+do you suppose Elsie Melbourne, and Clara Haines, and Lina Vedder would
+say to meeting a girl here who lives in such a hut as that, no matter
+how she looks and acts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sure enough!" Nellie answered. "It would not do, would it?"</p>
+
+<p>Grandma arose just then and went to the bureau. She brought out a small
+rosewood box, and sitting down again by the fire, unlocked it. This
+drew the children's attention. They always liked to get a peep into
+grandma's treasures. She had so many curious and pretty things, and
+told such nice stories about them. So they came over to her, and this
+was just what she wished them to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to see my old home?" Grandma said as she brought out a
+drawing and handed it to them.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, grandma, what do you mean?" they both said at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, this is a log house!" Madge said.</p>
+
+<p>"And it's such a little bit of a house!" said Nellie.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, grandma, you truly didn't ever live there?"</p>
+
+<p>"I truly did!" grandma answered. "And a prettier home, or a happier one
+you never saw.</p>
+
+<p>"When I was married, I went with your grandfather to live in this
+little house. It stood among the trees, and there was a brook not far
+away that went racketing over the stones. We used to take long walks in
+summer, after tea; in summer evenings following up that little brook.
+Sometimes it ran through green meadows, and then it wound and twisted
+itself around the hills and on into the dark, cool woods. There were
+moss-covered stones in it, and ferns and violets grew on its banks:
+such a pretty place as you never saw, my dears!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how could you live in such a very little house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Plenty of room," said grandma. "You wouldn't believe it to look
+at it, but in that house we had a parlor, bedroom, dining-room and
+kitchen. When we bought it, it had but one large room with a shed at
+the back. So we set to work to make a nice place of it.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all your grandfather made the old shed into the neatest
+little kitchen with a corner cupboard. He whitewashed it and set up our
+stove, and I put our new dishes in the cupboard, and it was as pretty
+as a little girl's playhouse. The large room was a bare rough place,
+but we made it white and pure with lime, and I made a curtain out of
+some pretty chintz calico, and pat it across one side of the room, and
+that was my bedroom; you see your grandma invented curtains between
+rooms, which are now so fashionable, long ago. Well, when we had our
+carpet down, and our pictures up, our books on the shelf, and our round
+table with a sage-green cloth over it, a bright fire snapping in the
+great old fireplace, an old armchair one side of the fire and my sewing
+rocker on the other, I say, there was no neater, prettier place in the
+whole world."</p>
+
+<p>"But grandma, where were your parlor and dining-room?"</p>
+
+<p>"My child, the parlor and dining-room were all in one. The end of the
+room next the kitchen was the dining-room: when meal time came it was
+a dining-room, and when meals were over we just cleared off the table,
+turned down the leaves, set it back against the wall and put a spread
+on it, and the room was a parlor again; don't you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Were you just as happy as you are in this handsome house?" asked
+Madge, casting her eyes over the beautiful room.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the happiest years of my life were spent in this dear humble
+home," grandma said as she replaced the picture in the box with a last
+loving look at it.</p>
+
+<p>"Just think," said wise Nellie, looking thoughtfully into the fire, "if
+grandma was a little girl now she couldn't come to our party because
+she lived in a log house."</p>
+
+<p>"There is somebody greater than grandma you would shut out if He were
+here," grandma said; "the Lord Jesus himself had no fine house. He said
+the foxes and the birds had houses, but he had none."</p>
+
+<p>They went back to their work of making out a list.</p>
+
+<p>"Madge," Nellie said pretty soon, "I guess Jesus won't be pleased
+with such a party as we are getting up. If you don't care, I mean to
+ask mamma to let me have my party by myself some day, and I'll invite
+Minnie Dale and that lame girl, and that Jessie Moore in our class that
+wears calico dresses."</p>
+
+<p>"Nellie Bryant," said Madge, "don't you suppose I want to please Jesus
+too, instead of Elsie Melbourne, or Clara Vedder, or any of them? I
+never thought how it would seem to him; we'll ask Minnie Dale and
+everybody else mamma thinks best. If grandma lived in a poor little
+house once, who knows but Minnie Dale will live in a grander house than
+any of us some day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and just think," Nellie answered, "if papa should lose his money
+like Mr. Strong, and we have to go into a little bit of a house,
+wouldn't it seem dreadful to have the girls leave us out when they made
+parties, and we would be the very same girls we always were, too?"</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_3">NANNIE'S LESSON.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>LITTLE Nannie Greyson was sitting on her front piazza one bright June
+morning, when everything around was fresh and bright, but Nannie
+herself was blind to all this beauty by which she was surrounded, for
+she had just received a new book, and was already deep in its pages.</p>
+
+<p>Nannie was a very pretty little girl about nine years old. She had
+a fair skin, large blue eyes and golden hair, not long, but falling
+to her neck in short, pretty curls. Any one looking at her that June
+morning would immediately pronounce her very nice and lovable indeed.</p>
+
+<p>The front door behind her is standing open, and presently a lady comes
+through the wide hall, and stands behind the little girl. She looks
+down at her without speaking, and the little girl finally becoming
+aware of her presence looks up into her face with a smile which makes
+her if anything, more sweet and lovable.</p>
+
+<p>"O! Mamma," she exclaims, "my book is so nice."</p>
+
+<p>And drawing a deep sigh of satisfaction she prepares to return to it.
+But her mamma is speaking, and she stops to listen, although very
+reluctantly, I am sorry to say.</p>
+
+<p>"Nannie," her mamma says, "I want you to come and amuse Herbie while I
+am busy in the kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>Herbie was Nannie's two-year-old brother, and a lively little fellow to
+take care of.</p>
+
+<p>Minnie threw down her book, and when she looked up, you would scarcely
+have recognized her as the same sweet little girl who looked so happy a
+few moments before. An angry frown had settled on the smooth forehead
+over the blue eyes; there was a fretful expression on her lips, and
+she was entirely transformed from the bright, pretty little girl whose
+mouth had been all smiles, to a peevish child with a pout on her lips
+which was not at all becoming.</p>
+
+<p>"O, mamma, must I leave my book to take care of that tiresome baby? It
+seems to me I never sit down to read but you want me to do something
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>She knew she must go, though, and she got up slowly, going through the
+hall, up the staircase, and into the nursery at the head of the stairs,
+pouting and cross. She knew that her mamma was deeply grieved, and she
+knew also that she never would have called her from her book had it not
+been necessary.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image005" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image005.jpg" alt="image005"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>HERBIE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>But still she pouted, while Herbie tried in his baby fashion to comfort
+her, for he saw something was wrong. She could not resist his baby
+coaxing very long, and her ill-humor soon vanished, and they had a
+merry game of romps.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three hours afterward while playing with a little friend on
+the back piazza, she tore a bad hole in her dress. Running up-stairs
+to find mamma, she found her after a little search in the nursery
+seated by the window, in her rocking-chair with a book in her hand, a
+very unusual thing for Nannie's mamma, and Herbie at her feet, busily
+engaged with his toys. Nannie hastened up to her, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"O, mamma, just see what I have done; won't you please mend it 'quick.'"</p>
+
+<p>Her mamma, instead of looking up with her bright smile and ready
+consent, threw down her book impatiently, exclaiming, as she did so:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh dear, Nannie, must I leave my nice book just to mend that tear? It
+seems to me I never sit down to read, but you want me to do something
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>Nannie's eyes filled with tears, for she recognized her own words, and
+knew that mamma meant to rebuke her in this way. She raised her eyes to
+her mamma's face, as if asking for pardon, and as her mamma stretched
+out her arms, she sprang into them, sobbing her confession there.</p>
+
+<p>Nannie had learned a lesson, and one that she never forgot.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_4">FOOLISH CHILDREN.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>MRS. TOPKNOT is having trouble in her family to-night. Two weeks ago
+she was very happy when twelve soft, downy darlings gathered under her
+wings.</p>
+
+<p>She is not so happy now, because some of them have been naughty.</p>
+
+<p>It was just after dinner, when mamma Topknot was taking a nap, that
+they took it into their heads.</p>
+
+<p>Whitey began it. She was a proud little thing, all white, with not a
+black feather about her. She thought she was the prettiest and smartest
+of the whole brood.</p>
+
+<p>"Our feathers are all out now," Whitey said. "We're growing up. Let's
+take a little walk by ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said Blackey, "we'll do just that thing. Come on, right
+off, while mother's asleep; we'll get back before ever she wakes."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't it be fun?" whispered Speckle. "Come on, all of you, and don't
+make a bit of noise."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to stir a single step," little Dove declared. "I'm going
+to stay close by my mother."</p>
+
+<p>Then every little chick looked up in astonishment, to think that gentle
+little Dovie would dare to speak her mind so plainly.</p>
+
+<p>"She's afraid!" said Spot. "She's afraid a big grasshopper will carry
+her off."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid to disobey my mother," Dovie chirped out sweetly. "She
+said we were never to go anywhere without her till she gave us leave."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, right off, everybody who wants to go," said Blackey, marching
+off, calling out as he looked behind him:</p>
+
+<p>"I know where there are some big strawberries!"</p>
+
+<p>"I know where there's a great black dog," piped little Gray. "I'm not
+going."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I," said Brownie.</p>
+
+<p>So away went the naughty nine chickens, and the three little good ones
+stayed at home.</p>
+
+<p>They had a splendid time, for Bobby brought his apron full of chickweed
+and threw it on the barn floor. They could get little bits of it, even
+with their small bills.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image006" style="max-width: 30.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image006.jpg" alt="image006"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>MAMMA TOPKNOT AND HER FAMILY.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>When mamma Topknot awoke, she looked about for her children.</p>
+
+<p>Only three to be found! Where could the others be? She looked all about
+and called, but they did not come. Supper time came, and still they had
+not arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!" went mother Topknot about the barnyard, as if
+she would go wild.</p>
+
+<p>Where could they be? If she could only squeeze herself through the hole
+under the fence by which they got out, she would go in search of them.</p>
+
+<p>The supper was nearly all eaten up by the other old hens before she
+knew what they were about. She managed to save only enough for the
+three little chicks who had stayed at home.</p>
+
+<p>Just as it began to grow dark, when their mother had given them up, and
+had settled down with a sad heart to take care of what children she had
+left, they came.</p>
+
+<p>They hopped through the fence one after another, till they all stood
+before her, a guilty little huddle.</p>
+
+<p>Just a minute before, mamma Topknot had thought she would give all her
+feathers if she could only see them alive once more, and now just as
+soon as she had them, she fell to scolding them.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how she scolded! And such a hubbub as there was. Speckle stood off
+by herself and actually talked back. Two or three of the others tried
+to tell how it wasn't their fault, they never would have thought of
+such a thing. Then they all talked at once and told how hungry they
+were and said they never would run away again.</p>
+
+<p>Gray and Brownie stuck their heads from under their mother's feathers
+to see how things were going, while little Dove got up on her mother's
+back and tried to help scold.</p>
+
+<p>Blackey scud around behind his mother as soon as he came in and poked
+his head up under her wing as if he thought he could make her believe
+he never had been away.</p>
+
+<p>After they had all cried and said they were sorry, mother Topknot began
+to pity them, they looked so cold and tired, and so she forgave them
+and cuddled them all under her wings once more.</p>
+
+<p>Of course they had to go to bed without any supper, but that taught
+them a good lesson. They never did run away again.</p>
+
+<p>That was not the only reason, though—the going without their supper.
+They had a fearful time. They told about it next day.</p>
+
+<p>The great black dog chased them, a cat almost got one of them, and a
+boy threw stones at them.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_5">SOME CURIOUS FISHES.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>I DON'T suppose you think there are any fishes that can either walk or
+live any time out of water. Yet there are.</p>
+
+<p>The gurnard is one of the most important of the walking fish. M.
+Deslongchamp had an artificial fish-pond on the shores of Normandy, in
+which several of these creatures were. When he waded in the pond, he
+could easily see all their movements.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion, when he was watching them in this way, he saw them
+close their fins against their sides, and walk along the ground by
+means of six slender legs, three on each pectoral fin. By these they
+can walk very fast.</p>
+
+<p>The square-browed malthe can also walk, and can live out of water.
+Sometimes it spends two or three days creeping over the land. The
+reason that all fishes cannot stay out of water is because they are so
+made that they have to breathe air through water. All fishes are this
+way, but some can carry water in their gills both for breathing and
+drinking purposes for several days.</p>
+
+<p>The grouper fish is very queer in that it will swallow such curious
+things, which you would not think it could possibly digest. One was
+caught on the coast of Queensland which, when opened, was found to have
+in its stomach two broken bottles, a quart pot, a preserved milk-tin,
+seven crabs, a piece of earthenware encrusted with oyster shells, a
+sheep's head, some mutton and beef bones, and some oyster shells.</p>
+
+<p>There is a crab in the Keeling Islands, that lives on the land all day,
+returning to the water only at night to moisten its gills. It also eats
+cocoanuts, opening the shell with its huge claws, and the natives of
+the islands say that it climbs the trees to get them. This, however, is
+not known.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we see that there are some very curious fishes; yet none of them
+have mind, and are not to be compared with man. Let us be thankful,
+then, that God made us human beings, and not fishes.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_6">TIME ENOUGH.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>ELMER'S new suit had just come home.</p>
+
+<p>It was brown, with dashes of green in it. It fitted him exactly, and
+everybody knows it makes one feel good-natured when his new clothes fit
+well. When he tried them on, nobody jerked his pantaloons down, said
+they were too short, nor twitched his jacket up and said it was too low
+in the neck.</p>
+
+<p>He laid them carefully over the back of a chair that night before he
+went to bed, then got out a clean collar and a green necktie, tucked a
+handkerchief into the side pocket of the jacket, and surveyed them all
+with a satisfied look.</p>
+
+<p>Morning came, bright and splendid as anybody could wish. The steamboat
+with flying flags stood at the wharf, and a happy company of boys and
+girls, dressed in white and pink and red and blue, marched through the
+streets to the sound of music.</p>
+
+<p>The procession passed through the great gates and were all comfortably
+settled on the boat fifteen minutes before it was time to start.</p>
+
+<p>Elmer's home was a long walk from the church where the other scholars
+met, so he went directly to the steamboat landing.</p>
+
+<p>He had just bought a new set of marbles. They were beauties, and when
+he met Will Porter, he could not resist the temptation to try his
+new marbles on the broad, smooth paving-stones just above the gates
+where no people were passing at this early hour. The game became so
+fascinating, that the boys played on, even after the procession had
+gone on board.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on," Will said; "we'll be late."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no! We won't be late. The boat will not start this quarter of an
+hour," Elmer answered, aiming a great blue marble at a red one.</p>
+
+<p>Now the superintendent and the teachers had warned the school many
+times, "The gates will be closed at seven o'clock. If you are not on
+the other side of them by that time, you cannot go."</p>
+
+<p>"Be prompt, boys and girls," Mr. Willard had said as he dismissed
+the Sabbath-school. "Do not come hurrying along at the last minute.
+Our trip next Wednesday is one of our lessons, and it will teach
+punctuality in rather a severe manner if one of you stands sorrowfully
+peeping through that big gate at us, while we glide off down the river.
+It will certainly spoil your pleasure and ours too if you are too late."</p>
+
+<p>Not a boy who heard him thought that talk was meant for him. "'I' shall
+be in time," they told themselves; "of course I shall."</p>
+
+<p>Elmer and Will had each a great fault. Elmer's was procrastination. He
+was always saying, "Wait a minute," "There's plenty of time," or "I'll
+do it by and by." Because of this habit, he was never known to be in
+time anywhere. His father had given him a watch at Christmas to see if
+that would not help him to improve, but it did not; he went on saying,
+"Time enough." Everybody had to wait for him.</p>
+
+<p>When the rest of the family were ready for church, he would rush
+through the house like a hurricane, pulling and panting, up-stairs and
+down, calling out:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! Can't somebody help me? Won't Mary black my boots? Do come
+and fix on my collar! Has anybody seen my lesson paper?"</p>
+
+<p>And so the whole house would run here and there, waiting upon one who
+had dawdled away the whole morning.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image007" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image007.jpg" alt="image007"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>THE BOAT STEAMED DOWN THE RIVER.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Will's fault was different. He had no mind of his own. He was always
+ruled by the person he happened to be with, and never could say "No" to
+anybody, no matter what his judgment or his conscience told him.</p>
+
+<p>He was uneasy now, and thought they ought to go that minute, but he
+played on, though he did say: "It's time to go, I know it is; the gates
+will be shut."</p>
+
+<p>"No, they won't be shut either," Elmer said, drawing out his watch;
+"it's exactly ten minutes before they close. We can finish this game in
+five, and have plenty of time."</p>
+
+<p>Watches do not always do their duty, any more than boys. Elmer's was
+five minutes slow—it must have caught the disease from him. The game
+went on. Will was going to win, he thought, and both boys grew excited
+over it; finally they fell into a slight dispute.</p>
+
+<p>And—what was that? The steamboat bell! Clang! Ding, dong! Both boys
+scrambled up their marbles and rushed to the gate. It was shut! They
+shouted for the gate-keeper; he was nowhere in sight.</p>
+
+<p>They cried to the captain, "Wait! Wait!"</p>
+
+<p>But the clanging of the bell was their only answer.</p>
+
+<p>Then the call "All aboard!"</p>
+
+<p>The plank was drawn in, and the boat steamed down the river, the song
+of the children floating back on the breeze.</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough! There they were, looking sorrowfully through the gate,
+just as Mr. Willard had said.</p>
+
+<p>"It was all your fault," Will said.</p>
+
+<p>Then he turned and ran away as fast as he could lest Elmer should see
+him crying.</p>
+
+<p>Elmer looked about, astonished to find himself alone and really left
+behind. He could not believe it possible that the boat would not turn
+about and take him. Everybody had always waited for him before. But
+there they were, speeding on their way. It was too much!</p>
+
+<p>He was angry, and "so" disappointed. Left behind! And all for those
+miserable mean marbles! He took them from his pocket and threw them as
+far as he could. He would have scolded, but there was nobody there to
+hear. He would have cried, but he thought he was too big. Oh, what a
+fool he had been! Was there ever such a fool before?</p>
+
+<p>He did not want to go home; he did not want to go anywhere or do
+anything. He sat down on a box and kicked his heels against it. What a
+mean old world it was!</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps his good angel leaned over him just then, for his thoughts took
+a sudden turn:</p>
+
+<p>"It was my fault," he said to himself. "I'm always too late, and
+everybody's poking at me about it. Why can't I turn about and be like
+other folks! I declare I 'will!' I'll begin this very day."</p>
+
+<p>He got down from his box at once and started towards home. In a little
+old-fashioned house which he passed lived auntie Simons, an old lady
+who was auntie to the whole town. She was out brushing off her front
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>The old lady stopped, and leaning on her broom, looked over her
+spectacles a minute to make sure that it was really Elmer.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my child!" she said, as he came nearer. "What does all this mean?
+I thought you had gone to a picnic."</p>
+
+<p>"I got left," Elmer said, his eyes fastened on the tree trunk near him.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you don't say! Too bad! Well, don't look so downhearted. Come in
+and see me a spell. Come! I'm going to have flapjacks and maple syrup
+for breakfast, and I know you are half-starved by this time; didn't
+have time to snatch only a bite, now did you?"</p>
+
+<p>What boy could withstand the attractions of flapjacks and maple syrup?
+Besides, he really was hungry. Excitement had prevented his eating much
+breakfast, so in he went.</p>
+
+<p>While auntie Simons helped him bountifully to smoking hot cakes and
+golden syrup, he told her all about it—how he came to be left, and how
+he had resolved to turn over a new leaf.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it does seem foolish," the old lady said when they sat on the
+porch after breakfast, "for you to lose a whole day's pleasure just by
+waiting a little bit too long, when you might have gone as well as not;
+but what shall we say of one who puts off coming to Christ until it is
+too late? Don't you, dear boy, say 'Time enough' to that. You can't
+tell how little time there may be left. You know when the gate down by
+the wharf was shut on you, you had a chance to sit down and think it
+all over, and make up your mind that you would be all right the next
+time, anyhow; but you see when the door is shut at the last—in death—it
+is shut 'forever.' It is open now. Jesus says, 'Come.' Do not put it
+off, Elmer dear."</p>
+
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_7">A CUP OF COLD WATER.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"PLEASE to get my china cup for me, Ann," Daisy said, coming in from
+the "sweet out-doors," as she called it, where she had been trying to
+read her new picture-book.</p>
+
+<p>Ann was shelling peas for dinner, and did not wish to be disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want of your cup?" she asked crossly.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to get a drink for an old man."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, take the dipper."</p>
+
+<p>"No, the dipper won't do; I must have my cup, and I'm in a great hurry,
+a 'fearful' hurry," Daisy said, imitating her brother Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't be bothered with your notions," Ann said, making her fingers
+fly very fast. "I'm in a hurry too; it's high time these peas were
+cooking; besides, what old man is it? I don't believe your mother would
+let you give a drink of water out of your cup to every old fellow that
+came along if she was at home; like enough he's a tramp."</p>
+
+<p>"No, he isn't a tramp; he's a 'siple. He told me so."</p>
+
+<p>"A 'siple!" Ann said, bursting into a laugh. "What's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, papa read about them in the Bible. They are Jesus' servants, and
+he wants folks to give 'em a good drink of cold water when they are
+firsty."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image008" style="max-width: 27.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image008.jpg" alt="image008"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>DAISY.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't help it," said Ann, laughing again. "I can't be jumping
+up from my work all the time to wait on everybody. Take a dipper, if
+you must give him a drink."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Daisy. "I told you the dipper wouldn't do. It said a
+cup; and I want my very bufulest one—that one with little birds on it.
+Come! Do get it for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Can't do it," Ann said, shelling peas with all her might.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Daisy was hot and tired. She rested her elbows on the doorsill,
+and her chin on her hands, and looked very despairing. Two great tears
+came into her eyes, and at last she buried her face in her white apron
+and began to sob just as grandpa came along from the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Tut! Tut!" said grandpa. "What's the matter with my pet?"</p>
+
+<p>He sat down on the step, drew Daisy to him, and wiped her warm,
+tear-stained face with his clean linen handkerchief. It took but a few
+seconds to make grandpa understand what the trouble was; then he got up
+and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Come and show me where it is."</p>
+
+<p>The sun came out again on Daisy's face, and with her hand tightly
+clasped in grandpa's, she pattered along to the dining-room closet—not
+tired a bit now.</p>
+
+<p>Grandpa reached down the beautiful cup, then he got a pitcher and
+filled it with good cold water, and they two went down the front walk
+as fast as they could go.</p>
+
+<p>When old Mr. Burton started out that morning to walk to the next town,
+he did not know what a very long, hot walk he had undertaken. He was a
+stranger, and was on his way to his son's house. When he left the cars,
+the stage had gone. He was too poor to hire a carriage to take him
+over, so he had to walk five miles in a burning sun.</p>
+
+<p>As he jogged along, he grew very thirsty. He wished there was a spring
+by the roadside, but there was none. He came in sight of a large white
+house on the hill, and said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"I have a great notion to go in there and get a drink of water; but
+then, they are rich folks. They would take me for a tramp, and maybe
+set the dog on me."</p>
+
+<p>As he came slowly along, looking up at the broad lawn with cool shadows
+of the great trees over it, he spied at the front gate a little girl.
+Her rosy face was hidden away in a white sunbonnet, but her blue eyes
+looked up smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Be you a 'siple?" she asked shyly.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image009" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image009.jpg" alt="image009"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>GRANDPA.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"A what?" the old man said, looking down.</p>
+
+<p>"A 'siple. Do you love Jesus?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mean a disciple! Yes, little one, I belong to the Lord Jesus,"
+Mr. Burton said.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want a drink of water?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll bring you one."</p>
+
+<p>And Daisy's white dress vanished among the bushes while, the tired old
+man sat on the green grass at the edge of the walk and waited.</p>
+
+<p>He was beginning to think he should see no more of her, when she
+appeared with a pretty china cup full of cold water; then grandpa came
+with the pitcher full, and the thirsty traveller had all the water he
+needed.</p>
+
+<p>Grandpa invited him into the house to get a lunch before he went.
+Then Prince was harnessed and brought round, and grandpa said he had
+promised Daisy that he would take her to ride, and they might as well
+drive toward Woodbury as anywhere. So they all got into the carriage,
+and old Prince trotted off. The road was so smooth, the air so sweet,
+and the talk so pleasant, that before they knew it, they were at
+Woodbury; and there they left Mr. Burton.</p>
+
+<p>He said he never should forget the little girl who brought him the cup
+of cold water, but that every day of his life he would ask God to bless
+her.</p>
+
+<p>The verse that Daisy meant can be found in Matthew x:42.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_8">ON NANTUCKET WHARF.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>ALL was bustle and confusion in Mrs. Maynard's house in Boston, for she
+and her daughter Mattie were going to Nantucket Beach to stay a night,
+then to the Island Home to spend a week. It was the first time Mattie
+had been on the cars, for she was only six years old, and she had been
+but very few times on the steamboat.</p>
+
+<p>At last they started. They were to go to New Bedford by the cars, and
+there to take a steamboat for Nantucket.</p>
+
+<p>They had a very pleasant time at Nantucket, and Mattie arose bright and
+early on the morning in which she was to take her ride to Island Home.
+The boat was to start at ten o'clock. There was a great crowd on the
+wharf and Mattie held tight her mother's hand for fear she might get
+lost.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there is Mr. Ridgeway!" Mrs. Maynard said. "He is an old friend
+of mine and I must speak to him."</p>
+
+<p>And she dropped Mattie's hand, and pushed through the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>Mattie did not like her mother to leave her, but she stood still where
+she left her, so that she might be sure and find her when she came back.</p>
+
+<p>She waited there a long time, but no Mrs. Maynard was to be seen.
+Mattie was very much frightened, and tried to get back to the place
+where her mother left her, but the crowd was so great that she could
+hardly move at all, for a little girl was not noticed at all in it.</p>
+
+<p>After wandering about for awhile, a gruff voice called:</p>
+
+<p>"Passengers for the Island Home all aboard! Boat goes in ten minutes!
+All aboard! All aboard!"</p>
+
+<p>Everybody began to push forward, and soon the wharf was nearly empty.</p>
+
+<p>Mattie knew her mother had not bought her ticket, and she went up
+to the ticket-office and asked the man if a "pretty lady in a linen
+duster, with a red feather in her hat, bought a ticket for the Island
+Home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I keep account in a note-book of the color of all the
+folks' dresses and what kind of feathers they have on their hats?" he
+asked gruffly.</p>
+
+<p>Mettle did not know what to say to this, so she said nothing, but
+wandered off to the farther part of the wharf and climbed up on some
+bags that lay behind a pile of boxes there. On these she knelt down and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Jesus, let mamma find me soon, and keep me safely till she comes.
+For Jesus' sake. Amen."</p>
+
+<p>She repeated this simple prayer many times, and then went out from
+behind the pile of boxes again. She was very thirsty, and was very glad
+when she saw a faucet and a tin cup at the side of the ticket-office.
+She took a drink and was much refreshed, but was very tired, and she
+thought she would go and rest on the bags behind the boxes. She sat
+down on these, and was soon fast asleep. She awoke about four o'clock
+in the afternoon, and as she was rubbing her eyes and wondering where
+she was, she was startled by a voice exclaiming:</p>
+
+<p>"And what's the loikes of this, shure?"</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, and saw a gruff, but kindly-seeming man looking down at
+her. He was evidently a working-man, for he had his dinner-pail in his
+hand, and was leaning on a pick-axe and shovel.</p>
+
+<p>Said Mattie:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm Mattie Maynard, and I'm lost. That is, mamma left me on the wharf
+in the crowd, and didn't come back, and I'm awful hungry."</p>
+
+<p>"And shure and me name is not Patrick O' Flannigan if I don't give ye
+something to eat. Poor gir-r-l!"</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon he opened his pail and offered her a generous ham sandwich.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you ever so much!" cried Mattie, as she took a large bite.</p>
+
+<p>True, the bread was sour and the butter was strong, but Mattie was so
+hungry that she did not notice the defects in the food. Patrick sat
+down on the bags and watched her eat with great interest.</p>
+
+<p>"An' ye can eat now, can't ye? Poor little gir-r-l! But I must be
+a-goin', shure!"</p>
+
+<p>And he got up and went off the wharf.</p>
+
+<p>There were many steamboats coming and going at Nantucket wharf, and
+Mattie climbed up on the boxes and watched the crowds as they passed by.</p>
+
+<p>But at last night came on, and Mattie did not know what to do. She
+crept in among the bags, and covered herself up, but they smelled bad,
+and she knew she could not sleep on them all night. She thought once
+she would ask the ticket agent to let her stay in the ticket-office,
+but he had spoken so crossly to her that morning that she did not like
+to. She was not very sleepy, because of the long nap she had taken in
+the daytime, and wandered about on the wharf till about eleven o'clock,
+and then she went and sat down on the bags and fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image010" style="max-width: 30.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image010.jpg" alt="image010"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>THE ISLAND HOME LEAVES THE WHARF.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>When she woke up, the morning sun was streaming into her eyes, and from
+the hurrying to and fro of many feet, she knew that the morning steamer
+had come in from the Island Home. She got up and watched the crowd, for
+she thought maybe her mother might have gone to the Island Home, after
+all, and had come back.</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough! Just as the crowd had passed, she saw the "red feather" on
+her mother's hat and gave a little scream of delight as she saw her go
+over and speak to the ticket agent. She ran eagerly over to her, pulled
+her dress and called:</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma! Mamma! Here I am!"</p>
+
+<p>Her mother turned suddenly and caught her in her arms and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"My darling child!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the whole story came out. Mrs. Maynard had been detained about
+half an hour in getting through the crowd, and when she finally came
+to where she had left Mattie, and she was not there, she was very much
+frightened, and found Mr. Ridgeway again, and told him about it.</p>
+
+<p>They followed the crowd into town, and, following them everywhere,
+ascertained that she was not among them. They anxiously turned back to
+the wharf just, as the steamer pulled up, and the crowd began to rush
+on board. They hoped that Mattie might also have gone on the steamer,
+and went through it hunting for her. But while they were hunting, the
+boat started, and Mrs. Maynard was obliged to stay at the Island Home
+all night, and was just coming off the steamer when she was discovered
+by Mattie. They took the ten o'clock boat for the Island Home, and
+spent a very happy week there. But as Mattie was going to bed that
+night, she said:</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, I want to tell you something."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, darling?"</p>
+
+<p>"I asked God to have you find me, and to keep me safe till you did, and
+I think that is the reason you did."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, darling, I think so too; and I thank him very much for sparing my
+Mattie to me. Let us kneel down and tell him so now."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_9">LILY DAY.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>IT was surprising, how many people were of the same mind that week.
+The cause of it was lilies. It seemed as if there must have been a
+convention of lilies held in Fairview at that time, for they were out
+in full glory.</p>
+
+<p>The tall tiger lilies blazed and glowed in the sunshine; the day lilies
+opened their white bells, the yellow lilies gleamed like gold, and away
+down on Silver Lake, lovely pond lilies, cool, and pure, and white,
+with golden hearts, lay amid broad green leaves.</p>
+
+<p>The people who first got the idea in their heads that it would be nice
+to put some lilies in the church that week, were very young people. In
+fact, it came into one little head first—Kitty Grey's.</p>
+
+<p>And how could she help thinking up all manner of splendid plans, when
+she lived so near to the beautiful lake that from her window up-stairs
+she could look across to the other shore and see here and there white
+blossoms on the water. She clapped her hands with joy when she first
+discovered them, and ran down-stairs crying:</p>
+
+<p>"They're out! They're out! Mamma, can't Ray and I go in the boat and
+get some pond lilies right away now?"</p>
+
+<p>Silver Lake was a shallow little thing—a saucerful of water, papa
+said—and Ray, though a little fellow, could manage a boat nicely. Mamma
+readily gave consent, and it was but a few minutes before Kitty sat in
+the stern of the boat, drawing her hand through the water, her very
+dearest friend Mabel in the bow, and Ray rowing with all his might to
+the spot where those wonderful lilies floated white and fair.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what we'll do," Kitty said, as they filled the large basket
+they had brought with them as full as it could hold. "We'll trim the
+church for to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"So we will," said Mabel.</p>
+
+<p>And Ray said:</p>
+
+<p>"All right; that will be splendid. I'll get a lot of ferns to put with
+these."</p>
+
+<p>About that time, old Mrs. Parks was walking her garden, trimming off
+dead leaves and cutting flowers. She came along to a large bunch of red
+lilies, and clipped them off.</p>
+
+<p>"We haven't had any flowers in church this long time," she said to
+herself. "I'll just send these over. They are such handsome things,
+it's a pity everybody shouldn't enjoy them."</p>
+
+<p>So she brought them into the house, got down from the top shelf of the
+pantry an old blue pitcher, and putting her flowers in it, filled it
+with water, promising herself to take them to the parsonage between
+daylight and dark.</p>
+
+<p>"Cinthy's tasty, and she can fix them up in shape for the church," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia Morrow was the minister's daughter. She herself had a plan for
+making the little church beautiful—to smile a welcome to the Sabbath
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>Down at the end of the garden was a plot of day lilies. They belonged
+to her. She had put them out herself, and watched and watered them,
+and waited for them, and now this week they blossomed out in queenly
+beauty. She intended to surprise her father next morning. How pleased
+he would be to find his favorite flower on the pulpit desk, its pure
+whiteness and its rare sweetness sending up incense with the songs of
+praise.</p>
+
+<p>The next one who gathered lilies was Miss Alice Lynde. She was a young
+lady from New York, spending the summer with her uncle in Fairview.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alice took long walks every day over the fields and hills, and so
+her cheeks, which were pale when she came from the city, were getting
+to be the color of wild roses.</p>
+
+<p>This morning her walk happened to be longer than usual. She went
+farther out into the country than she had ever been before, lured on by
+a glimpse of bright yellow flowers she could see in the distance. They
+turned out to be lilies. Miss Alice was delighted. She filled her arms
+with them at once, thinking while she chose the finest blossoms what a
+lovely bouquet she would make for the church.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem as if all the people who had been gathering lilies that
+day had made an appointment to meet at the church after tea that
+evening, but they never had, though they all met.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody felt quite at liberty to carry their flowers to the church. It
+might look as if they had set up to interfere with somebody's else
+arrangements. So all made their way to the parsonage at that pleasant
+time between the day and night when country people run in to see each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>Each one found that Cynthia was already at the church; gone to carry
+over some flowers, her mother said.</p>
+
+<p>What was Cynthia's surprise, as she stood on the platform arranging her
+vases, to see Kitty and Ray come in tugging a large basket full of pond
+lilies and ferns.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what beauties! I am so glad you brought them," Cynthia was saying
+when Mrs. Parks put her head in at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"I s'pose you've got flowers enough without these," she said, holding
+out a great bunch of red lilies.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, indeed!" Cynthia said. "How pretty they will be with the white
+ones! I wish we had somebody to help us arrange them."</p>
+
+<p>While they were all bending over the flowers admiring them, a little
+rustle was heard, and when they looked up, there was Miss Alice gliding
+softly down the aisle with a great sheaf of yellow lilies in her arms.
+She made a pretty picture to the children's eyes, her white dress and
+white hat, her smiling face, and the lovely flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Their admiring "O—h—" was not meant for the flowers alone.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say that all the lilies in the country have agreed to come
+here and hold a meeting," said Mrs. Parks.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alice pulled off her gloves and went to work. She knew just how
+to arrange flowers. Mrs. Parks went home for some pans, Ray went for
+water, and Kitty hunted up some vases, while Cynthia sorted the flowers.</p>
+
+<p>How lovely it was when all was done! There was a bank of pond lilies
+and ferns just under the pulpit. There was a mound of red and white
+lilies on the table, and vases on the desk of pure white and green
+only. Cynthia said that must be so. And then there was a masterpiece
+of beauty, made by Miss Alice's skilful fingers—a sort of pyramid of
+flowers, all colors mingled, with feathery ferns drooping about the
+whole.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Next morning at church everybody was surprised, because, as a rule,
+they did not have flowers in church at Fairview, beyond a simple
+handful in a vase. Nobody, though, was more surprised than the
+self-appointed flower committee themselves were when the minister's
+text was announced. They could not resist smiling at each other.</p>
+
+<p>You see Mr. Morrow had been noticing the flowers rather more than usual
+that week. Even while he was considering what his text should be, his
+eye fell on a cluster of tall white lilies. He found himself studying
+their graceful shapes, their whiteness and fragrance, and then began
+to wonder at the thought that the same great God who made the worlds,
+made the tiny flowers, and that he took so much pains, making so many
+different shapes and colors, each with its own rare fragrance, to
+please us because he loves us.</p>
+
+<p>It was not strange, then, that Mr. Morrow's text should be, "Consider
+the lilies."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_10">THE GREENLANDER.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>GREENLAND is a very cold country, much colder than it is here. For
+three months in the year the sun is never seen; and for nearly nine
+months the land is covered all over with snow. We have plenty of nice
+fruit in summer, and many good things all the year round; but the poor
+Greenlanders live mostly on seal's flesh, blubber, and oil.</p>
+
+<p>Poor, poor Greenlanders, they live so miserably; and, what is much
+worse, many of them know nothing whatever of Jesus and his love! But
+God loves them; for He loved the world, and gave "his only begotten
+Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
+everlasting life," so that, if a Greenlander hears of Jesus, he too may
+be saved.</p>
+
+<p>Now, some good men pitied the poor heathen in Greenland, and thought
+they would like to go and tell them of Jesus, how he was born in
+Bethlehem, how good and kind He was to every one, how He gave sight to
+the blind, healed the sick, raised the dead, how He died on the Cross
+for sinners, how He went to the grave and then to Heaven, how He will
+come again.</p>
+
+<p>Well, they went to Greenland and labored there for eight long, weary
+years. At last they got tired laboring so long without any apparent
+success, and thought upon returning to their homes. They had suffered a
+great deal from cold and hunger, and the people only laughed at them,
+and mocked them. But these dear missionaries had made a great mistake,
+for instead of telling the people as they meant to do of Jesus and his
+great love in dying and rising again from the dead, telling the sweet,
+sweet story of the Cross, they found them so very ignorant that the
+missionaries thought to begin with proving that God lives, and that He
+made all things. Now, this was a great mistake, for we are sinners, and
+we need to know—not that God is the Creator, but that "God is love,"
+and that Jesus died.</p>
+
+<p>One day a party of heathen Greenlanders came to the missionary village.
+They were led by a cruel and wicked Greenlander named Kajarnak, and
+entered the hut where the missionary was writing. He was finishing his
+final correction of the Four Gospels, and was at the moment engaged
+on that part of John's Gospel relating to the sufferings and death of
+Christ. Kajarnak was surprised at seeing the missionary writing, and at
+once asked him what he was doing.</p>
+
+<p>"Writing."</p>
+
+<p>"Writing!" said Kajarnak. "What is writing?"</p>
+
+<p>The missionary tried to explain it to him, and then said, "I will read
+you what I have been writing."</p>
+
+<p>He read the account of Christ's agony in the garden, and then upon the
+Cross, with the story of his being crowned, scourged, and spit upon. As
+he read, Kajarnak became interested.</p>
+
+<p>"And why," he asked, "did they treat the man so? What had he done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the missionary. "This man did nothing amiss, but Kajarnak
+did. Kajarnak filled the land with wickedness; and Kajarnak deserved to
+go to hell for it. But this man suffered all this to bear Kajarnak's
+punishment, that Kajarnak might not go to hell."</p>
+
+<p>And then the missionary went on to tell about God's love, man's sin,
+and Christ's work for sinners, till the big tears were seen to roll
+down the poor heathen's cheeks, and unable any longer to restrain his
+feelings, he cried—</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Tell it all over again, for I, too, would like to be saved."</p>
+
+<p>He was told it all over again—it was such a sweet story. Kajarnak
+believed the good news. His heart was drawn to Christ. He loved him.
+Kajarnak was saved.</p>
+
+<p>Are you saved, dear young reader? You have often heard and often read
+of Jesus and of his sufferings. Perhaps, too, you have often wept as
+you thought of the cruel men scourging Jesus and spitting on his face.
+But though you cry very much, it won't save you. The blood of Jesus
+puts sin away, and nothing else will do it.</p>
+
+<p>Will you now love Jesus? Poor Kajarnak, from "Greenland's icy
+mountains," with a heart colder than the ice, and darker than the
+darkest night, yet came to Jesus, believed in God's love, and was saved.</p>
+
+<p>How I long that all my dear young readers too would seek the same
+Saviour, and love the Jesus that loved Kajarnak, the Greenlander.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_11">SOME YOUNG HEROES.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>IN a certain school, a knot of boys had their heads together disputing
+about something. You could never guess what it was if you tried. It
+would all have seemed strange to you: the schoolroom, the teacher, and
+the scholars—their odd dress and odder speech. It was in far-off Asia,
+and the scholars were not orderly as ours. The boys talked when they
+pleased, and made so much din that one could scarcely hear themselves
+think.</p>
+
+<p>Missionaries had come to this city and opened schools and churches to
+teach the people that they must worship God alone, and that Jesus died
+to save them.</p>
+
+<p>When the natives found that their boys were beginning to stray into
+Protestant schools, they said, "We must start schools of our own," and
+so they started one. But it was too late; some of the boys had already
+learned to love Jesus, sing sweet hymns, and read the Bible.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher in this school was a very bitter enemy of the new religion,
+so he listened sharply that day when he heard a discussion going on
+among the boys. It was not in our language, but it was something like
+this.</p>
+
+<p>One boy said it was not right to worship pictures of saints, nor to
+kiss them, and burn candles before them.</p>
+
+<p>Another one said: "It 'is' right; it's the only true religion."</p>
+
+<p>Others joined in with the first boy, and said it was wrong, and that we
+must worship none but God.</p>
+
+<p>Then the dispute grew warmer, and there were cries of "Heretic!
+Heretic! Mean old heretic! Mean old Protestant!" and so on.</p>
+
+<p>The teacher had made up his mind that this thing must be stopped; that
+the boys must not go any more where they would hear such bad doctrine,
+so he said in a loud, strong voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Boys, stand up!"</p>
+
+<p>They all stood up.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let all the Protestants step out."</p>
+
+<p>He did not suppose that any one would dare to confess to him that he
+was a Protestant, but those little Christians must have remembered the
+solemn words of the Saviour, how he said:</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"If any men will confess me on the earth I also will confess him before
+my father which is in heaven."<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment's pause, then seven little fellows stepped out. The
+teacher was amazed.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image011" style="max-width: 27.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image011.jpg" alt="image011"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>ONE OF THE SCHOLARS.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"What!" he said. "Don't you believe in worshiping the pictures of
+saints?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, we don't; mad please, sir," said the bravest of them all, "if
+Jesus wanted us to worship pictures of the saints, wouldn't he have
+left us his own picture to worship?"</p>
+
+<p>This was an unanswerable argument, but the tyrant teacher did not let
+them know how they had cornered him.</p>
+
+<p>He said, "Boys, how shall these heretics be punished?"</p>
+
+<p>And the boys decided they must be "spit upon."</p>
+
+<p>So the whole school formed a procession and marched around those seven,
+spitting upon them as they went.</p>
+
+<p>"Now sing!" the teacher said, and all the school except the seven
+struck up one of their patriotic songs.</p>
+
+<p>"Sing, I tell you!" he said to the seven.</p>
+
+<p>"We will, if you will sing the songs of Jesus," was the grand answer of
+the martyrs.</p>
+
+<p>"Sing it yourselves!" said the teacher.</p>
+
+<p>And, wonderful to tell, this sweet song came to the ears of the
+astonished teacher:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<br>
+"Must Jesus bear the cross alone,<br>
+&nbsp;And all the world go free?<br>
+&nbsp;No, there's a cross for every one,<br>
+&nbsp;And there's a cross for me."<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_12">THE SECRET OF IT.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>ONE October afternoon Frank Stevens was gathering apples in his
+father's orchard. Great piles of golden pippins and rosy Baldwins lay
+under the trees, waiting to be sorted and packed in the barrels that
+were standing near. His brother Kent, many years older than himself,
+was helping. It so happened that their work lay for a time near the
+main road where people came and went. Leaning against the fence was Mr.
+Marvin, who had stopped for a little neighborly chat.</p>
+
+<p>Down the hill, trotting leisurely along, came a black pony. On his back
+was Harry Porter, one of Frank's schoolmates. He, too, drew up by the
+fence, and as he called, "Halloo, Frank!" cast a longing eye at the red
+apples.</p>
+
+<p>After chatting a few minutes, he trotted off again, an apple in his
+hand, and two in each pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a splendid boy!" said Mr. Kent Stevens.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; there's the making of a fine man in him," answered Mr. Marvin;
+"he's uncommonly bright, I noticed him at the examination last spring;
+clear as a bell he was, working hard examples and talking off the
+explanation as glibly as the professor himself. I reckon it would have
+puzzled some of us committee to have done it."</p>
+
+<p>Frank listened in silence as the talk went on while he sorted the fair
+apples from the knurly. He had a gloomy, cross look on his face, as
+though his thoughts were not pleasant ones, and he did not work in his
+usual brisk way.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Marvin went away, his thoughts came out.</p>
+
+<p>"No wonder," he said, "that Harry Porter is always praised up so. He
+has some chance in the world. His father is rich; he has a new book
+every time he turns around; his father never goes away but he brings
+him one; then he goes travelling. He has been out West and been to
+Boston and New York. He has been on the top of Pike's Peak, and he has
+seen Bunker Hill monument and the obelisk. Why shouldn't he know more
+than any of the rest of us? He has lots of time besides, to study, and
+have fun, too. Out of school he needn't do anything but trot about on
+that pony. What's the use of a fellow like me trying to make anything
+of himself?"</p>
+
+<p>It was not such a very long time ago that Kent Stevens had been a boy
+himself, even if he was now a young lawyer in the city. He came every
+summer to the old home for a play spell, he called it, and then he
+proved that he had not forgotten how to rake hay and pick apples. He
+had not forgotten, either, how a boy feels, so he was excellent company
+for Frank. He placed the last apple in a closely packed barrel, then he
+turned and looked curiously at his brother.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Frank! What has got into you to-day?" he said. "You don't seem
+one bit like our bright cheery boy. Do you think you are one of the
+fellows who has no chance? Let us sit down in this sunny spot and rest
+ourselves, and count up some of your chances.—A good home, a splendid
+father and mother—to say nothing of a very wise brother—a few good
+books, a weekly newspaper, a church and Sabbath-school, an excellent,
+day-school, good eyes and ears and stomach, a pair of legs that can run
+like a squirrel, two strong arms, and a very good mind, and here you
+talk of not having 'chances!'</p>
+
+<p>"How do yours look when you cast your eye at little Tim Morey with a
+drunken father and a shanty for a home, or at Johnny Wilson, who is
+almost blind, or poor Will Smith who must go for the rest of his life
+on crutches and suffer much pain? Or compare your lot with the boys who
+work in the factory, who must go to their work at seven in the morning
+and stay until seven in the evening, day after day, year after year.
+What about their chances? Don't you know, dear boy, that as a rule, it
+is not boys with rich fathers who turn out to be the greatest men?</p>
+
+<p>"Look at me," he said, straightening himself up and marching about with
+mock pompousness. "Haven't I put the sweat of my brow and my muscle
+into this old farm? Didn't I get out of my bed at cock-crowing and go
+after the cows in wet grass up to my knees?</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't I milked and ploughed and planted corn and hoed it and husked
+it? And yet, I got through and had no more hard work than was good for
+me, I believe now, though I used to grumble sometimes just as you are
+doing now.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, my boy, it is not in having this or that, or going here
+and there, that makes a success, but it is improving, to the very
+utmost, the advantages one has, though they be not the best.</p>
+
+<p>"There is another secret too. One must be in dead earnest; must have an
+aim and stick to it in spite of anything, and the greatest secret of
+all is, that aim must not be alone to be a rich man or a learned man,
+but it must be this—'to make the very most of one's self for Christ's
+sake.' And you can't begin too young; the younger the better.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard something about two men the other day, that is just in point
+here—but perhaps you are tired of my preaching and want to go in."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no, tell it," said Frank. "You know I would rather have you preach
+to me than anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, a good many years ago two boys lived in the same town and went
+to the same school. They both had pretty good advantages and were
+naturally bright and clear-headed. All the difference between them
+was, that from the time they were very little fellows, John was always
+laying plans to have a 'good time.'</p>
+
+<p>"Will loved fun as well as he did, but in both fun and work, his chief
+aim was to be right and true.</p>
+
+<p>"As they grew up to be young men, Will held fast to the choice he had
+made when a little boy.</p>
+
+<p>"The Lord Jesus Christ was his master.</p>
+
+<p>"John had an entirely different master; he shirked his lessons, and
+wasted his time and money in what he called 'fun.'</p>
+
+<p>"When school days were over, one of them had a fine start in his
+education, but poor John was almost a dunce, it was surprising how
+little he knew thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>"When Will went into business, he made a resolution in the very
+beginning to give a certain part of his money to the Lord's work,
+whether he made much or little. He was prospered, and he grew to be
+a rich, strong man, foremost in every good work; everybody loved and
+honored him. He was a grand temperance worker, and he gave great sums
+to the poor and helped educate many young men for the ministry. The
+more he gave away the richer he grew, but he kept giving, and for some
+time before his death it is said that he gave away a thousand dollars a
+day!</p>
+
+<p>"Will was William E. Dodge who died a few weeks ago in the city. You
+remember the papers were filled with accounts of him. Nobody could say
+a word against him, and the whole city was in mourning.</p>
+
+<p>"It is strange that as the boys came into the world about the same
+time, they left it within a few days of each other. But oh! so
+differently. There were no weeping friends at John's funeral. Nobody
+said over his coffin, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' Not
+one cried, 'How shall his place be filled.'</p>
+
+<p>"John had become a miserable sot. Nearly all his old friends had
+lost sight of him. He lived without God, and so he died without
+him, miserable and alone, and he was carried to his grave from the
+almshouse—just a rough pine box in a cart—and that was the last of
+John, for this life.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you see, Frank, that under God's blessing, every boy has it in
+his own power to choose whether his life shall be lived and ended like
+John's or like William E. Dodge's?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was a good sermon, Kent," Frank said soberly, as they walked up to
+the house. "It helps me; I'll not forget."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_13">THE TRUE WAY TO BE HAPPY.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>HOW often Grace and Nellie had heard these words.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sick to death of them," said Nellie. "I am going to try to have
+the most fun I can to-morrow, and I'll risk but what I'll be happy
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>"And I am going to try grandma's way of having fun to-morrow. Just for
+a change, I am going to do everything 'exactly right.' She seems so
+sure that that way is the best. Do you suppose there are any good plays
+or jolly times for little girls who always do every thing 'perfectly
+right?'"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no, Gracie! You know that if you are going to be very good
+to-morrow, you ought to sew on papa's handkerchief, so as to finish it
+for his birthday present. I can't finish mine, for I've planned to go
+sailing on Tom's raft on the duck pond. I shall take all my dolls, land
+on the little island, and pull of my shoes and stockings, and play I
+am Robinson Crusoe, and the ducks will be the savages, and when they
+come swimming towards me, I shall hide in the bushes, or else jump on
+the raft and push out to sea. You had better come too, and be my man
+Friday."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Nellie, you know mamma said for us not to play on the duck pond,
+for we always wet our feet."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but I shall wear rubbers this time, and it was last week she said
+that; she did not say we should not play there to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Well! You must play there alone, for I am going to try grandma's way
+of being happy for one whole day, and if I don't like it, next day I
+will play on the duck pond."</p>
+
+<p>These two little girls were twin sisters, eight years old. They were
+pretty, bright, and full of fun, and now they were going to have a
+week's vacation; a whole week without study, and they had planned plays
+enough to last most little girls three weeks.</p>
+
+<p>But last night grandma had told them a long and interesting story about
+a boy who always did just as he pleased in every thing. He was selfish
+and disobedient, but he was never happy. At last he was so unhappy and
+miserable, that he made up his mind to give up his naughty ways and to
+be a good boy, and behold, everything was changed.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see, my dears, as I have often told you, in order to be happy,
+you must be good."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image012" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image012.jpg" alt="image012"></figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b>NELLIE LEFT AT HOME.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"I am sick of that sort of stories," said Nellie.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to try for one day to see if I can be happy by being good,"
+said Gracie thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>The next morning dawned bright and warm.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a lovely day for my play," said Nellie, as she tucked a big piece
+of cake in her pocket, and with her arms full of dollies, went dancing
+off across the fields to the pond.</p>
+
+<p>"That child can't be going to the pond, after all I said the other
+day," said mamma, glancing anxiously after Nellie.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no!" said grandma. "She is probably going to play in the grove by
+the side of it."</p>
+
+<p>"And so my little Grace is going to finish her present for papa's
+birthday," said mamma with a pleased look at the little girl, who was
+stitching away in the window.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel a little bit happy now," thought Gracie, as she saw her
+mother's smiling face. But it was a long hour, and the little fingers
+felt very lame before the handkerchief was done, but at last the last
+stitch was taken, and it was carefully folded and a card marked, "Papa
+from Gracie," pinned on it, all ready to put by his plate to-morrow
+morning at breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"Children, do you want to go with me to spend the day at aunt Mary's?"
+calls papa, from the doorway. "Just put on your hats; the horse is
+harnessed, and I am waiting. Where is Nellie?"</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Nellie came in at the door, wet and dirty, with the
+blood dropping from a cut on her forehead, and crying bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my poor little girl, where have you been?" said mamma, as she
+wiped the blood from her face.</p>
+
+<p>"I was Robinson Crusoe," sobbed Nellie, "and the cake was my
+provisions, and when the savages saw my cake they came swimming and
+flying all on to my raft; then I tried to push them off, and I tumbled
+right into the water and mud, and they got my cake; and my dollies are
+drowned."</p>
+
+<p>"So you went to the duck pond to play; you knew better than that," said
+mamma sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"If she has disobeyed you, she must stay at home," said papa. "Come,
+Gracie!"</p>
+
+<p>In a moment they were driving along the beautiful shady road that led
+to aunt Mary's. At first, Gracie felt too sorry for Nellie to be very
+happy. But her father, noticing her sad face, told her that if Nellie
+was a good girl, he would take her next week, and then he told so many
+funny stories about himself when he was a little boy, that it was not
+long before she was laughing merrily.</p>
+
+<p>What a welcome they had at aunt Mary's.</p>
+
+<p>"We knew you were coming to-day," said Katie, who was Gracie's cousin,
+"and we are freezing ice-cream down cellar."</p>
+
+<p>Then they took their dolls and played happily together all day long.
+When Gracie was riding home she told her father that she had never had
+such a happy day before in her life.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, such a lovely time as I have had!" she exclaimed, as she bounded
+into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Grandma was rocking Nellie in her arms, and was just finishing her
+evening story.</p>
+
+<p>"And so you see, my dear, that just as soon as Jacob made up his mind
+to be a good boy, all his troubles ended. Everybody loved him, and he
+was very happy and good."</p>
+
+<p>"I like your kind of stories to-night, grandma," said Nellie softly, in
+the old lady's ear, "and I am going to be good to be happy all the rest
+of the week."</p>
+
+<p>"Say all the rest of your life, my dear," whispered back grandma.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="St_14">THE KING OF THE WHITE LILY.</a></h3>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>YOU'VE never seen a palace? Why, my dears, you have seen a great many.
+Sit round me here, and I will tell you about one, the ruins of which
+you saw this morning. In some respects it was quite remarkable; not
+much like the one Queen Victoria lives in.</p>
+
+<p>This palace had six walls, and only one room. There were three inner
+walls, and three outer ones, and wherever two inner walls met, an outer
+wall covered the place. The people who dwelt in the palace called the
+walls the "Perianth." Each of the inner walls were called a "petal,"
+and each of the outer ones a "sepal." They were covered outside and
+inside with snowy white silk, filled with the most delicious perfume.
+There were no windows, for each wall tapered to a point at, the upper
+end, and drooped over the outside of the palace, leaving it, open to
+the light and the pure air.</p>
+
+<p>A house of so delicate a fabric could not rest on the ground without
+being soiled by the dust and dirt of the earth, so it was held far
+aloft on a slender, green column. It did not stand upright like Queen
+Victoria's palace, but it leaned over toward the ground, so that when
+the rain came down, none should remain in the palace and drown the
+people. They would have fallen out, too, had they not been made as fast
+to the floor as were the walls of the palace.</p>
+
+<p>That seems dreadful to you little people who take such delight in
+running about on your little feet. But they were very well contented to
+remain where they were and only look out upon the world, for they would
+have died had they left their beautiful home.</p>
+
+<p>The throne covered nearly all the floor of the palace; and the king
+stood on the centre of it. His head reached far above the walls, for he
+was very tall, and very straight and slender. He wore a robe of pale
+green, and on his head was an emerald insignia, more like a helmet than
+a crown. It was divided into three parts. One part drooped over and
+rested against the back of his head, one part against the right side,
+and one against the left.</p>
+
+<p>There stood around the throne six tall men dressed in white, bearing
+salvers of gold-dust on their heads. They called the salvers "anthers,"
+and the gold-dust "pollen," but it was not like the gold-dust you saw
+at the jeweler's.</p>
+
+<p>I want you to notice how the number three figured in nearly everything.
+It was a sacred number with them. There were three inner walls, and
+three outer ones. Six (two threes) tall men, and the king's crown was
+divided into three parts.</p>
+
+<p>A strange thing about the tall men was that one could not be
+distinguished from another, so near alike were they, and they were each
+named "Stamen." Although they were very tall, they were not so tall as
+their king. They were very faithful servants, looking always up to him
+to know his commands.</p>
+
+<p>When the wind blew a little, they bowed down before King Pistil, and
+the salvers swung back and forth, causing tiny clouds of gold-dust to
+rise and fall upon him. Then he was glad, and bowed to them, that they
+might see that he was pleased with them. For he only required them to
+sprinkle a little gold-dust upon him, then he made it into pieces of
+money and packed them away into three large boxes under his throne.</p>
+
+<p>But sometimes this frail palace was at the mercy of the great winds. It
+swayed to and fro before them, tossing the tall men about so they could
+not prevent some of the gold-dust falling on the walls.</p>
+
+<p>Then King Pistil trembled with grief at seeing the gold-dust being
+wasted, and the tall men leaned toward him trying to comfort him.</p>
+
+<p>Then the rain came, and fell into the palace, and washed it clean, and
+bathed the king and his servants; and when the sun shone again, they
+sparkled all over with diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>But some strange people passing by stopped to admire them, and to
+inhale their sweet fragrance; and one of the palaces with all its
+inmates was carried away by them. Then there was mourning, for they
+knew it was certain death to any of them if their palace was taken from
+the column on which it rested.</p>
+
+<p>King Pistil's money increased until the boxes could hold no more; and
+the throne began to creak as though it would fall apart. The walls of
+the palace were falling away too. The tall men looked old and feeble;
+and the king felt himself growing weak and infirm, and he knew that
+he soon must die. So he unlocked his money boxes, that after he was
+gone, they might open, and the money be scattered far and near, and
+other palaces spring up, and other kings live, as he had lived, giving
+pleasure to all who came near.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon after, the king and his servants died, the boxes burst open
+showing them well filled with money. Some of it fell on the ground
+under the palace, that another might spring up there in memory of King
+Pistil; and some of it was carried a long distance by the wind before
+it was dropped on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Now, my dears, let us go into the garden, and look at the white lilies,
+and see if my story of their king and his palace is correct. Tell
+me, if you can, how his money differed from ours. Why it had to be
+scattered on the ground, and what it was called by King Pistil.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75953 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+book #75953 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75953)